I got notice today that I was fired from a kindergarten because of an incident that happened last week. I only work at the place once a week for three half-hour classes. I was teaching the youngest class of kids, the ones about 4 years old, some basic TPR - “Stand up! Sit down!” Ordinarily not what you’d call a risky, dangerous activity, right? But somehow, some kid managed to bump his eye against a chair and had to go to the hospital and get stitches. So naturally the parents get angry and the school blames me for it, so I have to go.
I’m not angry about it or anything, after all it’s only an hour and a half a week of classes, so that’s no big deal. I feel bad about what happened to the kid, of course, though thankfully there doesn’t appear to be any serious damage aside from the stitches. It’s just an odd situation. I still can’t figure out how a person can hit their eye on a chair just by standing up and sitting down. I guess kids at that age must be very, very uncoordinated. I don’t feel like I’m to blame, since there was no possible way I could have foreseen such a bizarre accident happening during a bit of standard TPR drill. But I can see it from the school and parents’ point of view how they wouldn’t want me teaching their kids in that class any longer. BTW there are at least two Taiwanese co-teachers supervising that class while I teach.
What ever happened to ‘accidents happen’? I got into all manner of scrapes at school, ended up with all manner of bumps and bruises, and can’t ever remember my ma or pa being in anyway miffed. They knew what I was like at home . Stupid thing is that these ‘parents’ (I think the term is often used undeservingly here) probably let their kids ride scooters with no helmet, stand up in the car and ride bikes at night with no lights. Balls to 'em I say! :raspberry:
when i was a kid i fell off a chair and wrecked my knee on the corner of a table - blood everywhere, huge scar, tetanus shot in the arse. (it was in an empty classroom i shouldnt have been in)
my kids love standing on chairs, having door fights, storming around corridors and the rest - one of them is going to get hurt and with my experience i FREAK OUT everytime a kid does it in class.
but if something bad happens everyone will blame ME!
it’s MADNESS!
Actually the people at the school I talked to today seemed to understand that accidents will happen…the problem was the parents must have been very angry, I think. Thank god I didn’t have to deal with them.
It might be that the parents did threaten them with some kind of action or with pulling the kid out of the school, and since you don’t teach that many hours you won’t be much missed.
I just heard of a case at one of our branches where a kid actually broke a tooth (much more serious case), and the judge ordered the school plus the foreign teacher to pay a hefty amount.
Just write it off as bad luck, and be aware of how easily kids can get hurt, and especially bruised. It’s amazing.
I used to teach in a school where the owner actually threw little books at the kids everyday and they had to catch them. Yeah, sure they all thought it was fun and the books were small but it’s all fun and games until… :loco:
As crazy as it sounds, I wish I worked at your school!
This new beast named Jacky arrived at my kindergarten. He has been expelled from all the schools in our area. He strangles, spits, snorts, kicks and bites all my students…and nobody complains.
In fact, I get letters from the other parents asking if I am O.K. They see me struggle to pull him from under tables on the webcam, and are begging me not to go.
He is so bad that my school even hired an assistant to help me for 2 hours in the afternoons.
As crazy as it sounds, I wish I worked at your school!
This new beast named Jacky arrived at my kindergarten. He has been expelled from all the schools in our area. He strangles, spits, snorts, kicks and bites all my students…and nobody complains.
In fact, I get letters from the other parents asking if I am O.K. They see me struggle to pull him from under tables on the webcam, and are begging me not to go.
He is so bad that my school even hired an assistant to help me for 2 hours in the afternoons.
. Stupid thing is that these ‘parents’ (I think the term is often used undeservingly here) probably let their kids ride scooters with no helmet, stand up in the car and ride bikes at night with no lights. Balls to 'em I say! :raspberry:
