Much Ado About Something

It has been a week since I started on my no-pay leave.

So far, I have cooked three full family meals and two morning porridges for Baby.

I have been sending Baby to school too.

A couple of days ago, when I was picking Baby up from school, her teacher suddenly said this to me,"We need your support to guide her at home."

I was surprised and was wondering why she said that.

She continued,"When we teach the theme 'Post Office', you can also support by teaching her about post office eg. I teach them when you apply for a job, you need to buy stamps to send the letter out. When I teach them 'H', I also ask them to go home and ask their parents for 5 more words that start with H."

All the time, Baby was hanging her head low, peeling off the hardened glue on her little fingers.

The next day, Baby did not want to go to school. She said she was tired, sleepy, leg was painful, itchy, wanted me to carry.

I told William about the 'phenomenon' and said in jest that Baby has his lazy gene.

When he picked her up after school, he said that he had asked Baby why she did not wish to go to school, and she said that her teacher had beaten her on the hand.

According to her, she had told her teacher that she was tired and would like to sleep.

Her teacher said no.

She cried.

Her teacher beat her on her hand.

Baby cried even more as she felt that it was painful.

I decided to ask for the teacher's side of her story today when I sent Baby to school.

The teacher said,"Beat her? NO!" and gave Baby a dirty look, and taking the tods with her, walked away quickly, leaving me looking and feeling like an idiot standing there while other mothers looked on.

A mother said something in Cantonese to another mother and walked away. The mother standing beside me asked if I had asked the teacher about her beating my child. I said 'yes'.

I was shocked that:

1) the teacher did not bother to clarify the matter
2) she gave Baby a dirty look
3) for someone in her fifties, or at least late forties, she actually took what a toddler (who is probably 45 years younger than her) said so personally
4) an early childhood educator behaving in an unloving manner

I am not expecting her to love my kid, but to give a toddler that young a dirty look is something inconceivable to me.

And she is supposed to be a Christian, given that the school is a missionary kindy. I don't supposed anyone who is a non-Christian would be teaching gospel songs to the kids.

But I don't want to kick up a big fuss over the matter and cause Baby to have any unhappy memories of her early schooling days. I will leave it as it is for now and hope that things will turn out for the better.