Feiren, thanks and I also wish to apologise. Obviously when I posted the inital few times I was still very very hot. I’ve since cooled, and already apologised to my manager, which she accepted with extreme grace.
I have a very good relationship with these people, and in the few years (yes, I have been here long enough for the ink to have dried on my passport) I have been here I’ve never found a better school. This is primarily the reason I lost it so badly, that I thought finally I had found a school that was different from other schools, that really really had the children’s welfare at heart.
I was wrong, and the shock took me quite aback. Now that I understand the reality of things, I can get back to wincing everytime I see a helmetless kid drive off clinging to the back of her binlang chewing grandfather’s scooter. I hope I never get used to that sort of thing…
Well dearie, since you apologiSed, and you were so upset over a little pissy-pants occurance, open your eyes. I have had 6-year-old boys and even an 11-year-old girl drench the chair and the floor. None of the other students got upset, neither did I nor the co-teacher. It’s something called a fact of life. Why is it everyone except the Yanks always go pc bonkers over something like this? Wait until you learn some Mandarin and Taiwanese and you hear a kid tell another student to , as we would say it, “Go get screwed”. Then you can write home and tell the folks about all the really unbelievable things you have experienced in Taiwan. Enjoy your stay in life!
tuscanyfish: before you start blowing up at people, let the ink in your passport of forumosa.com dry a bit. Perhaps it’ll give you a chance to read posts fully before replying half-cocked. BTW, an 11-year-old with no bladder control (even to stop the flow after it starts, let alone being aware of the urge to urinate) is a big sign that there’s a problem. It’s wrong for you or your co-teacher to pass this off as normal when anyone who has any knowledge of children knows that it’s not.
For orange: I totally feel your pain. I would feel upset if my teaching assistant left the room to attend to one child while alone with them during naptime, let alone the whole school leaving for something as useless as a pep rally practice (I thought Mother’s Day presentations were supposed to be done by kids, not staff since it is the children’s mothers coming in after all… :s ), but telling them what they did wrong is not the way to go here in the land where “surprise inspection” is an oxymoron if you have the right connections.
I agree with Alien that infoprming the parents may be the way to go in this case if you want to make changes in how they treat the children. It seems that they are more interested in making money than in educating children (a big sign indicating this would be making a presentation for parents a bigger priority than child safety). I would also start looking for another job as soon as possible. Not just because of what Sandman is saying (laoban pointedly noting to others that it’s ‘you’ who helped rest of the staff realize the errors of their ways…GULP!), but that if this school has such disregard for the safety of its charges for something as trivial as a mother’s day performance, it may not be around for much longer (especially if you get the word out about such behavior). Besides, you no longer feel comfortable working there so why would you put yourself through such misery.
You obviously care about children which puts you far ahead of some of the people here in Taiwan’s education field (and maybe even some on here who lack awareness of what is appropriate development for an 11-year-old child). I hope what ever decision you make in regards to this incidence works out to your advantage. Best of luck to you.
<<tuscanyfish: before you start blowing up at people, let the ink in your passport of forumosa.com dry a bit. Perhaps it’ll give you a chance to read posts fully before replying half-cocked. BTW, an 11-year-old with no bladder control (even to stop the flow after it starts, let alone being aware of the urge to urinate) is a big sign that there’s a problem. It’s wrong for you or your co-teacher to pass this off as normal when anyone who has any knowledge of children knows that it’s not.>>
That was your reply to my comments. Looks like your the one who goes off half cocked. Anyone who urinates in a public setting is obviously going through an experience which is normal, but upsetting at the time. Yet in the situations I have observed, the other kids and adult in the room treated the situation with civility and normalcy. Those things do happen. As for your comments about the ink in my passport at this bbs, that is a joke! In what way do you think that is important to me?
Quit reading so much into the posts that other people make here and elsewhere. It is normal for everybody to piss in their pants at least once in their life. Obviously, this was your first time.
TuscanyFish, you really do need to read the original post before going off half cocked. The whole point of the discussion is not about anything the kid did so the whole pissing discussion is pretty invalid to the problem at hand, suggest you read the first post on page 1.
I once worked in a school where two children sat in high chairs for the full 6 hours I was about the place. One was the boss’ 2 year old daughter.
Often at this school a similar situation would occur to what you described. I once arrived there to find I was the only one there. Yes, meaning before me there was only the kids there, and some cook in a distant location.
This school was ranked in the top 10 kindergartens in Taipei in a recent government sponsored survey.
They often asked me why I didn’t send my daughter there. I posed the same poser as yourself, “Are you insane?”
90% of the time the best place to send you child is a government run kindergarten in an elementary school. The teachers are qualified, supervised, and professional. I would never consider sending my daughter to a private kindergarten, and I’ve seen the inside of plenty and been involved in the establishment of more than 40.
Let me add my voice to Feiren: you lose your temper here, the struggle is over. The best way is to do what Alien did, and emulate the sneaky local approach. A variation on this is to heap abuse on Auntie and exonerate yourself, getting in good with the management by slaying a co-worker. The Moloch of Office Politics can only be appeased by human sacrifice.
This is like the vote of confidence an owner gives a coach before he is fired. I’d start looking for another job. Not only did you rebuke your manager, but you provoked the big boss into a public squelch of her. She must be seething.
In the future, no public rebukes of anyone, particularly superiors. At the meeting you should have disagreed with your boss, denied that there was a problem, said that you overreacted, played down the situation, and pretended that God was in his heaven and all was right with the world. Some groveling and flattering toward the manager are in order too.
Another excellent option is university day care centers. At Chaoyang University, our Child Development department runs a beautiful kindergarten which is WAY overstaffed as the students use it for practice. We put our kids in a university kindergarten down south and were completely satisfied by it.
I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond to this issue of mine. I have been in Taiwan for just over two years, and should know better than to be surprised or heavens, even upset by the crap that goes on in schools. However, after having been at this school for just over six months I really felt I had found a school with a difference.
Silly me.
The issue seems to be a non-issue now, and I really don’t think I’m going to be getting the boot. As I said, I apologised for my reaction profusely and was forgiven gracefully by the boss. Business as usual. And I still love the kids here.
I’ve seen lots of newbies come over here with similar attitudes and have often wondered how long they’ve lasted. Feiren is bang on, Alien - it’s obvious you’ve been here quite awhile. I wouldn’t think of being sneaky but I can see how effective that would be. I’ll tuck it away for an opportune moment… or maybe not. Better just to roll with things over here, I think.
Further to my last comments, I have two interesting incidents to add. My husband and I first worked at a summer camp in 2001. It was housed in a seven storey building. The main entrance/exit was secured every night at 10:00 every night by a lowered steel grid. All other doors were locked from the outside by the security guard. This was done to ensure the the security of the building and was a condition of use. Unfortunately, it also prevented about 300 people from exiting the building in the event of a fire. My husband expressed to management, his concern re the safety of all who were unintentionally held prisoner in the building at night. Management listened and told him not to worry about it.
Incident two, my Chinese teaching assistant confided in me that an eleven year old boy (who had also demonstrated unsuitable behavior in the classroom) was sexually touching other boys in his room at night. Again, management was informed. Nothing was done. We felt that the child needed help from a psychologist or other such professional but, because we were here on visitor visas, we did nothing. Shocked? Apalled? Of course.