Class Monitor

[buds]

This was one reason why more of us here discouraged

you from approaching the teacher in the first place...

Most times teachers do indeed have a certain criteria
and requirements of what makes a good leader or
monitor and in cases like your son's school where
there are more opportunities to eventually get to
be one via rotation, the chance would come
sooner or later in my opinion. My girls school
in fact, both their old school & the current
one practise the same. According to them..
everyone gets a chance to be a leader of
something.. This allows for all the
children to have a feel of a leadership
role whether or not it is a \"class
monitor\" role specifically.

Hope your child can spring back from this unfortunate
experience and gain his self-confidence again. :hugs:

From your post above, i can empathize how you must
have felt after hearing your child's feedback.

Meantime, i don't think the matter should be pushed
further with the teacher and at the same time you
may also console your child that he may have caught
the teacher at a bad time... like mebbe she was having
a bad day. He still has like 8mths more to go with this 1.. :snuggles:
JMHO.

[Faun]

Dear MomDana,


Sorry to hear about that bad encounter. You son could have caught her at the wrong time. Nevertheless, that was a terribly rude reaction from the FT.

Frankly, I don’t see much about roles like prefect, monitor, etc. I think your son can practice leadership in his everyday interaction with his friends. There are many leaders who don’t get a chance to take up such roles but they are able to garner their friends support when they want to. In this case, not by authority but by sheer leadership. My ds had been monitor, prefect before and he hated it. At P6, his teacher kicked him out of the prefect board and he was so so very happy, because then he could go play soccer with his friends during recess without having to be sneaky. His teacher thought he was not a good leader because he couldn’t get his class to shut up when necessary. However, in his CCA he was so well respected by his friends and they look up to him in every competition for morale support and guidance.

So, play on your son’s strength, help him find his place to be a leader. It need not necessarily be being a monitor. I think it is more fun being a leader in a CCA than class monitor or prefect. Imagine, having to keep
telling people to keep quiet, not to run, etc. It’s a tiresome battle.

[MomDana]

Thanks all for your feedbacks and encouragements.


What i am most upset was the FT's insensitive remarks :x . Not so much about the monitor position. Does she treat all her students like that? Shut up and keep quiet? Is that what NIE been training teachers? :slapshead:

No wonder nowaday students lack the proper respects for the elders and peers alike. They are exposed to such insensitive environment. :scared:

Not to worry i won't pursue the matters further but i will be keeping a close eye on her (and other teachers) to make my feedback to the school. I felt the role of the teacher is important to inspire and not thumbing down students.

My DS 1st year FT also like that, but last year P2 FT was so much kinder and very firm and caring :grphug: . Look like DS is going for another rough ride this year. Now i understand why some time he came back looking \"blank\". Asked him what he learned in school? Answer don't know most of the time. :scratchhead:

Look like i have to look out for more interesting stuffs \"outside of school\" for him if school is not feeding him developmental needs. Can't imagine they are going to spend the next 10 years in school and they keep meeting FTs like her! I bet their inspiration in learning will go down the drains.. . . :imdrowning:

[Faun]

Hi MomDana,


It’s a matter of luck what kind of FT or ST (subj teachers) our kids will get every year. The only thing we can do is to pray and pray in Dec for good ones to come into our kids lives.

Good teachers are needle in a haystack. The way they recruit teachers is less stringent now. Only 1 interview with a panel of 3 interviewers. I guess the attrition rate is so high they are losing their QC.

As for rude teachers, I always find it ironical that the teachers don’t respect the children and always expect them to respect the teachers in return. They don’t walk the talk about values.

Once, dd school principal ask the students at assembly how they find the YOG. One boy answered ‘Boring’. It was not the politically correct answer she wants to hear and he got punished to write an essay about the purpose of YOG. What a great way to train the kid not to be truthful to his feelings and to always say what adults want to hear. And… they want them to have honesty, integrity, etc Aye…

[MomDana]

I am in total agreement. :evil:


Somehow i beginning to think school teachers are partially responsible for pushing students into tuition centres and mind training classes. Why?

Here is my opinion: parents begin to think their children are under performer based on FT's feedback and tests results. What about FT and ST teaching and class room mgt skills? Don't we also assess them too if the child don't do well?

Pushing the kids to mind training class like mind edges, mindchamps, mindmax etc to restructure their mind for classroom conditions and tuition classes to revise what should have been thought in class by these teachers...its seem so absurd !!!! :siao:

In the 70s and early 80s, there were no needs for tuition unless the child has a real needs (learning disbility) or when their parents can afford. Teachers in this era have the compassion :love: and the genuine interest to help children in their learning. Not to mention their pay is so misery. I am from this era and I love all my teachers. They would stay back extra time to tuition us. Help us to form group study to ignite the passionate in learning etc, teaches us the techniques to study well and even home visits to problem students looking for ways to help them.

But nowaday, teachers are paid well until most of them i observed can drive a car to school. Some even sport car. What are we tax payers paying for many times i ask myself this question? When the students don't do well they just feedback to parents to seek external help (tuition) and if cannot manage the \"hyper\" child feedback to parents to seek external help for learning disability..etc

Frankly, all i can do is to \"air\" my disappointments in the singapore school system here...sigh...