Translated…
I’d gone to school, at an era where there are no communication books.
Until my own young started off in kindergarten, I’d received my very first assignment-communication book, the teacher recorded down the goings on of my child’s day, back then, I’d thought, “There’s so much competition in the kindergarten years, the teachers needed to report to the parents what their young did in school, it’s too much!”, and every now and then, the teacher would write concerns about my child’s behaviors, id’ not paid any heed, if I didn’t take her point of view, I’d gone to school and told her to her face, and told the instructor my views on education of the children; sometimes, the teacher wrote half a page of notes, and I’d replied it back to her, with two full page worth, and, gotten the reputation of “a weird parent who had too much to say”.
As my child went into the elementary school years, I’d received an assignment book that I was supposed to sign every single day, a “Communications Book”. By definition, this book is used for the teachers to convey things to the students, and to the parents too (for instance, when the classroom fund is due, when the kids have a field trip, along with other matters); from before, maybe, they’d even sent out a few flyers home, and now, they’d used the communications book, so the kids won’t forget to give the flyers to the parents. But, as I read, I thought, that the purpose of this communications/assignment book had, gone wayward, a lot of parents took this book as evidence of how the teacher demanded that the parents make sure the children finish their assignments, and, it’d even become, this book of tattle-telling of the students’ misbehaviors to the parents.
the inside…
There are too many parents who’d become too shocked, who’d taken their kids to come see me. The teachers recorded the students’ bad behaviors that worries the parents, and, it’s for the sakes of simply, reminding the parents, that it’d not served much purpose at all; but now, the parents raised their young like they’re raising some precious thing, always expected that when they opened up the communications book, all they will ever see, were the praises, and, any negative word from the instructors would be enough, to send the parents, on that downward spiral.
A lot of parents said, “but, the teacher wrote it, and, we’d felt responsible, to give something back to the teacher, if not, we’d become, unfit parents”.
I’d always reminded the parents, that it didn’t matter what the teachers think of the parents, it doesn’t matter if your child’s teacher sees you as an unfitting, lazy, or not living up to your name parents; the important thing is being attentive, to know what areas your child may need help on, or if they were, misunderstood in school or something. If after having that communication with your young, and there’s, no huge problems, all the parents needed to do, is to write down, “Thank you teacher”.
And I also wanted to reminded the teachers, as you wrote in those assignment books, do remember, that the children are the ones, delivering them, into their parents’ hands, and the kids are bound to skim through some of the things you’d written down, and you must examine and see if there are, damaging words that will hurt the child’s pride, and you must think hard, on how, you can help increase the confidence level of the children after they read it, and help them fall in love with learning.
Actually, I’m still questioning the purpose of the existence of these assignment-communications books.
So, instead of just writing the assignment down, the assignment books became a tell-it-all to the parents, a way that the instructors and the parents, can complain to each other, about how badly the child is misbehaving at home and in school, and, if the kids read through what you wrote, they will surely feel, damaged, and this still just shows how important the adults need to watch out, for what they’re saying about and to their young.