ELISA ENGLISH's Blog 英語園地

The important role of an educator

It’s been a while that I pick up my pen and write again.  There is something in my mind that I really have to let out.  Teaching is a sacred profession and I can’t say it enough.  I have recently taken on a volunteering position to lead a team of seven students in an after school program.  Even though it is an after school program, I am always looking for ideas on how to provide these kids the learning environment they need to be creative, to generate ideas, to come up with solutions and to feel challenged and interested enough to be in the program.   So, I was really shocked when hearing what my son told me today. 

Teachers really have to watch what they said to the kids.  I believe that kids need discipline and it is necessary to give kids time out if they misbehave but it is rather inappropriate and unprofessional for a teacher to tell the kids that she didn't want to see their faces in the class.  Does she really understand what education means?  Especially when this is an after school program where the focus should be to stir up students' interest, not pushing them away, and discouraging them.  If there is an issue, she should contact the parents to discuss and work on finding a resolution.  We did not hear anything from her at all until today from my son.  My son told us that his after school Chinese program teacher told him that she didn't want to see his face again, so he could not go to the Chinese class any more.  He said that the teacher thought it was him that made a piggy sound.  We told him to speak up and let the teacher know next time if he wasn't the one misbehaving.  We also stressed the importance of telling the truth. 

Anyway, I am really displeased that the Chinese teacher would make such a comment to a kid who is there to learn.  Maybe we should stop sending him to the after school Chinese class since he seems pretty miserable to me.  This really tells us how important a role an educator plays and the influence he or she has over the kids on learning.