Forced Friendship

From a 2nd grade teacher:

If children bring invitations for their birthday parties to pass out, they must invite either all of the girls in the class or all of the boys in the class or everyone.

Great idea. Now the kids who are already left out can get excited about going to a birthday party only to be excluded in an even more cruel way with no overbearing teacher to protect them (not that she's likely doing anything towards that in her classroom). Good job.

Perhaps instead of forcing people to be "friendly" you should teach them about inclusiveness and what it feels like to be excluded or help the kids who don't have friends to improve their social skills to a point where they can make friends. Just a thought.

Also, thanks for forcing parents to have huge birthday parties just so their kids' buddy at school can come or forcing your kid to sneak around their teacher and undermine her authority so you can invite only the kids you can afford to invite. FYI, this is a pretty low income neighborhood we're talking about. A 2nd FYI, teachers have no authority past their classrooms despite what they lead your kids to believe.