More parents are dissatisfied with teaching here...

Yesterday I heard Avd is leaving the school. Avd is a cute little boy in H's class whom I had also taught for a brief 2 and half months till he passed out to the next group. His mother was always very appreciative and friendly to me.
Today I saw her in the morning during the student drop off time (and like I always exchange a few words with whichever parents I happen to see on my way ) and out of usual courtesy asked her why was Avd leaving.

"I am enormously disappointed with this school. The bunch of affairs that happened during the last one or two months ( The parents committee's affair and then the unjust rustication of innocent children..)  forced me to take out my son from here. Apart from that, I found the teaching in his group is horrible! They don't teach anything and too slow in their teaching; imagine, they have only done alphabets A-Z in one whole year and nothing else at all! My child has learnt nothing. I feel his natural mental ability development has suffered a lot. He has also neither learnt English nor German. His general behavior, manners and discipline has also taken a plunge instead of developing. "

I nodded. I knew exactly what she meant - my problem is the same too. Most teachers in this school are like this. They do not teach anything, do only child minding "Hey, don't do this, don't do that",or engage them in free play as it is the easiest for them and the children are never put to face mind challenging lessons. They are horribly lacking in creative, up to date, international level or even the latest, advanced level kindergarten and pre school teaching.

Like Avd's mother, I too had noticed that children in My's group as well as Mz's group are extremely bad behaved; they fight like hooligans amongst themselves, knock, push, throw, spit (at each other with a loud horrible sound), hit, kick ( each other with their elbows and foot) and so on.
Once I remember, Sv had deliberately knocked off all the glasses of water kept on the lunch table. While I was wiping, Mz dropped in and I told her what had happened. She laughed and commented:
"You are lucky this happened with you only today. My children do this every single day. Imagine my plight."
And I thought, no, I can imagine your incompetence and lack of teaching aptitude...

So now, we can say this school has not one but two or more problems. the first is its managers, the second its teachers; and the funny part is both of these together think the children and the parents are the problem!
Its like a robber robbing the riches and scolding the policeman on being caught..!

Mx and his love for dirty things!

Today was Mx's farewell party.
Mx was a little Dutch-American boy whose mother was pretty anxious for him to adjust well. She was the same mother who had sung our praises on that German internet forum. She was very happy with us and most important Mx was very happy with us but unfortunately he had to leave as his family has shifted residence in a far off city area from where it would be too much to come to this school.

There were two remarkable things about this boy. First, he loved his father a lot and for that reason responded to all males far far better than females even at school. He was usually dropped off by his mother and sometimes by his Dutch father. We found it somewhat amusing to notice that his father never seem to know anything about the everyday life at school, for example he would take off his street shoes and keep them in the clean basket up instead of down where everyone kept. And when we asked him when did he want to have his farewell celebrated in school he blinked several times and exclaimed innocently,
"Farewell?...Er...is he getting a farewell? When?" and this when Mx mother had almost daily been talking to us about his farewell..!

The second thing which Mx loved was touching dirty things...all dirty things and the toilets were his favorite most place! Licking his shoe soles, licking toilet walls ( ONLY toilet walls, never anywhere else, you see!), almost always rejecting food from the plate but graciously licking the table top if some bits of the same food sat on the table, during diaper change, grabbing his penis or bums sometimes with poo coming off in his hands, putting his hands in the bath drain, wash basin drain or baby potty seats holes sometimes with pee or poo still in them, wanting to play with toilet brushes, groping into the diaper trash bins, lying down on toilet floor with his cheeks lovingly touching the floor as if it were silk or fur. ....we used to become exhausted forever pulling him away from dirty objects or keeping his hands in control.

So today was his last day. Next week we shall be celebrating Ll and Fr's farewell too.

Next week is the final week of this session. After that the school shall close down for three weeks for summer vacation.

The Excursion Today

So today was our excursion or rather a picnic to a nearby ordinary public playground.

The entire school went with the exception of the baby group as it was too young and Mk's group as it had already been there earlier.

