Teacher not caring enough.

HappyV & Southside

Just to answer your question - The two schools I've worked for here... the staff pull at least 10-12 hour days and that is the reality for many local teachers. My current colleagues are working are working 10-12 per day while I'm there from 7:15 to 5:30 on most days and between 6-8 sometimes and on Saturdays. I'm teaching poor kids sitting for a major exam though so I'm constantly conscious of their requiring my help as they can't afford to turn to anyone else. I'm at school most Saturdays too from 8:30 to 1ish. My colleagues are there til 5 p.m. and on some turn up even on Sundays! Marking on top!

I'd say 10 hour days are the norm in HK unless your principal is a rare angel. I'm comparing it to the working hours of IS teachers i know.

Teaching takes dedication and I'm going to say that if my son had such a dedicated like yourself when he's older, parents like me would be very grateful and heave a sigh of relief knowing that their kids are in great hands. BTW... apologies if I've offended you.

But my point is, it's nice if a teacher despite all the madness around did take a second to send off an email or make a quick call. Just pure gold. I'm going to use my son's current teacher as an example... she's just that! Each time I had a question, I was impressed by her willingness to take the time to answer my queries thoroughly and she's got two classes of 24 kindie kids to look after!

Not required but real nice!
 
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Hi, in my case whenever my daughter didn't go to school (k1-k2) the teacher has always called the same day or next day. Sometimes if i am too busy and taking care of my daughter while she is sick and cant inform school...its always her who called. My daughter always get a warmth and cozy feelings that someone out is there to who is thinking about her. Also, sometimes i feel bad that why i didn't inform her (since she has taken her precious time out) but also feel good too.

Its very important for a kid...although if the class is too big than i guess its difficult for the teacher. I hope you can understand.
 
I honestly don't understand why somebody wouldn't take 1 minute to call a school to inform the child is sick. I don't think that's very respectful to the teacher or the school (I am just saying this in general). No wonder some schools start calling. It's like not showing up at a restaurant, a party or whatever ... they'll call you to ask what's going on?!
 
Just remember as well, you don't know what is going on with the teacher. In addition to the workload for the class/school, she has her own personal well-being to take care of. Her own family life to manage....I am not defending her actions and am actually surprised at what a big deal this post has become, but even to be a teacher you are spread very thin. You love each child equally, care for their well-being at school then there's taking care of yourself and your own family. Some teachers act as their surrogate mothers as the child sees the teacher more than their own parents during the week. Sure, the teacher could have dropped you a note/call to see how your child was, but just call her and tell her yourself.

Every parent thinks their child is the best and rightfully so, but give the teacher a break. I don't think she has intentionally done this to hurt you or to make your child feel unloved....
 
So I see, the discussion so far just proved my thought:
1. definitely parents responsibility to keep the school informed(similar to you asking for sick leave to your company ey?);
2. would be nice but do not expect the school especially the teachers to call, because not only they have a busy agenda at school but also their own family to look after(which I absolutely understand);
3. shower your own kids with plenty of TLC, then you probably wouldn't even notice(let alone expect) whether other people are caring for him/her or not...

I'd really like to go easy on the teachers and say this: please give them a break...:flower::flower:
 
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at my playgroup, i see over 75 individual children per week. many of them come two or three times each week.

i can tell you that the hours i spend preparing/working are around 50-60/week.

i prefer that parents call to inform me if their children are not coming. i prepare crafts etc enough for all of the children. if your child does not come, then i have things with your child's name on, that they haven't done and that i can't use for someone else. it is a terrible waste of resources and energy (in preparation).

if we do not hear from parents, we DO call to make sure everything is ok. i MUCH prefer for parents to inform us. i think it only polite. we can sometimes spend an hour calling parents to enquire where their children are (if there is more than one absent). we have other ways of spending our time: preparing more new and interesting activities & crafts, searching out new books/stories to read, finding & learning more songs that we can teach your kids.... instead we are on the phone checking up on absentee children. this doesn't mean that we don't care about your child. it merely means that we have 30+ OTHER children to think about as well.

really, up to you how the teachers spend their time.
 
