Thanks so much for the replies. 1914sierra, I really appreciate your detailed response from both a teacher's and parent's perspective.

I could write chapters of background information about this, but in the interest of time I tried to focus on the concrete issues. There are bad feelings on my part too, which makes it hard. I don't want to go in to the school with torches and pitchforks but I admit that I am really angry with this teacher.

My main concern about the grading issue has actually been in math. I have been checking my son's math assignments carefully because he is hovering around the 70% mark in math this year. He becomes extremely frustrated with math and has a difficult time with it, even though he is considered gifted. A psychologist thought that he could be gifted with a learning disability in mathematics. However, nobody has so far been able to detect a learning disability.

My son simply says that he "hates" math, finds it "boring" and "doesn't care" about it. So, math is a battle with my son in the first place. When he does his homework, he can be extremely careless and write down the first thing that comes to mind. Thus, we are sure to check and double check his answers.

He is not learning to double check his work on his own though, because when he takes a test at school, he is not working with accuracy even though he technically knows how to solve the problems. So, it becomes an even larger problem when my son's math homework is graded incorrectly and answers which are certainly correct are marked as being wrong. This sends my son into a downward spin with his studies because he feels that even when he puts forth his maximum effort he is still punished and dinged for incorrect answers. He has no more confidence in the subject.

He will not advocate for himself. He is not someone who has ever been able to ask for help from people he doesn't trust and he certainly doesn't have that sort of relationship with his teacher this year. He views her as being a mean person who is constantly yelling at him and deriding him.

I don't know if this is objectively true. My son can be quite sensitive and doesn't take criticism well. So, there may be something about this teacher that causes him to feel that she is mean, when others perhaps would just find her stern. I don't know. Some of the other parents have said that she's tough but haven't specifically mentioned that their kids think she's mean.

I am angry at this teacher. I feel that she is unsympathetic to my kid. I am, therefor, unsympathetic to her. I have met with her during several parent teacher conferences, jointly with another of my kid's teachers, and she always behaves to sweetly there. She said encouraging things to my son, etc.

However, I have heard through the grapevine that she'd told someone else who works at the school that she thinks my son is a "weirdo". Wow, that ticked me off. Of course, this is all hearsay so I can't really do anything about it. I believe it though. My kid is 11. He may be a little shy and slightly nerdy, but he is no weirdo. Grrr!

Thanks for listening to me vent.