When I got home today, Marsya told me what happened at school which leaves me feeling very, very upset. Disappointed. Agitated and a bit confused in the end. Everything were there - playing hard with my feelings & emotions while I was preparing dinner. Luckily my dinner last night was just a simple egg salad and not something bombastic that needs my total attention & dedication.
Here how it goes. My darling Marysa - that soft spoken, well mannered daughter of mine, was being smacked by her teacher. Something I just couldnt possibly digest. Something that never occurred in her 6 years of schooling life which makes it very difficult for me to understand. I'm not implying that she's never being smacked or caned before. Knowing how crazy her mother is, caning is nothing that surprising at all. She've got it from me even when she was as young as 4 years old (or is it earlier? ) - not just that soft tap on her body but it's more like that real hard smacking anywhere I could possibly laid my hands on. All I could say is that, all those caning & punishments have made her a very well behaved child anybody would love to have.
So when she told me that her teacher smack her today, it just shocked me. My Marsya never has any disciplinary problems at school - ever since her kindergarten. I've never got any complaints from her teacher or other parents about her. She never failed to finish all her homework, she never end up in any fights & she never hurt any kids - she's basically a very good student. And mind you, I'm not saying this bcoz she's my own daughter but that's the fact. I would be the first to punish her if she happens to create any problems at school - trust me.
So, what makes the teacher hit her then? This is the part that I'm totally upset about. I just dont think that she deserved the smacking. Definitely not over a stupid reason like what I'm gonna tell you now. Her class were given a Maths exercise to do. Upon completion, each pupil needs to swap their book with each other & do the markings while the teacher give out the answers. So, what can be so complicated then? Just listen to the answers given & mark your friend's book - quite straight forward, isnt it?
Apparently Marsya couldnt hear one of the answers given & asked the teacher about it. That's when disaster strikes. The teacher then looked at the book she's holding & noticed that the tick she've drawn is a little bit bigger that what she expected. You have to understand that it's not as big as it goes across one end to the other end of the book. Neither does she've drawn it so messily that it dirtied the book. It is merely the different sizes of the tick. Her teacher wants the tick to be an S size & Marysa's tick happened to be an M size instead. Another point to be noted is that, she didnt actually tell the class upfront, how big the tick is supposed to be. And bear in mind that it is NOT an art class I'm talking about now ! It's the Maths class, for crying out loud! Seeing Marsya's M sized tick, she got really angry & asked my girl (in a raised voice), who taught her to draw a tick that big? Not enuff with the yelling, she took the book & smack her hard with it!
So tell me.....am I being over-reacting here? I dont mind at all if she hit her bcoz she couldnt get all the answers right. I still wouldnt mind it if she hit her bcoz she got it all correct except for 1 question. I could still live with it, honestly. But if it's merely bcoz of the size of the tick, then that it totally unacceptable. Since when that is so important in Maths? I dont remember having it in the Maths syllabus. Not enough you're using the student to help you with markings, you can even punish them just bcoz the size of their tick does not satisfy you. Watta ....... !!!!!!
To Pn. Aminah of SKSBU, what actually have gotten into you that makes you react so fuckingly stupid? I dont care if you had a very bad day today....or if you've just got a warning letter from the Principal for masturbating in the teacher's room....or if you just lost your favourite dildo / vibrator.....and neither do I care if you're up very late last nite just to find out that your husband is screwing up the maid ! If you cant control your emotions & vent out your anger unnecessarily to your student at your own ease, dont be a teacher then ! At least one of your student's parents doesnt have to curse you in her blog & humiliate the entire teacher's profession in general.
Do you know how much your stupidity affected my daughter emotionally? Like what Marsya said : it's not the pain that hurts her most....it's the humiliation & heartache that kills her. You did it in front of the whole class remember? She was in the best class of all standard 5 classes & she was one of the top 10 students. What you did impacted her so much that she cant even faced her friends anymore. Never before, she've been humiliated that way. Thanks to you for destroying all the confidence I've planted in her all these years.
If it's not becoz of Marsya begging me, I would be standing in front of the Principal's office waiting for you first thing tomorrow morning. I would really like to hear what justification you would give for acting like a big time moron ! You should thank your lucky stars for having a student with a golden heart like my girl. I just cant imagine how ugly things would be if I were given a chance to meet you in person.
To all teachers who're reading this post, I'm sorry if I've offended you guys. I'm not one of those parents who would jumped into conclusion & straight away put the blame on teachers just bcoz their kid being punished at school. If it's for a genuine reason, I would forever be supportive & I'm nowhere against it. I did my own investigation & interrogate my girl trying to detect any flaws to her story, if any (though I knew her very well & her incapability of making it up).
I know there are still a lot of good quality teachers out there & being a normal human being, nobody is spared from making a mistake. Please carry out the given responsibility with dedication & intelligence and dont let your emotions take control. How you tackle your problems, be it personal or work-related , is what makes you different from the rest. I'm sure there are a lot of other smarter & effective way to handle such a situation. Teachers are supposed to be the role model by showing good examples to their students. Dont make your student lost their faith & respect on you.