The children had brought empty backpacks from their home in which we kept one banana and a 500 ml bottle of apple soda juice which is quite a popular drink in Germany called Apfel Shorle. Apart from that we kept some biscuits and other necessary supplies too like a blanket, diapers for emergency, wipes, tissues, garbage packets etc.
We finished the toilets and then putting their outside shoes, school's sun cap and sun screen and hanging their backpacks on their backs we started from the school in a big line of double. All the bigger preschool children were holding the hands of the smaller children to keep them from straying away from the line and of coarse be safe as well. Mz lead the line, as usual bursting with self importance and ego, My at the bottom of the line, while I, Cl, Mks, and Ju ( a new teacher in Mz's group, only about 2 months old and already leaving!) in the middle.

Our huge line did indeed look quaint and cute. A lot of people, especially the old ones stopped in their way to gaze at them in emotion, wonder and loving admiration; a few even had their eyes glistening with secret tears, so overwhelmed they felt. My heart swelled too and Cl had been in a state of excitement since the last night!
I felt I was lucky to experience this sight...!

The weather was perfect: hot and sunny, the way people love and long for here.
We reached the station, crossed it from underground subway, and along a big street we reached the park. The park was nothing extra ordinary, but it had everything our children needed; some swings, sand, green grass, sun, cool shady trees, plenty of space and benches and even tables. We gave them bananas and their drink and they immediately ran away to play on the swings.
After some time they were called back, given another serving of snack and drinks, then again formed in line and we came back the way we had arrived. Our little children were very tired, especially Mx and Pl. They immediately washed their hands, ate their lunch and  were put to sleep.
Strangely I was tired too and was glad to come back home and rest.

On the whole it was a good experience both for me as well as for the children. I wish the school had done more activities of this kind...and put in more effort...! Well, never mind now.

Excursion plans tomorrow

More than 2 month ago, we had discussed in the meeting to organize an excursion to the city zoo or some other wild park for the children as it is extremely beneficial, educative and enjoyable for them and the date for it was also fixed. Accordingly we made lesson plans in keeping with the excursion theme and Cl and I both informed the parents that we were going to a wild park. All the parents were so excited and some had already started requesting us to take pictures of their kids during the excursion.

Just two days before the excursion, we are now informed that we are after all not going as the school management has been unable to arrange for a rent bus. The rent bus was asking 700/- Euros for the trip which is too costly. The school cannot afford such an expensive venture and even if we ask the parents to pay the price of the conveyance the amount would come to somewhere around 15 Euro per child which sounds horrible.

It is such a shame. The school doesn't do anything for the children and for every little thing it says it does not have money; it cannot afford.

Not to shatter the hearts of the expectant parents and the little children, the teachers have now decided to go to a nearby play park where the children can go on foot. ( 700/- Euros saved! ) The stinginess of the school, however is remarkable; when we wanted to discuss what nice food items to bring which the children can enjoy during their first picnic, maybe things like cakes, bretzel, cheese, juice and like, the management says we don't have money to buy all that stuff so we should carry small things from the school like salt sticks, cracker bread, cheap biscuits and plain water - it will suffice.

The trip is tomorrow...

Tk has gone from the school forever

Today My was chatting with Cl in the playground. As soon as Cl and I returned with our kids to our classroom Cl broke this exciting news to me.

Tk and St have broken up after their fight on the Summer Party day and Tk has gone forever; he will never come here now.

This is indeed a welcome news to everybody in the school, including the parents ( I believe they don't know this yet and won't for still some more months) and the reasons are too many. To begin with, he was just not made for a kindergarten. He may have a high and mighty profile with several top companies as his successful employer over the last several two decades or more but definitely he had no idea how to run or manage a soft place like a kindergarten.
His entire stint in the school is brimming with glaring blunders. His intentions were right but methods wrong. He aimed to increase the school's income so he forced several parents to admit their children in the school against their wish, charged hideously larger amount of school fees from the new parents than the stipulated amount, reduced the salaries of some teachers WITHOUT a reason, recruited new teachers on shamefully low salaries thereby compromising on quality significantly and charging exorbitant money from parents in unnecessary situations which enraged the parents.

But an even greater blunder was perhaps his aggressive behavior which the parents found intolerably  indigestible. Now that I know the whole situation, I am constrained to think that probably St alone might not have allowed that 'parents committee problem' to escalate to such a height that resulted in resigning of the committee which in turn incurred an immediate loss of more than ten students and an even sharper decline in school's reputation. It was such a shame.!

