Almost forgotten this little space here. Too lazy to write, I guess. I shall try again today.
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Talking to parents is never my strength. Not that I don’t like to meet up with them. Actually I don’t mind meeting them. But I often felt inadequate about what I am sharing with them about their kids. How am I going to comment much (constructively) about these *little pals (when I only meet them 2 to 3 hours a week) to their parents (who have raised them for 17 to 18 years)?
Of course, it will be non-sense to tell the parents comments like “your child is weak”, “your child needs to work harder”, “your child is a good boy”, “your child is talkative”, “your child is lazy”, “your child is very good in math”, etc. If the parents are more direct, they could have commented, “Please tell me something we don’t know.”
Silly me doesn’t think I can be very helpful in providing information they don’t know. Mm.. So, whenever a *little-pal asked, “Mr Nanzi, my parents are coming, do you want to see them?” I always replied, “I will like to see them, if they wish to see me.” I think this is the only politically proper reply I can use.
Yester-night the college arranged another session for parents to visit and catch up with their child’s tutors. Yes, it’s “yester-night”, and not “yester-day”, and it was lesson as usual during the day time. Anyway, I learnt that the last session actually ended at around 9:30pm. Mm… Long day.. mm..
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Some parents made me laugh. I made some parents laugh. Haha.. It was just late and .. erm.. come on, relax a little bit.
In general, they are all so very concern about their child and would like to understand how they are progressing and coping. That’s good. They hope (and trust) that we can help their child and see to their development. That’s quite a responsibility.
Anyway, 2 isolated incidents on the night left quite an impression.
(1)
A mother, once we were formally introduced to each other, almost stormed continuously at me …
“Why you set such a difficult paper?”
“My son used to be very good in math, you know?”
“He has a very good (home) tutor. Even the tutor said the paper is too tough.”
“Why set such a paper when only one-quarter of the class passed?”
“My son can do RJ’s paper, you know.”
“My friend’s son (in RJ) compared RJ paper with your paper. He also said your paper is too tough.”... and so on.
Those were comments lunged out from a concerned parent. No worries, I was able to re-direct the fires and extinguish her fires. Haha..
A little thought to myself :
The child of that parent scored near to 35%.
Even if the paper was easier, with his power now, what kind of good score would he have scored?
If the child actually scored beautifully for that paper, would the mother be so proud of her son and so proud of the standard of that paper, instead?
(2)
A couple came along and commented …
“You are too loud.”
“My daughter said it was almost like scolding.”
“She can follow the lesson initially. But after that, she couldn’t understand what you are saying.”
Certainly, what happened in the classrooms was feedback to the parents. That’s pretty good.
A little thought to myself :
I got to admit I wasn’t talking to her that gently recently.
I have some reasons, not excuses I hope.
For I don’t think she is doing the minimum.
That’s only my guess, anyway.
The child was weak in math ever since primary school.
Her secondary school teachers also suggested that she may not be suitable for JC.
She insisted to come to JC and actually have to meet up with the principal twice (at least) just to decide on her subject combination.
She knows she has problem with the subject Math.
Yet she chose the subject to study at advanced level.
Fine. Since she is now in my class, I have the responsibility.
She scored only about 10% in the recent major exam.
Of course, with her power now, she would not be able to follow any lesson (by anyone) when passed the introduction stage. I am talking about lesson in class, when the pace of a lesson should be tailored to the majority and not to a particular individual.
A recent mini-test also suggested that she may not be doing enough.
We had just covered a small topic in tutorial.
We revised just after the tutorial.
After the revision no one responded when asked, “Any question?”
So we proceeded to administer a mini-test.
She struggled and failed just as badly.
We discussed the corrections of the paper two days later.
Yet she could not answer the most basic of all questions when asked.
She must have known she doesn’t know the topic.
You know… questions of that mini-test were very similar to the tutorial (only the numerical numbers were changed).
And the presentations of such questions were also printed in lecture notes.
What has she done?
Yet she only commented how her CCA was/is draining her time. Mm..
It pains me a little to see the parents’ eye turning a little watery and reddish when talking about their daughter. They know their daughter needs more time in grasping concepts. They only hope we can be more patient with her and guide her through this tough time.
What else can I do?
More individual attention, I guess.
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有一位作者这么写到：
人生不要太圆满，
有个缺口让福气流向別人是很美的一件事。
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