What concerns me a little about this post is the suggestion that communication with a Principal would have a negative effect on the school life of their child. If the OP has this attitude to the professionalism of the teaching profession then a barrier to effective communication has already been established. Email is the main form of home/school communication, parents send me emails re absences, I respond with message of care and 'we will miss _ _ _ ', then I, and other teachers, tend to respect the healing process happening at home. The last thing a sick child wants is the stress of getting homework done, all can be addressed when they return to school. With 'flu alerts still current, the school's office staff, who collate total absences, will probably ring home while teachers carry on with the job of teaching, while responding to parents individually by email.
 
This thread makes me appreciate my son's pre nursery teacher much more. She would call whenever my son was sick, more than once if he had been absent from school for a few days.

Everyday, she would send us an email telling us what happened in class, what they ate and what they learned, and would remind us what to hand in the next day or even the next few days.

Now that my son is in another school for k1, and we have arranged a gathering for the pre nursery classmates (all now in other schools) and we have invited the teacher to join as well, and she has committed to come for an afternoon (not just a hour or so). gosh, what a nice teacher! I mean, this is the kind of passion a teacher should have. Obviously she has to have tons of love for the kids that she doesn't mind to spend her personal time to gather with the old kids.

I guess we are pretty "spoiled" by his pre nursery teacher. I thought all prenursery and kindergarten teachers would be like that. After reading all the posts here, I've realized that I should not expect that kind of TLC from his new teacher and get ready for the real world.
 
i've been invited to birthday parties etc. and i've gone (granted this was before i had kids of my own)...again, the fact that a teacher has other students to think about and plan for does NOT mean he/she does not care for your child! it means they have 30+ other kids to think about, too.

as for calling the school and speaking to the principal... that should NEVER be a concern for you. principals are there to handle problems, concerns and difficulties....affecting your child's "further" education (we are talking kindergarten children here, right?) if it does/did, that would be insane, and i wouldn't want my children attending that school whether or not is was "prestigious" or "highly sought after".... my kids would be outta there!
 
My boy has been sick for a week by now, and his teacher has not given us a single call.............sorry but why is your child at school if you know he is sick!!!
 
My child has been sick and absent from school for a week. My disappointment is that his teacher has not given us a call to see how he has been doing.

besides, just to make things clear, I had called the school five times (i.e. once per day) to keep the school updated about my son's condition.



newmumhk said:
My boy has been sick for a week by now, and his teacher has not given us a single call.............sorry but why is your child at school if you know he is sick!!!
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Our school we have to inform the school if the Child is not coming and then we get and email from the school regularly asking about the child. I prefer emailing than calling
 
I was a little offended by the suggestion that IS teachers don't work that hard. My husband is a teacher at an international school and 11-12 hour days are his norm too, plus plenty of marking/planning on the weekends. Maybe people think he doesn't work long hours because he gets home at 4:30 or 5 each day, but that's because he goes in to work super-early, and then once our son is asleep he works several more hours.
I would hesitate to infer that just because a teacher doesn't call to check in that means they don't care. I wonder if maybe you thought the teacher wasn't that caring before this incident and so it just proves what you already thought.
I don't think my husband has ever called home to a sick student just to see how they are, though he certainly communicates by email to coordinate work. But I think he's a very caring teacher ... goes out of his way to talk to students who seem down, give them lots of extra help before or after school, frequently gives up his lunch break to meet with a student, etc. There are lots of ways to show care and concern.
 
I've been on campus for 44 hours already this week - plus a conservative estimate of another 8-10 hours of preparation/correction/planning at home.

The mother in question said that she was calling the school - so why would the teacher need to call?

At the moment, I would say I am spending about 2-3 hours a week following up on emails from parents (parents, not students) about their kids' homework and assignments.

Teach your children resilience and responsibility - that way they can look after themselves.

Yes a teacher should be caring but to think that can only be evidenced one way is laughable.
 
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