I was on a long train journey back home today from one end of the island to the other end. Normally when I am travelling, be it bus or train, I would always have a book handy. Unfortunately I have been trained to speed read so I have already finished 3/4 of the book on my journey to the church. As a result, on my journey back, I only had 1/4 left to devour. Thus I fiinished the entire book before I even reached Tanjong Pagar. Anyway I would highly recommend all of you to read Dan Brown's "Angels and Demons". It is just as intense as "Da Vinci Code". Dan Brown is really such a coooooooool writer!
Since I finished the book and had nothing else to do the rest of the journey, I decided to take a little nap to make up for waking up so early. I was closing my eyes and relaxing and thinking of a certain someone, when the train stopped at City Hall and kids and parents started streaming in. The entire carriage became so much livelier. I am used to all the noise during my years as a primary school teacher so it did not really bother me. But when the kids started running around the carriage and screaming loudly and tripping over my feet especially when I was napping, I got downright irritated. Yet the parents just sat there and smiled at the kids without stopping them. I know kids nowadays have more liberty, but I feel parents should still guide them on proper behaviour in public. Otherwise the children will grow up thinking it is right to irritate the hell out of other passengers in a crowded train with all their antics.
And trains are not the only places. Even in buses, kids can run amok and the parents will just sit there and not do anything. Worse scenario is the cinema. I experienced children playing hide-and-seek with their parents by constantly opening and closing the exit door. People are trying to watch a show properly, it is so inconsiderate to do that. And there are also cases where there was a child behind me in the cinema kicking my seat and asking his parents what was going on in the movie every few minutes. The kid even had the audacity to pull my hair! I really wonder why parents nowadays condone these behaviour from their children? Even at the chalet gathering last weekend, my friend was busy barbecuing and there were kids blowing bubbles into our barbecue pit! There was even a father playing hide-and-seek with his child and ran into our chalet!
I suffered a lot of these parent-child problems when I was teaching. Apparently nowadays children are not to be punished, or scolded or put down, no matter what wrong they have done, as in their parents' eyes, they will never be wrong. I received lots of compl... erh, feedback from parents of my former students on the way I disciplined. These usually got me pretty steamed up because as far as I was concerned, I did not do anything wrong. I did not hit the kid or touch the kid in any way, all I did was to give a stern warning on being punctual in handing in work in future. As a result, the kid went home and said I scolded him for not handing in work, and the parents came and said I gave too much work in the first place. *nonplussed* Seriously, was 3 Mathematics worksheets of 1 page each really too much?! And I was taking the best class, not the slower classes.
I really wonder what the newer generation will grow up to become. Actually I cannot really blame the children as most problems stemmed from the parents. If parents do not make the effort to bring up their children in the proper way, they will only be harming the future of their children. It is no use drumming so much into academic excellence when the character and moral education aspects are neglected. I always feel that being a good person who cares for others is better than being a top student from a top school who only wants to win without any consideration for others. I hope I can inculcate the right values into my children next time if I ever settle down.
Since I finished the book and had nothing else to do the rest of the journey, I decided to take a little nap to make up for waking up so early. I was closing my eyes and relaxing and thinking of a certain someone, when the train stopped at City Hall and kids and parents started streaming in. The entire carriage became so much livelier. I am used to all the noise during my years as a primary school teacher so it did not really bother me. But when the kids started running around the carriage and screaming loudly and tripping over my feet especially when I was napping, I got downright irritated. Yet the parents just sat there and smiled at the kids without stopping them. I know kids nowadays have more liberty, but I feel parents should still guide them on proper behaviour in public. Otherwise the children will grow up thinking it is right to irritate the hell out of other passengers in a crowded train with all their antics.
And trains are not the only places. Even in buses, kids can run amok and the parents will just sit there and not do anything. Worse scenario is the cinema. I experienced children playing hide-and-seek with their parents by constantly opening and closing the exit door. People are trying to watch a show properly, it is so inconsiderate to do that. And there are also cases where there was a child behind me in the cinema kicking my seat and asking his parents what was going on in the movie every few minutes. The kid even had the audacity to pull my hair! I really wonder why parents nowadays condone these behaviour from their children? Even at the chalet gathering last weekend, my friend was busy barbecuing and there were kids blowing bubbles into our barbecue pit! There was even a father playing hide-and-seek with his child and ran into our chalet!
I suffered a lot of these parent-child problems when I was teaching. Apparently nowadays children are not to be punished, or scolded or put down, no matter what wrong they have done, as in their parents' eyes, they will never be wrong. I received lots of compl... erh, feedback from parents of my former students on the way I disciplined. These usually got me pretty steamed up because as far as I was concerned, I did not do anything wrong. I did not hit the kid or touch the kid in any way, all I did was to give a stern warning on being punctual in handing in work in future. As a result, the kid went home and said I scolded him for not handing in work, and the parents came and said I gave too much work in the first place. *nonplussed* Seriously, was 3 Mathematics worksheets of 1 page each really too much?! And I was taking the best class, not the slower classes.
I really wonder what the newer generation will grow up to become. Actually I cannot really blame the children as most problems stemmed from the parents. If parents do not make the effort to bring up their children in the proper way, they will only be harming the future of their children. It is no use drumming so much into academic excellence when the character and moral education aspects are neglected. I always feel that being a good person who cares for others is better than being a top student from a top school who only wants to win without any consideration for others. I hope I can inculcate the right values into my children next time if I ever settle down.
2 comments:
I can relate to an extreme! I do not understand these parents at all! Unfortunately I have one of them living above me and I constantly walk out my front door to find whatever her children have thrown over her balcony to greet me the next morning...
That is really sad. We can only hope that these people come to their senses soon.
Post a Comment