Worried parents ask principals to take their kids

Posted to Facebook on 16/4/2020 10:29 PM
Posted to The Age (16/4/2020) on 16/4/2020
Commenting on “Worried parents ask principals to take their kids”
https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/we-can-t-do-this-worried-parents-ask-principals-to-take-their-kids-20200416-p54kk1.html

If parents can’t help their children in home schooling and home work, does it mean that many parents have low level of literacy and numeracy? It’s time some of these parents should re-enrol in a primary school.

Far too often, parents point fingers at teachers for not doing their job educating the children. It is time that the society must realise schools are the best and cheapest childcare centres around.

Respect the teachers, support the teachers.

Thank you for reading.

Worried parents ask principals to take their kids

Silence is NOT golden

Posted to Facebook on 22/1/2020 at 12:13 PM
Is silence golden? Not necessary so

I never understood what this poster was about, until many years later. I saw a poster on a tram in 1970. I had no idea what it meant, who advertised it and for whom.

It was a drawing of a rather sad expressive face of a very young child, and the background was lemon yellow. I can still remember the words vividly, “Tell them you still love them”.

A lot of times, we assume everyone thinks the same, and reacts the same way. However, this is not the case.

When we live in Australia, there are certain accepted expectations for new comers to behave to be part of this country. No, I do not think these expectations are unrealistic. One of such expectations is "silence is NOT golden".

Generally speaking, most baby boomers’ childhood whether they were brought up in an Asian country or in Australia, many parents were very strict, and not expressive to show their love towards their children. There were some kind of unwritten rules that children should understand.

Unfortunately, many children might misunderstand that their parents did not love them because they never get any kisses or hugs. The parents would console and defend themselves by saying “we have given you everything, we sacrifice everything for you!”

What the children wanted was an expression of love, a simple sentence of “we love you!”

What do parents expect from children in return?

I was at JB Hifi. I child wanted to ”show off” to his mum that he could write on an iPad. He wrote, “I love you Mum”.

His mother told the child, “I am here. You don’t have to write it. It will mean more if you say it to me”

In my next blog, I shall discuss about the magic words, “Thank You”.

Thank you for reading.

Australian students 'among the worst in the world' for class discipline

Posted to Facebook 5/12/2019 at 9:05 AM"
Posted to The Age (4/12/2019) on 5/12/2019
Commenting on “Australian students 'among the worst in the world' for class discipline”
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/australian-students-among-the-worst-in-the-world-for-class-discipline-20191204-p53gwk.html

Our education system is out of whack. Although I am supportive of the state government’s decision to abolish the NAPLAN and ACARA, I believe a better and improved alternative should be found or formulated first.

Low PISA is related to the curriculum, abolishment of homework and streamline of students, over emphasis of phonic system in a changing demographic and cultural mix of students, etc. These influencing factors are more than likely cause the lack of student interested in classroom activities, and unfortunately cause disruption during the class session.

In Australia, teachers have been the scapegoat for student poor academic performance, and they do not get the support and respect of parents and public they deserve.

During uncertain economic time, teachers are also concerned about job security. Teachers tend to stay low key to avoid confrontation with parents and school authority. Teachers dare not provide honest assessment of the students’ behaviour and academic performance, so that they will not be subjected to illegal threat from the ‘judge and jury” parents.

The lack of proper reporting and punishment system is like giving a blank cheque to the students to be disrespectful to the teachers, and that explains the lack of discipline!

Thank you for reading.

Australian students 'among the worst in the world' for class discipline