He may have been a nice man but he was undoubtedly a bad manager - a far worse one than As. We can only say the school is lucky to have got rid of him so soon. Its a pity the losses incurred by his policies cannot be undone now but maybe if St is lucky, she will sooner bring the school back on the upward track rather than blustering down by her stupid, inefficient, scheming managers.

Really, first As, now Tk....are there more examples to be seen of how people can ruin an aspiring establishment? Oh yes, I forgot to mention Mz and My are the others to follow suite....soon. They too are damaging the school's inner lining like a tape worm and blind St just can't thank them enough for their extra work and managerial work....

Jn has changed his decision

Day before yesterday, I met Jn in the playground. He had something to tell me;
"I had mailed to my Guru and told him that I wanted to come to India and become an ascetic and you know what, he has reassured me its not needed. He says, I need not resign from teaching, at least not now."

 I was so happy to hear this. It meant just the right guidance for which I had been praying.

"You know, I had wanted to say the same thing to you but refrained as I thought you might not be able to understand it. God never says one should denounce this world and go live in mountains or forests to find Him. On the contrary, He says one can find Him wherever one is, in which ever walk of life. Do you know, some years ago, when I was in my intermediate class, I was undergoing the same situation. I wanted to leave everything and just go after God and then I received the guidance that I need not worry - I can do that in every situation on this earth. One only has to love God to find him and you can do that whether you are in Germany or America, whether you are a teacher, a bus driver, a cleaner or a policeman.
I love my profession because I have to deal with small children who are so pure, innocent and angelic that they are personification of God Himself. By teaching them and making them happy, I feel I have done something which pleases God. I feel I am nearer to Him here than  if I were in a famous temple or a shrine.
God is in our hearts Jn, not outside....!
You want to find God? Immerse yourself in whichever work you do and keep remembering Him whether in joy or sorrow, pleasure or pain, success or failure - you will become filled with a strange happiness and satisfaction, you will rise above mundane tensions and worries. Nothing else will matter..."

He was listening with wonder. I hoped he believed me.

He really did believe me. Today during the summer party everyone had been assigned some duties and he undertook the responsibility of wiping the dishes , putting them in the dishwasher, taking them out when clean and wiping them dry. Amongst all of us he worked the hardest and the most and yet, I noticed that he was fully immersed in his job and his face glowed with distinct contentment and happiness as if he was doing the most enjoyable task in the world. Yes...he was definitely nearer to God at that moment then he was aware of.
God bless him..! 

The Summer Party!

So today was the Summer party in our kindergarten - and - as is usual, chaos and disorganization was the key element until everybody got engrossed in the activities and forgot to notice it. Two and a half hour lengthy meetings fall short of time to completely and effectively discuss a seemingly small issue as a party in a kindergarten !
Though different duties had been assigned to everybody yesterday, still many important points were totally forgotten amid idle chatting, munching and gossip. Consequently, in the morning today, fresh duties were announced which clashed with other duties and totally messed up breaks for teachers. It was planned that all the children would be picked up at 2 pm by their parents and then the party would begin. But when the time arrived for the party to begin, a lot of children, well, almost half the school, were still not picked up and a group of about 30 children between 6 years to 2 years started creating a storm of noise and havoc in the small room and a bunch of 5-6 teachers were totally blank what to do with them.
I collected them together in one corner of the room and started singing songs with them which immediately quietened them and forced them to be engaged in singing or listening rather than leaping off sofas and table tops and tossing all big small toys to the ceiling...! That's how I discovered that Mz's children have not been taught a single song!

Well, then, the party began. There were several games for the children to enjoy and for which the parents needed to pay 10 Euros. There was nobody to collect the money ! This point wasn't discussed in the meeting yesterday. St the boss decided to do this herself; she however, had a heated argument with Tk over something and was so angry that she refused to come out of the office. Nobody knew where to pay the money and who will collect the money. Then Mk saved us all by deciding he will do this job!!
All interested parents had brought their native dishes so the table was laden with a large variety of food making it impossible to sample all of them. There were some fun/educative games laid out in the corridor and the Gym area so the children had plenty of fun and parents enjoyed the food.

I met the parents of Lm, who had played the part of the King Herod in my Christmas play. They were curious to know if I would be doing a Christmas play again this year. That made me laugh.
"But why not? It was such a good thing!"
"The management will decide whether I can do the play again or not..."
"Really? Then today only I will send a mail to the management that they should do a Christmas play this year too."

