Mountain Climbing

As you face today, as you face the week, remember that before you get to the top of the mountain, you must pass the valley. (Even if you were going to use a chopper or plane to get to the top, it would still have to take off from the valley or bottom).

The top is yours for the taking if you do all you need to do to prepare yourself for the climb, and ain't no shame in asking for a little help along the way.

Have a SUCCESSFUL week!

One Strand Of Grey

Most times, a lot of us are prepared for puberty. We get the lectures from the time we are seven or eight years old. So it doesn't come as a surprise when things start to happen.

But I am not too sure if we were lectured about the aging process...probably because it's something that we are old enough to understand by the the time it starts happening. 

I remember plucking white hairs off my father's head or pulling out long white strands from my mother's.

However none of those experiences prepared me for the moment I saw my first grey hair. YIKES!!! It's happening to me too? Ok, so I freaked out a little. I wasn't too thrilled at the discovery. My imagination went into a little hyper drive envisioning wrinkles, sagging skin and tired muscles along with toothless gums...but that is still a long way off, God giving me the grace.

So I put out my question to you.

What was your first reaction when you saw your first grey hair?

What I Did To My Daughter's Teacher

There I was, eyes blazing red, fire coming out from my nostrils, my dreads standing with steam rising out of my head.  I had just plastered my daughter's teacher to the blackboard and was ready to make her the last lesson for the day...but alas, this was to be only in the alternative world that existed in my mind.

My daughter is in primary one, fresh out of nursery and right into primary.

School had closed almost an hour ago, but my daughter and husband were not yet home, and considering the fact that school was just a five-minute walk away from our house, I wondered what could be keeping them.

The husband comes back and explains that he had to wait with our daughter and assist her as she copied her homework from the blackboard, because between keeping up with what was written on the board and what she was writing in her book, she kept losing track.

And what does the class teacher have to say to all this? That primary one is intense, and that my daughter doesn't know how to copy from the blackboard, and that all the other children had finished and gone home. LIKE SERIOUSLY??? and you're supposed to be a teacher??????

So the husband's coolness prevails over me. (Sometimes the man is just too cool, but I respect him for it). He patiently explained to our daughter, took her through how to write from the blackboard. The lass was already feeling bad that she was the only one in class. Dad told her she wasn't the only one because there were other children in other classes facing the same dilemma of copying from the blackboard.

The next day was pretty much the same routine, but she was a little faster...she was getting the hang of it. By the third day, the teacher said she was one of the first to finish copying. MSCHEW!

Now, while we have the option to request for a change of class to a more patient, and understanding teacher perhaps, or take it up with the current teacher and let her know that all children are different and it is her job and duty to take note of that and try to help each child as much as she can, we have decided not to.

Reasoning it out, we figured that there will be many more people like my daughter's present teacher along the way, some will be classmates, random people, but people will always say things to her to bring her down, compare her with others, and what will she do then, run crying to us, always complain?

Nah, she will be confident in herself, fearless, independent, assertive, but not rude,not a crowd pleaser. We will encourage her interests academic and non-academic.

I don't need a straight-As child, I need a child who will be happy, well-balanced and not afraid to take on the world and make a positive impact.

Personally, I feel that there is undue pressure on these children who are fresh out of nursery school to primary school. The transition is too rapid and the shock to the kids is a bit too unnerving.

I don't know if it was the same for all schools, but back in the 80s, there was a class called TRANSITION, and it was in-between Nursery 2 and Primary 1. Was it just my primary school that employed that technique, or was it something that was phased out?

I also remember that the teachers would draw lines on the blackboard and write on them, as opposed to writing freely. It made it easier for us to follow and copy.

I would like to hear from other parents on the solutions they have taken when they are faced with ill-tempered, nasty, impatient teachers, who do nothing but speak negativity into your kids lives. Yes, we may make our complaints, even have the teacher fired or removed from that class, but the truth is that our children will meet people like this at different stages of their lives.

So what do you do about it?