Some days back, or I would say weeks back I posted about this little naughty one who outrightly challenged in class. Ring a bell?!! *rrrringggg* Alright shall stop being so literal haa. Anyway, I have been working on this girl cos I mean since she is in my "love a little more" bucket, she would need my special attention isn't it? Hiak hiak hiak. Have tried a few ways with her la, sat her down, got her to tell me about her family, got her to reflect blah blah blah.. all these helped I guess but was not impactful enough. Why so? Cos just last Monday she took a book and wack a girl's head. Hmm... yes did I share also that she has this thing with violence? Yuppity! She looks small small, cute cute but really lah, ONE chiili padi. URGH.
Anyway back to the wacking a girl's head with a book. So I told the class that we will all ignore her for a week because she does not know how to treasure her friends and so, she will have no friends. For 4 days, she worked alone in my class and yup, my whole class was on my side except for a few 'kind' souls. By day 2, i could already feel the pinch in my heart as i disciplined her cos she really looked regretful and i was wondering if I was too harsh. But I had to do it cos I love her. That moment, it just reminded me of the verse which says, 'God disciplines those whom He loves.' Then I started thinking that its hard being a parent man. It takes so much wisdom to break a child's will and not the spirit. *Phwoooooo*.
Anyway, the 4 long days passed and I had waited for the 5th day to come so that I can bring about a closure to this issue. It was racial harmony day and I was supposed to share a story on 'respecting' others with my class. At that moment, the discussion went like this:
Soowei: So children, what do you think is the greatest weapon which you can use towards an enemy?
Child 1:Bomb!
Child 2:Sword!
Child 3:Punch him...!
Soowei: To tell you the truth, all that you mentioned are good weapons but they are not great!! The greatest weapon is love.
Children looked puzzled and I wondered if I was being too chim but I always felt that its never too soon or early to teach children about values and characters even though at times it could be difficult to grasp. I used Cecilia as an example and mentioned that, she could have reacted in love when she was aggitated by the girl whom she hit. She could have responded with a smile, or simply walk away and then approach the authorities. It seemed like GREEK to the children cos to them, 'fight on" and "retaliate" are words that would come to their mind since thats how the world propagates.
The closing to Cecilia:
'Miss Sim hates the way you used violence each time you are angry but Miss Sim loves Cecilia. I don't like and neither do I approve of your actions but i love you and the class loves you too. Once again Cecilia is our friend and we are going to love her, treasure her and respect her ok?"
That girl was so near to tears. Actually, me too. Haaa cos i could finally talk to her again and be nice and warm with her.
Its been a week, Cecilia has been behaving well. So proud of her *yeah* Today I went up to her and affirmed her. She just grinned and said, "good bye Miss Sim." :)
Anyway back to the wacking a girl's head with a book. So I told the class that we will all ignore her for a week because she does not know how to treasure her friends and so, she will have no friends. For 4 days, she worked alone in my class and yup, my whole class was on my side except for a few 'kind' souls. By day 2, i could already feel the pinch in my heart as i disciplined her cos she really looked regretful and i was wondering if I was too harsh. But I had to do it cos I love her. That moment, it just reminded me of the verse which says, 'God disciplines those whom He loves.' Then I started thinking that its hard being a parent man. It takes so much wisdom to break a child's will and not the spirit. *Phwoooooo*.
Anyway, the 4 long days passed and I had waited for the 5th day to come so that I can bring about a closure to this issue. It was racial harmony day and I was supposed to share a story on 'respecting' others with my class. At that moment, the discussion went like this:
Soowei: So children, what do you think is the greatest weapon which you can use towards an enemy?
Child 1:Bomb!
Child 2:Sword!
Child 3:Punch him...!
Soowei: To tell you the truth, all that you mentioned are good weapons but they are not great!! The greatest weapon is love.
Children looked puzzled and I wondered if I was being too chim but I always felt that its never too soon or early to teach children about values and characters even though at times it could be difficult to grasp. I used Cecilia as an example and mentioned that, she could have reacted in love when she was aggitated by the girl whom she hit. She could have responded with a smile, or simply walk away and then approach the authorities. It seemed like GREEK to the children cos to them, 'fight on" and "retaliate" are words that would come to their mind since thats how the world propagates.
The closing to Cecilia:
'Miss Sim hates the way you used violence each time you are angry but Miss Sim loves Cecilia. I don't like and neither do I approve of your actions but i love you and the class loves you too. Once again Cecilia is our friend and we are going to love her, treasure her and respect her ok?"
That girl was so near to tears. Actually, me too. Haaa cos i could finally talk to her again and be nice and warm with her.
Its been a week, Cecilia has been behaving well. So proud of her *yeah* Today I went up to her and affirmed her. She just grinned and said, "good bye Miss Sim." :)
6 comments:
Awesome story man!!! SW shared with me of such an experience and guess what? They may misbehave towards other teachers, but will treat u with great respect.
To Jenn: I do hope and pray that they will also behave well in other teachers' classes cos I wanna see permanent change. :)
To Rach ANNA LIM: Join teaching? LOL *wink*
Sharon, am glad that you get something out of this. :)
5 days is quite long.....how old was she?
Hi Kuntry Confession,
she is 10 this year. :) btw, you are?
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