Chicago teacher is just a complainer (she’s Russian)

[Larry1]

I came across a news story that took me by surprise. Here is the background:

got a note from her daughter Amia’s teacher, asking her to stop using as much coconut oil in her daughter’s hair. “I understand the necessary of coconut oil on Amia’s hair, but please do not use as much. The children were complaining that her hair “stinks.” If you have to apply this daily — please do so lightly, so the kids don’t tease her. Thank you for understanding.”

This was the surprising part. The mother went to the school's director to complain about the teacher and apparently was told by the director that:

Amia’s teacher is just a complainer (she’s Russian).

http://www.yahoo.com/beauty/teachers-note-complaining-about-oil-in-a-students-hair-sparks-outrage-185330489.html

I had never heard that Russians had the reputations of being complainers, but that seems to be what the school's director thinks. What are your thoughts?

[alex330]

I had never heard that Russians had the reputations of being complainers, but that seems to be what the school's director thinks. What are your thoughts?

Yes, many come off as complainers and whiners in my experience. I think it is the critical or pessimistic view many have that makes it appear that way.

[whynotme]

Larry, original link was not about Russian just a complainer (the teacher might be any nationality). It is just a black woman yelling in facebook about discrimination (anybody surprised?)
I also remember my ESL classes. One Muslim guy always wanted to sit close to me, and I tried to change seats as far as possible not because I have something against Muslims, simply I started coughing from his unbearable perfume. And yes, coconut oil might smell really bad, especially if don't wash the hair very often.

[Anotherkiwi]

There are several things which come out of this, which don't put ANYONE in a particularly good light.

1.  The mother immediately posts the note on Facebook, instead of acting like a normal mother and checking with the teacher to see exactly what the problem might be.  It's not as if the note says "get your daughter out of here - she stinks the room out and nobody can breathe when she's near them."

2.  The school's "director" (what on earth is that?  A fancy title for Principal?) immediately tells her that the teacher is "a complainer."  Even if that's true, the director has absolutely no business telling the mother.  Every case like this should be judged on its own merits, NOT by assuming facts not in evidence (so to speak  ).  As they say, even hypochondriacs DO get sick.

3.  Supposedly the note was initiated by the teacher acting alone, and that nobody in the class had complained.  How can anybody know that, except the teacher concerned?  One of the other children may well have said something to her, and asked her to keep it a secret so that the other child didn't get upset.  Although my food allergy is to real nuts, rather than coco"nut," I honestly don't like that smell at all.  Maybe the teacher herself is also really sensitive to that particular smell, and thought that a polite note might have a better outcome than her confronting the mother.

4.  Did the reporter even try to contact the teacher?  The story does say that the school offered a flat "No comment" when they were rung, but that's not the same as going directly to the source (which American media normally seems to have no trouble doing, no matter how much distress it causes).  No, they simply appear to have taken the mother's story as gospel.

5.  Obviously I don't have a daughter with this kind of hair, so I can't relate directly to the problem.  I see that copious moisturising is required to avoid damage, and I have no problem with that, but are there alternatives (with no smell) to the coconut oil which this mother uses?

Although my sense of smell is (I think) reasonably good, my mother's is off the planet.  She is incredibly sensitive to certain smells, to the point where she can't tolerate being in the same room as those odours.  I'm sure there must be others on the forum with the same experience.

[Boethius]

It's a daycare, not a school, for children 2 to 5.

[Anotherkiwi]

It's a daycare, not a school, for children 2 to 5.

Apologies - my mistake.  However, it doesn't really change the thrust of my questions.