Then I met Mtn.
"I am glad that you are not leaving the school like the others have," I said referring to the other members of the parents committee. "although I can understand why they went."
"Ya, I think there is nothing wrong with the teachers here. They are excellent. In any case if I do withdraw my child he will take time to gel and bond with his teachers in his new school; why not remain over here."

Since long long time I had been wanting to praise and thank him for his outstanding, selfless and above all unthanked work for the school- creating the internet community group for the entire school. I chose the opportunity now and told him so. He was happy to hear that and acknowledged that some of the nicest mails were sent by us.

I am so glad to have thanked him and told him how his hard efforts are so important, valuable and useful to us. Its a shame that nobody in the management has thought of at least thanking him..

A bunch of good news

Today was definitely a rare day...full of nice news all day long...
First off, Nd is not coming in our group between Cl and me. Cl and I, both were a good deal nervous and apprehensive that barging in of any third person could bring in discord and disharmony and we may not be able to give our best to the children. A great sigh of relief...!!!

An was to leave in August but now she has been asked to stay for September as well - moreover, she is now being requested to actually stay. She has applied for a university programm and is awaiting selection. If she is selected she will leave as planned before but in case she isn't than she will remain here.
St threw several kisses to An in the meeting and implored her to stay and we all were left wondering in our hearts at the wisdom of firing a good, old and qualified teacher for no reason and then begging her to stay as they had simply been unable to replace her.
I had a talk with An in the train and was so happy for her.
"I wasn't all that cool and positive which everybody thought I was." She said." I was actually very depressed and on tenterhooks as I was so unexpectedly thrown out and still haven't been able to obtain a new job for myself. Its a miracle that they themselves are asking me to stay back."
Tk's idiocies...!!!

H will go to Mk's group finally. I was fed up with My and Mks's unprofessional, unskilled teaching which only wasted H's time in school. They were not teaching anything. I talked to St and asked if H could go to Mk's class and she delightfully, readily agreed.
My asked me why did I want H to go from her class and I replied tactfully yet truthfully that H has a tendency to emulate and learn from bigger children but he somewhat dislikes and disregards smaller children, so it was better that he went to Mk's group along with the whole of his class.

Mks later asked me what was the real reason behind wanting H to leave this group.
"Well, the real reason is I want H to learn. He has passed a year in this group and has already learnt what this group had to teach him. If he stayed here for another year it would be just a wastage of time for both of us. You see, we might have to go to India any time. If at this stage he were to obtain an admission in a good Indian school he needs to know a lot to be able to pass the entrance."
"Ya, you are right. I have noticed H is very intelligent and knows a lot. He speaks a lot and shows plenty of knowledge. He is the smallest in our group but he is way above all the other kids in the group. You are absolutely right in saying that if had to spend his time with smaller children he would be wasting his time. But...but, I was thinking, he needs a strong man to handle him. Mk is a fantastic teacher but...Jn ? He is, not that, you know what I mean? He is too soft and woman like. He cannot handle him the way H needs.."
"We'll see. There's nothing else that we can do now."

Today we had our routine meeting and discussed how to organize the summer festival tomorrow. I was so glad Mz was absent. She is increasingly becoming more and more unbearable everyday. While talking to parents she puts on such a visibly false expression of love, care and authority that I feel I cannot stand her anymore. Day before yesterday we both were in the kitchen serving food to the children when I by mistake picked up a dish that was meant for her group. At that she said,
"Don't do this otherwise I will secretly serve cow and pig meat to H and you wont even know it."
I was too stunned to say anything and since 2 days still badly smarting. She is a Muslim and as such knows how bad it is to say a thing like this. How did she dare to say it? She is just a bitch and I am waiting for the day she will crash out of this school in tears..

Lack of communication is the plague of the school !

I heard an interesting piece of news today during the meeting.

St informed us that yesterday two school inspectors landed at the school from out of the blue and catching everybody off guard especially St, started inspecting the whole school. Having found everything somewhat satisfactory they went to the playground and exclaimed how ugly it was. ( I cannot say if it is really ugly but yes, it does certainly doesn't look nice to me...!)

Then they plagued St to show her all the required documents and certificates and found that the parents involvement in the school activities as well as regular parents teacher conferences about progress of students was missing from the school. Taking matters strictly they sternly admonished St to rectify this mistake not just in words but deeds and even to maintain a written record of such parents activities and conferences as proofs.

