All very noble, I'd thought, and promptly clicked on the email address of my son's form teacher and started writing.
I wrote:
Dear Mrs Vasu,
First, congrats on the school's revamped website. It's a perfect tool for communication between parents and teachers.
I understand how busy school teachers are, but please feel free to reach me at foollie@yahoo.com.sg if you wish to share with me anything about Darren, his school work, etc, and especially his behaviour in school.
Thanks & best regards
That was four months ago. And I didn't hear a word from the teacher.
Today, I finally hear from her. You see, while our nation is having an Election Fever, many schools in Singapore are having another kind of fever - Exam Fever. And my son, not to be outdone, decided to have a fever of his own too, with a sore throat to boot. Happily for him, he was given two days MC and excused from having to go to school (and to take his exam).
The teacher, Mrs Vasu called me at my office and asked me the whereabout of my son. When told that he was down with fever, the teacher said she was "worried" about his absence since it was the exam period, hinting subtly that I, the father, should have called the school about it. I asked her, politely, that was it not the norm for the kids to submit their MC on their return? And that surely, the phone call to the school was not necessary? She replied yes, but because of the exam, she was just worried.
I know many of us are finding the many political hustings a tad tiresome. But teachers are very much like our politicians. We hear from them when we don't want to, and when we least expect to; and we DON'T hear from them when we want to. LOL.
She's yet to reply my email. What exactly 2-way communications is the school talking about?
Fortunately, not all teachers are like that. Victor is one lucky Dad. He constantly gets emails from his son's teacher about how his son was doing in school. Well, I guess my boy is just "lucky", in the sense that his teacher never bothers complain about him, not because he's good, but because his teacher is the sort who is BBC (Basically Bo Chap). LOL.
Category: Personal
8 comments:
Chris, I know how to handle this type of teacher, I mean situation. When you write your next e-mail, cc it to the Principal of the school (provided that you have the Principal's e-mail address). It will work, unless of course if the Principal is also like the teacher. Then that's tough luck for you. Worst case scenario, resort to good old snail mail and hand deliver it and ask them to sign for the letter. Don't forget to state in the letter that you blogged about their inefficiency and indifference with special mention of the full names of the teacher and school involved. Give them your blogsite address too.
Yes, both my sons' teachers do answer their e-mails so far. However, my younger son's form teacher took a few days to answer my recent e-mail and he explained that he was busy because of the exam period. I can fully understand that. So far no need to resort to the drastic measures that I have described above.
Hmm... Maybe the teacher is no PC literate? I've seen some older teachers refusing to move with the times a few years back, wonder if they're still around.
Being married to one, I know teaher's life very stressed. So most can only afford to be reactive. They also have meet the 'people' sessions.
Victor, haven't we pulled this off one time too often in the office? We wrote to the slacker. No response. We wrote again, still no response. Then we wrote again, this time cc the email to his boss and our boss. Suddenly, the slacker sprang into action. It this called "sabo"? I don't think so. Some people need to be pushed. But I'd hate to do this to the teacher in question. As what Chun See, I don't want to add on to their stress level anymore than necessary. Sekali the teacher ends up in mental hospital how?
Alex - These old-time teachers are still around, I'm afraid. Some of them retired, then came back as part-time teachers or relief teachers. I'm not sure if they are still relevant in today's context of the school. The impression I've got is that the younger teachers are more innovative and experimental when it comes to teaching. So, with due respect to the older teachers, I do hope these teachers, if they love teaching enough to continue, should adapt to the new teaching aids in this modern time that come in the form of new technologies. And email is one of them. And no, I don't think Mrs Vasu is that old a teacher.
Chun See - yeah, I was about to upload my post and I remembered your other half is a teacher. I hastily deleted comments on the teaching profession that were quite "critical". LOL. Many of my relatives are also teachers. One of my colleagues resigned from my office, went into teaching, resigned and came back. She was so stressed that she suffered nightmare almost everynight, sometimes crying herself to sleep. So, I really do agree that teaching is not an easy job. But on the other hand, stress is everywhere and in every job. So I still can't understand why my son's teacher has yet to replied me email, after 4 months, and still counting.
I tried to look at it from a teacher's angle:
Could it be your email did not reach the teacher? It does happen.
Regarding calls during exam period, I think schools do it for precautionary reasons. Some parents may blame the school that they do not know about the exams because their children do not tell them.
I don't think most teachers are BBC. They just have too many students, so thay normally attend to students with disciplinary problems first which alr
eady take up a lot of their time.
One advantage the older teachers have over the new ones is classroom management. My sister, a retired teacher used to boast of how the new teachers had to come crying to her for help to handle the 'little devils', not to mention the 'customer is always right' type parents.
My friend's daughter who has a teaching scholarship is begging him to bail her out becos she cannot take the stress.
I think, if you visit some of the teachers' blogs you can get many such stories.
Er... Frannxis, I am just curious. You sound very much like a retired teacher. If you don't mind telling us, are you? (Remember, you have a right to remain silent.)
Hey Chris, you seem to have a way to pre-empt the papers. Or could it be that the media has been watching your blog for inspiration in writing their articles?
Here's an article which appeared in Pg 12 of the New Paper dated Mon 8 May 2006, entitled Who can teacher turn to when she needs help? Interesting read.
Maybe they will soon write one entitled Who can parents turn to when they need help?
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