sulavaca,
I mostly agree with what you posted above. I’ve just one comment regarding your statement below:
I don’t know if this is true today, but in the past, Chinese/Taiwanese parents frequently gave their children horrible-sounding nicknames in an attempt to keep the gods from desiring and taking the children. The logic was… why would the gods be interested in a child called “stupid dog”?
[quote=“Tigerman”]I don’t know if this is true today, but in the past, Chinese/Taiwanese parents frequently gave their children horrible-sounding nicknames in an attempt to keep the gods from desiring and taking the children. The logic was… why would the gods be interested in a child called “stupid dog”?[/quote]The same happened/happens in some traditional African cultures, I believe.
I used to get called Buggerlugs on a regular basis and I’m still here, so it really works.
This might explain the reticence of the rest of the world to accept either of these cultures as ready for the 21st century.
Just a thought.
[quote=“Tigerman”]sulavaca,
I mostly agree with what you posted above. I’ve just one comment regarding your statement below:
I don’t know if this is true today, but in the past, Chinese/Taiwanese parents frequently gave their children horrible-sounding nicknames in an attempt to keep the gods from desiring and taking the children. The logic was… why would the gods be interested in a child called “stupid dog”?
[/quote]
Well thanks for that, I didn’t know that. Perhaps those people’s children would care to know why they are called stupid dog too? :s It wouldn’t be nice to think that they go to school thinking they must be stupid 'cos their parents call them so…
[quote=“Ginny”]
I am concerned that some forumosian mentioned the worries of fussing around at the kid’s school. Am I fussing over something I shouldn’t have? Am I supposed to keep silent just because I don’t want them to mess around with my son or me? Is my son, the victim of this whole thing suppose to change schools instead of her? It’s mind-bugling and I am lost. 
[/quote]
You are so NOT over reacting. I haven’t read the rest of this post yet, but I’m horribly upset at this story.
Let me give you some of my favorite educational quotes from the person I look up to most in education:
"The word education must not be understood in the sense of teaching but of assisting the psychological development of the child. "
"One test of the correctness of educational procedure is the happiness of the child.”
“The child is truly a miraculous being, and this should be felt deeply by the educator.”
–All 3 by Maria Montessori.
I say you find out this teacher’s E-Mail address and let us know so we can post our thoughts to her. And sign her up for a LOT of SPAM mail.
My eyes are glued to this subject until I get to the last post.
Matt
Ginny,
I’m glad to hear that things went well overall. Now, as a piece of practical advice…
I say this and I’m still in total disagreement with what happened. But I think a lot of times, parents and teachers forget about this step and it makes it harder. When someone calls someone a name at school, it should be addressed. And it looks like it was in this manner. But no matter what, in life, people are going to call others names. What I have often reminded parents and other teachers is we need to teach our children to handle that.
Our children:
And, of course, if he goes through those steps and the problem still persists, you can try to step in and help. But be sure to give your son the skills on how to speak up for himself so he can handle it more effectively on his own. It still might hurt, but it will hurt a lot less if he does.
Matt
This might explain the reticence of the rest of the world to accept either of these cultures as ready for the 21st century.
Just a thought.[/quote]
As opposed to a country where the majority of the population believes that the world was created in 7 days and that humans co-existed with dinosaurs?
don’t count me a creationist, and I think TC definitely exaggerated the point there (rhetorically i assume) but to me there’s a clear difference between holding a particular religious belief, and calling your kid a stupid name.
[quote=“Tempo Gain”]don’t count me a creationist, and I think TC definitely exaggerated the point there (rhetorically i assume) but to me there’s a clear difference between holding a particular religious belief, and calling your kid a stupid name.[/quote]I don’t know what TC meant. But if your comment is addressed in part to me, I’ll have to disagree. I don’t think there is a clear difference, in some traditional African cultures. Calling kids those names is part of the overall worldview. We’re not talking about some neat compartmentalizing of “religion”, separate from the rest of life.
I think this might be a bit over the top. Teachers (myself included) often call children names. How many times have you called one of your students a baby (“do you want to go to baby class?”) or silly (“stop being silly you silly boy?”)
Is “you look like a freak in that hat and mask” so different?
But is sounds like this is not a very nice teacher. She needs to be reminded about politeness and respect.
I know I am guilty of this so I could not throw the first stone.
Taiwanese kids use masks too, thought U may want to look into those disposable surgical masks they use in clinics.
hi ginny,
for a moment, i thought our kids may be attending the same school,as we too are in hualien and recently the teacher who taught my son music(recorder) got into trouble with some parents in his class for calling their kids morons.but we have a male principal, so this can’t be the same school.I think U did the right thing by confronting the teacher, let’s hope she’d drop her abusive ways after this.But do monitor ur son to see if he gets anything from his classmates.Kids this age love their teacher and sometimes they’d take it out on the matey who didn’t feel the same way.This was what happened to the girl whose mother brought the abuse issue to attention in my son’s class.The children didn’t want to talk to that girl for a whole week and blamed her for getting their teacher upset.