(497) Upbringing 52

Now that all my children are safely out of the school system, I finally can say my piece!

It is not unusual to read of a parent slapping or assaulting his or her child's teacher in the newspaper. Even if the teacher concerned has done the unforgivable, it is still wrong for any parent to touch the child's teacher. Such an act would destroy the child.

Let me bring up an instance:

A close friend of mine sent her children to a Chinese medium primary school. Such schools are well known for strict discipline. My friend's husband is well to do. He is a busy and important man. She is busy in her own right over a lot of concerns that may not help either of her children. Both children are disorganized. No one teach them to pack bags or how to keep track of important documents. One day he lost his fund raising card for the Scouts. Much as the house hold searched, it was not found. Perhaps it was really eaten by the puppy. This poor boy was called up at assembly and humiliated in front of the whole school. He came home crying, I think he was barely eight years old.

His father heard of it and went to school to complain about the inhuman punishment. The entire affair ended up with him endowing the school with quite big sum of donation. But the damage was done. Some teachers made it a point to pick on the son as someone not to be trusted. Others pointedly ignored him as they saw that the father was trying to bribe them. A few would be artificially sweet to him whenever it was school fund raising time as such schools need donations from well wishers and were not fully government funded.

A few years later, the parents had to pull both children out to place them in a private school. Both children developed very defensive attitudes and were difficult to teach. The boy was depressed by the jealousy of peers and angered by the treatment of his teachers.

In retrospect, a girl in Keziah's school lost her card, the girl's mother went to school to see the class teacher and apologised. They were fined less than a hundred dollars and the matter was settled. While a boy in Michael's school lost his card, he was required to make a police report. He was grilled in the Assistant Principle's room and he parted with what he remembered he had collected. Both these schools teach in the National language. Hence the difference in culture in student treatment.