University teach some everything… but just not using brains.
Written by ED on April 20, 2008 – 8:14 am - Posted in Family, Singapore, Society |
My niece came back from school on Friday with tears and sulking for the rest of the day. After a little pressure, she began to told me how her teacher labelled her as “lazy”. I asked if it was anything to do with late homeworks, she said no. Apparently, what triggered the teacher off was her ink-printed name on her assignments.
Basically, I bought her a self-inking printing kit and taught her how to use it much earlier, when school started for a short while. She brought back all her books, because her teacher has requested for all pages to be identified by their names and class. There were 5 books, each with more than 100 pages. Gosh, I can’t even imagine myself writing my name on more than 100 pages as an adult, what about a kid? So I bought the printing kit from Popular bookstore, on my way back from my Sunday service one day.
According to my niece, the teacher was in a bad mood and the moment she stepped into class, she had been scolding the entire class for a bad assignment done. She also explained that the teacher didn’t really elaborate much on it and more than half the class was actually confused about the assignment. Amid the scoldings, my niece was suddenly being singled out and was being openly criticized infront of the whole class for being one of the “lazy” examples. The reason? Her printed name, instead of hand-written like the rest of her classmates.
Upon hearing that, it got me fuming mad. Immediately, I grabbed every single piece of assignment with printed name and went to my niece’s school. Here’s the drama…
I was asking pretty LOUD at the entrance to the teacher’s room (I never even bother to go to the school’s office) for my niece to point her finger and identify the teacher who criticized her. The teacher was a little caught by surprise, and I rejected her offer to speak privately in the meeting room. Afterall, if she is bold enough to criticize a child for nothing, why should she be afraid of speaking openly?
The thing is;
1. What is so wrong about a child using the self-inking printing kit when there are MORE THAN 500 PAGES in all? Hello!?!?! It’s 500 PAGES … not 50 PAGES!
2. It is April now and if that wasn’t allowed, why didn’t the teacher made it known and waited ONLY UNTIL NOW to criticize a child for that?
3. Is the teacher aware of how long it is going to take for writing a name and class for MORE THAN 500 PAGES repeatedly?
4. On what official grounds did she had to openly shaming a child, just because she is in a bad mood that day?
It’s not that we are encouraging our kids to be lazy, but I always believe in working hard AND working smart. A printed name does not affect the quality of her homeworks I am sure. So what’s the big fuss that she has to be singled out?
The principal was notified and came up to sort things out. I left with with a slapping statement in the teacher’s face… YOU MUST BE A DAMN LAZY TEACHER TOO, AND YOU DON’T DESERVE YOUR HIGH SALARY AND BONUS!
Why?
The teacher is using ink-printing device too! What the heck? Tell me, isn’t the teacher lazy too? According to her definition at least? I think I have embarrassed her enough in front of everyone in school, especially in front of her own students. I have blanked out her name to prevent further embarrassment.
What on earth are graduates learning in Universities these days?
April 20th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Some teachers think respect is given free of charge. A whole lot of bull I would say. I don’t see anything wrong with ink printing names especially when there are SO MANY pages. Gosh. The child doesn’t need practice in spelling her own name!
Some teachers should be punished adequately. Being in a bad mood does not entail ANYONE to vent their anger on ANYONE ELSE, much less a child.
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April 20th, 2008 at 9:21 am
What is the real purpose of having all pages to be identified by their names and class, just to id them for easier marking? Is this common in schools?
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April 20th, 2008 at 9:23 am
ignorantsoup>> Just a small clarification, Some children DO need practice in writing their names. There are pupils in primary 5 and 6 who still write their names wrongly.
*back to topic*
That aside, I have to agree that the teacher in question is in the wrong. There is nothing wrong with using stamps especially when she required the pupils to write their names on so many pages. It just makes sense to use a stamp. To single a child out for something like this isn’t right.
MmmM Although I don’t agree with what you have done but it’s good that you’ve set the teacher straight. It’s quite unfair for her to treat her pupils this way.
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April 20th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Paddy>> well these days, activity books aren’t like the workbooks we used to have. Most activity books are perforated and the pages can come off easily. Either that or the teacher prefers pupils to tear out the pages to bring home as assignment rather than bringing the entire book around. Thus writing names on every page ensure that the owner of the page could be identified if the page was found lying somewhere.
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April 20th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Thanks BoBo.
Time have changed huh? Ours was those journal book with lines
Probably no rubber stamp, how about a name card stapled on it. Hee hee
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April 20th, 2008 at 9:37 am
@Bobo: Lol..that’s really true..but dun tink the teacher’s going to mark the names..hahaha..after all its been 4months..
@Paddy: Hey like that the assignment’s pretty expensive. 100 pages will cost you like $10? hahaha
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April 20th, 2008 at 9:46 am
I am not surprised that the universities these days never teach people to use their brains.