It reeks of vengeance!
It is unmistakably the work of parents... most probably the ones who have left the school. The parents made an anonymous complaint to the State School Inspection Department about issues within the school but St is not so foolish to be caught so easily; she keeps her paper work up to date and so couldn't be nabbed for anything wrong.

As to maintaining record for parents activities and conferences she merely gave us a type written paper in German and made us all write our name and sign it; this paper as translated by others to me in English, merely says that we, the teachers of this kindergarten are fully informed that we have to ( or do so already-) involve parents and inform them of their child's progress regularly and even maintain a written record of these conferences along with our signatures and those of the parents.....!

Last year in the parents meeting, lack of communication between parents and teachers/school was the main issue of displeasure and dissatisfaction in parents which had resulted in highly unpleasant discussion, insulting allegations and accusations; at the end of the meeting various measures had been promised by the school management to rectify this fault. Creating internet community group was also one of the positive results. Now a year has passed and we still stand at the same spot where we did then; no changes, no growth, no development and no rectification. Just 2-3 weeks ago the school had handed out a questionnaire to all the parents requesting them to state their reason for displeasure with the school; the answer was still the same: lack of communication between parents and teachers/school.

And yet we can't say that even now she can be nailed down; she has our signatures to prove that she from her end has done everything to ensure communication; its the teachers fault if they fail to do so! Clever, isn't she?

Whatever, I feel confident that parents of my group cannot have complained about lack of communication as I and Cl both communicate to them almost on daily basis, telling them every little thing their children do in class or whatever we as teachers are doing with them in class. Our weekly emails are lengthy newsletters detailing everything regarding our activities with the children or any other relevant news about the classroom while all the other teachers in the school avoid parents like a deadly contagious disease; they never talk to them and never inform the parents and remain willfully mum even on pressing issues. Their weekly emails contain just 2-3 words about their lesson plans for the week which is ridiculous.

The extent of avoidance can be imagined by the fact that My's classroom had 4 large see through glass windows and a glass door. She always despised that she could be watched so easily by parents during their drop off and pick up times, so she covered all of the glass with paper posters and blinds and so now the class looks like a fortified prison. Why so much fear of being watched unless she is doing something that could be questioned?

Why does the management and teachers harbor  such 'anti - parent' sentiments and why are all their policies and actions designed to deprive parents of such a simple thing as communication with the teachers?  I mean, if  St wants can't she just tell all the teachers how to write their weekly emails in a way which informs the parents more and to regularly talk to parents and keep them up to date with the progress of their children or any other issues?

Once I met Khn, a Korean boy's mother on road. I told her that he was the most intelligent boy in his class and had a very quick grasp and knew a lot more than the other kids of his group. She was amazed and found it too difficult to believe.
"But why do you find it so difficult to believe? " I asked. She said
" Because my child has been studying in this school since one and a half year and no other teacher ever told me so..!"

Similarly, another child in the youngest group has speech problem; he doesn't speak much despite being old enough, and his teachers have never bothered to inform or consult his parents to help him. St their group teacher says she never gets time to talk to them because in the morning he is dropped off by his mother who is a working lady and always in a hurry and he is picked up by his father in the evening when the English teacher of the group has already left...

Well, where there's a will, there's a way and where there's no will there are only excuses..!

Jn, the ascetic...!!

Yesterday I noticed Jn to be looking somewhat gloomy. I went up to him and asked what was the matter. His answer ripped my heart!

"I am not happy here. I want to go to India - as soon as possible, where I can do what I want to do. This is no place for me. I don't belong here. I feel lost. Nobody understands me or my ways. I want to go to India forever and immerse myself in God's devotion.
"You want to go to India forever?"
"Yes. I want to denounce this world and become an ascetic...living in the forest without a home, eating only fruits and following God. Is there any place in India where I can get lots of fruits and live like this?"
"I am not sure. Probably you should go to the Himalayas; there are plenty of ascetics there who spend their lives just like this."
"I don't want to go to the mountains; they are cold. I want to go to Vrindavan or the south India. I am trying to obtain a visa of 6 months first and then it will be forever...probably this December....!"

