Last summer and before the six-week school holiday, which marks the end of the academic year, my 8-year-old son had just been promoted to his new class. When I went to fetch him after school, he appeared upset. To my astonishment, he bluntly told me that he did not think he would be able to get along with his new class teacher!
Hiding my surprise and controlling my laughter, I told him that it was too soon for him to judge, as he had only been in her class for less than a day and thus needed more time to understand the teacher and her system.
Apparently not convinced, he chose to remain quiet. Then the vacations started and he almost forgot about his new class and the teacher. He just focused on enjoying his vacations by mostly nagging me by complaining about his boredom and asking me to take him for an outing somewhere.
Anyway, the vacations ended and he started going to school. On enquiring about his day at school, my son just replied, “Yes, fine.”
On one fine Friday, he brought his weekly assignment that was about his experience in the new class. I kept chasing him the entire weekend prodding him to finish his task but he remained reluctant. After much effort, however, he agreed to sit down and finish his homework.
After he went to bed, I started cleaning up the mess in his room when suddenly I thought of checking his assignment. I was surprised to read his assignment.
He had openly expressed his feelings by writing that he was not very excited and particularly had problems with the teacher. He expressed his satisfaction over the fact that his friends were always there for him. I was speechless. He bluntly expressed himself without thinking twice how his teacher would take it. His words were not offensive and he did not use any harsh language, but I really got worried. Given my background and how we were raised, questioning the teacher or expressing any negative feelings toward him/her was out of question.
We tend to believe that teachers are always correct and we should not offend them by any mean even through expressing our concerns politely. After that, I just closed my son’s homework book and decided not to talk about it. I thought to wait for the teacher’s response. After two days, he brought back his assignment with a note from the teacher that read: “You don’t need to worry, you are doing extremely well.” She also added a smiling face at the end of the note.
My son taught me a very precious lesson. When he had some concerns he just communicated them directly to the teacher, he did not whine about it and kept on talking behind her back without trying to find a solution, he shared his concerns choosing nice words that clearly expressed his feelings without pointing fingers, and in return, he received the assurance he was looking for. How many problems are we currently whining about? How many peoples are we speaking ill of others without giving them the chance to defend their views?
Thanks son for giving me a valuable lesson.
—
@HatoonKadi