Sort of reminds me of someone from SMU who expects people to spoonfeed her with every single bit of information and when pointed out the obvious of not using her brains, proceed to lose her temper and instead accused me of treating the place as if I ran it. LOL
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April 20th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Hmmm…. I think what you have done is pretty brave and heroic, but I hope that your niece will not have to bear the repercussions of that action in terms of special treatment by her teachers. It is not easy to be a teacher (just like it is not easy to be a boss, but I’ll leave that for a separate discussion…hehe) and sometimes they do screw up. I guess it may have been better to discuss it in private but what’s done is done. At least you managed to get your point across.
Like you, I don’t see any value in writing one’s name many times over, but there may be a reason for this as Bobo cited above. It could be linked to discipline or practice, which is something many kids are lacking nowadays - including my own!
Whatever the case may be, I feel that it is good for you to find out how things progress some time down the road. See if you can have tea with that teacher or the principal as a “follow up” on whether things have improved. It will also be a chance to hear from them and to clarify matters when things have simmered down.
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April 20th, 2008 at 10:15 am
Walter, you hit the nail right on .. on being a boss. I did a boo boo recently on some staff management. Damn difficult to manage. In the end I realised better to eave it to the expert to handle
Your kids? Quite well behaviour leh when we saw them.
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April 20th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Well done. Some of these “educators” need education too.
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April 20th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I think it is a bit worrying that our society now needs people to teach other people how to think…
Can that even be done? (might be a biz opportunity here!)
I believe that usually the individual who doesn’t know how to think actually lack common sense. The problem with that is common sense can’t be taught!
It is something inherent and learnt via life experiences.
Come to think of it, the lack of common sense, can be blamed on laziness also. Lazy to think of consequences, lazy to think of reasons why things should be done = lack of common sense
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April 20th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Paddy: I agree your assignments are very expensive… namecards! Hahaha.
Walter: Yea, definitely we will be watching over her a little more than usual, in case the teacher gets unhappy about this issue. There is no reason for my niece to suffer any repercussions, but if she does, the teacher is definitely asking for trouble.
Bobo: Thanks for explaining to everyone while I was away.
xizor: Something my peeps know as… 读死书!
Mark: I always thought our schools are trying to add a little creativity into our wards’ life. But how do you actually teach creativity when such a simple thing cannot be decoded?
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April 20th, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Ed, namecard more steady mah
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April 20th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
heh *I’m a busybody*
I do agree with Walter that there are teachers who might get meaner but rarely so I guess. Esp when they know that there is a “mountain” for support behind the pupil. haha
Mustn’t get too sensitive ya Mr. Ed. No point getting too angry over nothing.
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April 20th, 2008 at 10:50 pm
haha i guess the simplest things can’t be taught!
like who teaches a child to walk? the child actually has to learn on its own actually.
the point is, people can’t depend on others to teach them things, without bothering to learn it themselves
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April 21st, 2008 at 1:07 am
死读书，读死书，读书死… LOL
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April 21st, 2008 at 1:08 am
There are actually many ridiculous teachers out there, lucky if you have not met one
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April 21st, 2008 at 1:43 am
helo: I think there are plenty, but this is the first time in recent years I actually confronted the teacher in such a manner. We don’t really want to do anything much even though my niece has plenty of complaints. It’s a phase to learn how to cope with difficult situations. The authorities of teacher should not be undermined in any way. But when the time comes to intervene, especially when a child starts to stuff things inside her heart due to injustice, then we just have to set things right.
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April 21st, 2008 at 2:05 pm
lol..my friends in nie used to complain about pple like you. . . The girls would be reduced to tears while the guys would grit their teeth.
THe teacher might be in the wrong but the least you could have done was to just give her a minute to hear her side of the story…AND you should never have shouted at her in front of her student (your niece) It reduces whatever authority the teacher has in the eyes of your niece.
Anything to trash out go somewhere private…
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April 21st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
Dougie: Very interesting viewpoint I am sure. As much as I may seem like a very unreasonable person, but taking into account of the circumstances…
1. Has she given the child a chance to speak up?
2. She should never have singled out a child and embarrassed her in front of her entire class.
3. Authority should not be built at the expense of our child’s pride. Nonetheless, respect is to be earned.
And no, do not attempt to judge me too soon with “people like me”. I don’t feel anyone will want to pick on them unnecessarily since a school is meant for educational purposes. Perhaps you can enlighten me on what values have we taught our children by forcing things down their throats with no avenues of appeal? What example are we setting among the teaching industry by cultivating the practice of unleashing personal displeasure on their wards?
The teacher has had a taste of how it feels like in the child’s position. Public shame, stuffed mouth and all. Hopefully, she will be more tactful with the way she handles her personal emotions in her work.
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April 24th, 2008 at 8:49 am
The teacher may be having a bad day but we all would have at one time or another. I agree with Dougie that no matter what happens, it is not about an eye for an eye, i mean 2 wrongs doesn’t make a right.
I agree what could be a better resolution is hear out the teacher because for all you know she may have a f**king good reason for it. Anyway we all live in a civilised world and I am not in support of what the teacher had done. I don’t think a blast is more effective than an explanation.
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