I think most parents would agree with me – The most important characteristic we look for in our kids’ teacher is genuine concern for our kids’ well-being, academically as well as emotionally.
Joey came home a few weeks back and related an incident in class to me, that totally startled me. During their music class, the teacher suddenly turned to a group of rowdy students and said, “I can hear someone talking. There is an invisible man here in the room.”
According to Joey, 3 students broke down in tears because they were so traumatized and the teacher had to bring them out of the room to pacify them. My Joey almost cried too, apparently. I may be a bit of a scaredy cat, but this sure sounds spooky to me. For a teacher to say something like that to a group of 9-year-olds, I am quite sure they believed her and were freaked out.
It so happened that the Meet-the-Parents session was just a week later, so I made sure I told the Form Teacher about this incident after most of the other parents left. I wasn’t willing to let it go just like that – My kid was sent to school to learn and be inspired, and not to be frightened in that manner. And so I told the Form Teacher about it, and though she appeared a little amused at the beginning, explaining that the music teacher was probably trying to ‘scare’ the noisy students to make them stop making noise in class, she said she will investigate and get back to me.
A week later, the Form Teacher gave me a call and explained that she had already spoken to the music teacher, and the scenario was indeed what she envisioned it to be – The group of students were making a lot of noise and not paying attention in class, so the teacher tried to get their attention by making up about the ‘Invisible Man’. The Form Teacher agreed with me that it was not an appropriate thing for a teacher to do, and that she has spoken to her about it. The music teacher will clarify about the incident at the next class, and tell the whole class that there was no such thing as an ‘Invisible Man’.
The incident was resolved and at the end of it, I was happy with the way the Form Teacher handled it. Even though she did not think that the matter was so serious, she did not sweep my concerns aside. She looked into it, found out all the details and got back to me about how it was resolved. I appreciate her genuine concern for her students and good accountability to the parents. Looks like my Joey is in good hands this year. =)
Speaking of which, we finally bought Joey’s scout uniform! I thought she would look to boyish, but turned out, she looked adorable to the max! =D This coming Saturday, she’ll be officially inaugurated into the company of Scouts – So looking forward to more fun activities!