His enthusiasm and sincerity is painfully touching. A half American-half German by birth, not yet thirty years old, a much educated, much traveled youth and used to western culture, luxury and comforts, his longing to find God, to go and live forever in a land which is in most repects completely different from his present world could shock him though and even throw him off guard.

I shudder to think what some  money thirsty people can do to an unguarded simpleton like Jn who thinks he is capable of living in open air under the sky and above the earth. Initially I had thought that he wanted to follow Hinduism and  felt anguished to see him denouncing food, keeping fasts and the likes. I tried explaining this to him that Hinduism doesn't mean this. It means finding God merely by means of true, selfless love and devotion. You don't have to denounce the world, your family, your food or even your everyday common comforts to find God; you only have to believe in Him and love him- that's all. But now I know that he wants to become an ascetic. It is his wish to denounce the whole world and live his life like hermit, a yogi or a sanyasi.

He is regarded with secret scorn by the other teachers and ridiculed oftener. I have seen people laugh at him albeit behind his back and even consider him abnormal. I wonder if he is aware of this. Whatever, it does require a good deal of courage and grit to follow an unbeaten track and I marvel at his sincerity, devotion and courage. He is far ahead than even some greater so called devotees of God. He only needs proper guidance. I pray to God to enlighten and guide him. I just do not want him to fall down in failure. I wish I could explain this to him that finding God is possible even here in Germany and in a teaching position.....but I do not want to cast a doubt in his mind regarding his decisions.

May God help him...!!!

Birthday Week

So this is going to be a week full of festivities. On Monday our group has been invited for lunch with the My's group. This lunch aims to familiarize and introduce the children to their new class and new teachers in the next session.
On Tuesday we will celebrate Nhl's birthday; on Wednesday Ll's and Ml's birthday together and on Friday we have the Summer party!
The Summer party invitations have already been mailed to all the parents by Tk in a horribly horribly wrong English!
All the parents have been requested to bring a dish particular to their country and also to pay a fee of Euro 10/- to enjoy some special games for the children. And that reminds me, during the Christmas Play a sum of 250 Euros had been collected by the parents and were donated for the Summer Party! So now we may assume that those 250 Euros have been neatly digested by the management who still appears hungry to ask for more money from parents for apparently nothing of value and substance.
I believe Tk prides himself (and St feels proud of him) by assuming that he is raising funds for the school, effectively increasing student count ( and letting more than 10 children leave the school) and recruiting low grade useless teachers (who don't even know what to do in class with the children) for lesser pay...! And then he and she both go vacationing expensively to exotic places on earth, spend several times the amount they had saved from the school earnings and allow the school to roll down the hill at top speed....!
What intelligence !!

Two new children in my class

A week ago a new girl was admitted in my class. She is from India and on seeing her contract papers I found that her father is S's colleague. She is three years old and extremely active and energetic. Having never been to any school before she, as yet doesn't know how to conduct herself at school like sitting at one place for an activity, waiting for her turn or interacting friendly with other children, which is quite normal and natural.
So half the time I keep running after her or screaming her name to come back which doesn't seem to make any difference to her. And if she sees any tempting article in any other child's possession she just crashes onto him and snatches it away sometimes even shouting something in rude tones like," Hey, give it to me."
Her eating habits are...well...a bit unhealthy. She doesn't like to eat anything unless it is sweet excluding fruits ! No vegetables, bread, rice, soup, fruits, nothing; only sugary juices and junk and that too she has to be spoon fed. The first day when she didn't eat anything, her mother who was with her in the class fished out a chocolate sandwich from her bag and fed her in the study corner. Our eyes fell out of our heads !

 I had never seen, well, never even imagined a chocolate sandwich before! And Cl's heart nearly missed a beat to see such a stuff....!!!

The other new child has been admitted just today! A 2 year old girl from Mexico. She was quiet and shy and didn't at all want to leave her mother. We learnt that she has arrived in this country just four days ago!
Today was her first day in this kindergarten and as per the rule which we follow, we never allow a child's first few days in the school to be hectic or too quick. The first 2/3 days the mother or father is allowed to be with the child to make him feel secure. And then gradually we separate the child so in a week or so the child becomes well accustomed and familiar with the school and feels confident that he will be happy and safe here even without his mama and mama will come to take him back after a few hours.

