I agree she may not have realized it. We all sometimes don't think before we speak and say something wrong. I am going into Teachers College and when I am stressed at home I sometimes swear. I know I will need to watch my mouth in front of the little ones and be very cautious as to how I react and what I say.... I wouldn't 'tattle' to the Principal but maybe speak to her in private.

I have to go along with the majority here and agree that it would be best not to say anything unless she does it again. If she makes a habit of it, heck yeah I'd say something. If it was a slip, she should be given a break. I'm a high school teacher and I have slipped before in front of a few students (I don't think I've slipped in front of a whole class yet). I felt horribly guilty about it, even though they were high school age. So she may feel guilty too, and mentioning it to her won't help. She'll probably be extra vigilant about not doing it again. If not, she should be called on it. We really have to give teachers a break, though. You wouldn't believe the amount of pressure they get from parents for the slightest things, or for nonexistent problems that parents like to dream up. Dealing with parents is FAR worse than dealing with students.

Right. IMO, you can't really take a stand in this case anyway -- what would you be taking a stand against? The teacher making a mistake? Being human and saying something mildly offensive (which children hear on TV and from other adults probably 10 times a day) out of frustration? As others have said, teachers have a very challenging job and parents (and faculty and students) make a lot of demands on teachers, some reasonable, some unreasonable. But to put teachers on this moral pedastal, expecting perfectly exemplary behavior at all times, is ridiculous. No one is perfect; people make mistakes, people speak without thinking, people say things they didn't mean to say, people MISHEAR things...

Also, by confronting the teacher with this -- or worse, going over her head to the principal about it -- you're implying that this teacher isn't doing a good job. I mean, if you need to scold her about how to behave in front of children... the implication is that she doesn't know how to act in front of the students. If you think she IS doing a good job, that she is a good teacher and if your daughter likes her and likes her class, is it worth tainting her reputation with her boss, or making her feel like she's doing a bad job, over this tiny, isolated incident? IMO, doing so doesn't mean you're taking a stand for something important; you're just... I dunno... nitpicking.

There are a lot of really bad teachers out there -- the ones who, intentionally or not, belittle the students, make them feel stupid and inferior, are unforgiving and cruel... THAT is when a parent should take a stand against a teacher.

One of my children was severely dyslexic. He didn't learn
to read until he was 13 years old (in college now so happy
ending :) ).

Anyway - one of the things I dealt with was teachers not
following his Individualized Education Plan (IEP). And I
basically ignored that. What I did was work closely with the
teacher and the first thing I asked was 'how can we work
with him to make your job easier?'

I wanted the teacher to know I was in her/his corner and
my son's corner and we were going to be a team. When that
teacher thought about me and my son I wanted warm, fuzzy
feelings. And I figured they were in teaching because they
enjoyed and like children and I was going to build on that.

The thing to remember is that your child is in this person's
care for hours every day. You always want your interactions
to be positive. If this is not possible, then quietly and respectfully
ask that your child be removed. I did this twice and always
kept the interaction with the administration low key and positive
and that we just had a different fit and could we change please.
Once I removed my child from school for four months and once
from the program for half a year.