Meet the Parents

Today was Parents' Day at my school. That means parents have to come and meet the teachers to get their children's report card and find out their children's progress in school for the past 4 months. It is a much dreaded day for some children and parents, and I can assure you that teachers feel the same way.

The first year when I had to meet the parents, I listed down the names of the children who were problematic. All 40 of them were problematic students (attitude problem, don't do homework, disruptive in class, don't pay attention etc). At the end of the session, I was so depressed that I cried all the half hour it took me to drive home because some of the parents were almost as bad as the students and defended their children's bad behaviour.

The second year of meeting the parents, I had learnt my lesson. I requested to meet only a few problematic children's parents and some who are angels in the class. To the parents of the angels of the class, I sang my praises and boost the children's confidence and made the parents (and myself) very happy. For the few problematic children, well, I don't remember much of what went on but I was accused of keeping a child's failed karangan paper for reasons only the child and his mother could think of. Ooh, and a parent of a child who never did her homework told me that she is very strict with her child at home (to which she asked her daughter to sit down and the daughter just ignored her)! Talk about the child being afraid of her. She must be living in a world of her own!

This year's meet the parents session went on better than I expected. I still had the mixture of angels and demons but more of the demons this time. I learnt that parents normally come with the worst expectations and were normally ready to defend their children's behaviour. So, this year, I told the parents with a smile that their child behaves really well/ participates in discussions/ has a basic mastery of the English language BUT I am worried because...

And all was well for me. No parent accused me of anything. No parent defended their children's behaviour. A parent or two told me a bit about their family problem. Sigh...I wish I could protect their children from it but I couldn't. Poor kids who are starved for attention and are creating trouble in the class in order to get the attention that they need. SIGH...

I got a headache at the end of the session. Some children did not turn up. A child cried. A few children almost cried. A few parents told me that they have family problems. A few parents told me that they do not know how to coach their children that's why their children have problems with their homework. Most parents told me that they normally check on  their children's progress but was too busy these few weeks, hence the backlog in homework.  Anyway, whatever the reason for their children's bad behaviour, I got the permission from most of the parents to punish the child in any way I think fit so that their child could be better. Muahahahaha....nah, I'm not a monster. Caning is one of the last resorts for me. I'd make them stay back in school first. Hehe...How else can I help these little monsters, I wonder?