Well, so today this child Pl was to remain in school with her mama only for about 3 hours and then taken home. When we were going to the park, the mother told me she needed to go to feed her other small 5 months old baby and will be back in 10 minutes. We allowed her to leave Pl with us thinking 10 minutes was surely not a big deal. However she failed to turn up after several 10 minutes and the poor child was constantly screaming her head off. We came back from the park after half an hour, ate the lunch, finished the toilets and were now going to sleep and still there was no sign of her mother. Then we decided to ring her to come immediately to fetch Pl.

I was so sorry to see the poor child only 2 years old, having just arrived in a new country, in a new school and separated from her mama for so long; eventually she fell asleep she was so tired of weeping. Even in her sleep she was making incoherent, loud sounds of crying every now and then.

Finally her mother came but by that time Pl was already asleep and we thought it was better we let her finish her sleep. There had been a foolish misunderstanding in our conversation. We thought she was saying she would be back in 10 minutes when actually she was telling us that her house was just 10 minutes distance from the school.

Well, anyways, I woke Pl after 45 minutes. She rose with such a cute innocent loving smile on her entire face that I cannot describe; she had forgotten everything in her sleep. She nestled close to me lovingly and when I handed her over to her mother she for several moments appeared as if she didn't even recognize her...!

I witnessed an amazing thing today. Wl is a tiny 3 years old German boy in our class who is currently having a crush on Ml-  another 3 years old Indian girl. He was so protective and friendly towards Pl that he held her hands as if he were comforting or protecting her, kept chatting to her about his papa, mama and blah blah blah in German which she didn't understand and appeared so worried for her when she was in the sleeping room. Finally when she was collected by her mother and I brought the rest of the sleeping children back to the class he was frantically looking for her everywhere; he even opened the door of the room which no child is allowed to, and was searching for her in the hall as if to ascertain that she was indeed okay.

Amazing ! Isn't it?

Gossip gossip

Today I met a gossipy woman whose child studies in the Pre school in Mz's class. If the worse can be imagined, she is wife of S's colleague and close friend of Jn. whose daughter had been admitted in my class and then withdrawn due to wounded pride.

The moment we collided into each other she asked me in a voice brimming over with satisfaction and joy of gossip.
"Hey, can you tell me one thing?"
"Yes?"
"Is the school going to shut down?"
"Who said that?" I smiled in amusement. I didn't want to give her any satisfaction of successfully shocking me.
"All the parents have been telling me. Everybody says the same thing that the school is going to shut down. That's why all the teachers and children are leaving."
"Of course not. The school is not closing." I laughed as if it was extremely amusing. She fell silent for a minute then came up with another firework.
"It was so horrible."
"What was horrible?"
"The parents committee thing. Who would have thought such a small thing would escalate into something so big!" She was soooo sure I would now take up the thread so cleverly left by her and tell her the whole inside story; I didn't.
"Oh that thing! Well, I was not in Germany then. I was on vacation."
"So you don't know anything that happened here?"
"Not at all."
She was so crestfallen that I had a serious trouble controlling my laughter.

When I told this to Mz she couldn't believe this.
"Did really she say such a thing? But only yesterday she was asking me if there is a place in this school in the new session  for her younger baby."
Stf's reaction was different however. She was suddenly troubled and serious.
"You never know, this might be the truth."
And Mk remarked sagely. "Although I know the school is not going to close down, but if it does, I would'nt be surprised at all."

Height of negligence

Today while H was playing in the playground with the whole school, I witnessed from the other end that he emptied a whole bucket of water onto himself thereby wetting his jeans completely. I had expected he would be changed immediatly but Nd just gave a look and dismissed any other idea from her head.

Poor H kept on wearing those wet uncomfortable jeans throughout lunch and nobody noticed this even while undressing him for bed or dressing him again after getting up.
When I finally went to pick him up from his class I was painfully shocked to see that he had even peed in his jeans and was now so thoroughly wet that he couldn't even walk properly. And all this with 3 teachers in the same room ! None noticed that his clothes were wet, or that he wanted to go to pee or was now peeing in his pants...!

I felt so angry with MKs, Ndn and Adn. Actually Mks is to be blamed because he willfully ignored extra work and Adn because as she has been fired and has to be in the school only to complete the notice period she has no mood to do any work that could be easily avoided.
 Last week, a child had done pee pee in bed clothes but instead of changing the child and removing the wet bed clothes to the laundry she nicely kept them in the bed clothes box where all the sheets, pillows and quilts are folded and kept for daily use. The next day another child got that wet quilt and pillow but was too innocent to point this out and used them without question. And when he was woken up, we couldn't figure out how the hell was it possible that the child didn't wet himself but the bedclothes were so badly wet and even stank intolerably....!

Fr is also leaving.

Fr is a beautiful British girl who was admitted this year in my class. Her special characterstick being her severe allergy to eggs, extreme dislike for fruits and vegetables and relish for meat and bread; also that she had a tendency to fly into tempers and become exceedingly insolent. However, much to her mother's surprise she took to me from day one and loved me so much that she had to obey me even against her wish - and pretty politely too...!

So today Fr's mother came and informed us that Fr too would be leaving this school in a week. Reason? Dissatisfaction with the management.
"That man, Tk, who is your manager cannot write proper English and sends us 10 pages long mails which are difficult to make even head or tail of. The school's management is despicable and above all I don't want my child to go to My's class." She said.

So out of 10 children in our group, five have already left in such a short time and all because of just one reason...!

Cl later told me that so many children are leaving from our group and Mk's group also because parents do not like Mz and My. Our children would go to My's group and Mk's to Mz's. Both My and Mz are thoroughly disliked by all the parents for a variety of reasons.

A dog will always remain a dog...!

Mz, the bitch, stays the same too. She was always a bitch and will always remain a bitch. The only time she had appeared to be a human being was when As had been abruptly fired which temporarily made her fear for her own position.
Stf took over and tried to bring order and prosperity but then she also brought in Tk who has just proved that As was by far better. And Mz came back in her own skin, pleasing the authority at any cost and being a dog to everyody else.
How I hate her! She is such a fake that I feel like murdering her sometimes. She flshes big big smiles and speaks in super honey tones but the rest of her face and eyes reveal the true expressions in her mind. However good she may be at faking affectionate way of speaking and smiling her one failure is her inability to hide her expressions.

Right now, both Stf and and Tk are on 2 week holiday. They are in the Carribean enjoying a lover's honeymoon while a large number of students are promptly leaving and more and more are planning to do the same.

Unpaid overtime

We had a meeting today.

Mz opened the meeting by announcing that she is making a new rule - the number of hours which she and My do overtime will now be calculated per week instead of per month and accordingly they can go home the same number of hours early on Fridays..!
Nobody said anything and everybody looked like Wow! What a self proclaimed luxury!!
And then she said that I cannot be given any day off for 17 hours overtime as overtime means working for the school and not simply passing my time.

Right. I know this. On every second Thursdays we have meetings at 5 pm for which I (who leave at 2 pm) have to wait in the school till 5 pm. Earlier I used to work tit bits to pass my time but since 2 months knowing that I won't be paid, I go to sleep for 2 hours. Fairly just and round. However the irony is, when I work hard and several hours extra they tell me they can't pay me for it because H is studying here for free.

At least it is better not to be paid for not working rather than not being paid for working..!
I shall continue to sleep...!.

More about Mks

Yesterday, Mks was on duty in the sleeping room. He had just purchased a new Ipad and was throughly absorbed in exploring it. More than thrice, his children started getting up to say something but he not only ignored them but also shouted at them to remain quiet and sleeping.
After about half and hour, when it was time to wake up the kids he discovered that three children had peed in their clothes and on the bed clothes. There was a big pool of pee pee on the floor.
He stared open mouthed at the mess for several moments and then broke into a thunder on the little boy who had done pee pee. He shouted at the the little chap and scolded him so badly that the little boy took fright. He started stammaring and shaking and did pee pee again right as he stood there...

Mks rushed him to the toilet, administered more scolds I guess, dressed him in fresh clothes and brought him back. Few more thunderous words of "I am talking to you N. Tell me, why did you do pee in bed?" and the boy peed yet again in fright.
He was changed again and Mks rushed promptly handed him to his classroom "Before he pees the forth time in front of me". Five minutes later, the poor boy peed again in the classroom and then had to be given a diaper finally.

Everybody wondered what was wrong with him suddenly as he is a potty trained boy and never never wets himself.

 I now recall, just last week, H too had peed in his clothes in the classroom 3 time and I had wondered how could he do that since he can successfully control his pee and even poo for long periods of time.

Mks is really too hard and harsh with the kids. I feel bad...!