Today was the last day of the chaos as we had the Easter party in the kindergarten. The school would now close for a long ten days vacation! How we all were waiting for it!
Stfn is a big lazy mutt, after all! It takes a herculean effort to raise her up or even to make her want to do something; and should any chance excuse present itself, then God forbid, she becomes totally immovable physically as well as mentally. It was she who decided the school couldn't look after so many kids; she decided to send as many children back home as possible; she made faces for the three/four children who stayed full time till evening because she had to supervise them; and now on pretext of less teachers she decided we need not have Easter party as well. "We don't need to do anything extra. Just sing a song and go for egg hunt, that's it!"
I was so frustrated with her indolent inactive brazen attitude. I shall do the best that I am capable of in the circumstances. I told myself.
It being the last day of the school, there were fewer children, at least in my group. We had only six children in our group and full attendance i.e. thirteen children in Mz's group. Like yesterday, we were to look after both the groups together and the rest of the groups were fine with their own respective teachers.
I started my morning circle without letting Stfn take another drastic decision that 'There is no need to do this..' and narrated the Jesus story to the children explaining why we celebrate Easter and how. Lm who had played the part of king Herod in my play was also there and I was so glad that he knew the entire Jesus story and I made him narrate it in his own way. He really knew everything!
I requested Stfn to do the entire thing in German. She winced and moaned and proceeded to do so with visible displeasure and such an effort as if she had been asked to climb Mount Everest.
While we were thus engaged who should walk in our classroom? None other than Mz and My!
We stared at them open mouthed and none too pleased. Why are they here? I wondered and just hoped they were not going to come back again. That was too bad even to imagine.
They kept talking in German to Stfn, Ndn and Asy while I tried my best to concentrate on the morning circle.
I learnt with great relief that they had just come to visit the kindergarten. They then visited all the other groups too. Significantly, Gbt went out of the kindergarten and was not seen till the end of the day!
After about an hour they went away.
They will have their farewell when the school reopens after Easter holidays. This is without doubt, the Parent's committee work!
Before going, I had a talk with Mk. I was surprised to hear that he too didn't approve of Stfn's decision.
He sighed," She was unstoppable. We, i.e. I and Ndn, tried telling her not to do so but she didn't listen. How could she do this? But you know what, she is right."
"What do you mean?"
"In Germany, only German teachers are considered as teachers. So technically at that time there really were only three teachers in the kindergarten; you, Mk, Mr etc could not be counted. And just three teachers are legally not allowed to look after so many children- not even with the help of other non German teachers- because if something happens to any child at such a time, then the German teacher would be held responsible. If I had been in her place I would have shut the place too."
"You too?" I cried incredulously.
"Yes. Me too. Because if something happens to any child under my care, then I will be responsible."
"So it is just this feeling of fear and risk that something will happen! Is it not the same everyday? Everyday we look after so many children and do various tasks with them. How can we prevent ourselves from taking any decision just because it involves minor risk. Isn't there similar risk in boarding your train, a flight or adventure sports too?" Everything we do has some risk attached to it but we don't stop living because of this. Sorry, but I really find this idea horrifying that we cannot handle a minor situation just because of a remote sense of risk!"
The school has now closed down for the Easter vacation of ten days....!
Stfn is a big lazy mutt, after all! It takes a herculean effort to raise her up or even to make her want to do something; and should any chance excuse present itself, then God forbid, she becomes totally immovable physically as well as mentally. It was she who decided the school couldn't look after so many kids; she decided to send as many children back home as possible; she made faces for the three/four children who stayed full time till evening because she had to supervise them; and now on pretext of less teachers she decided we need not have Easter party as well. "We don't need to do anything extra. Just sing a song and go for egg hunt, that's it!"
I was so frustrated with her indolent inactive brazen attitude. I shall do the best that I am capable of in the circumstances. I told myself.
It being the last day of the school, there were fewer children, at least in my group. We had only six children in our group and full attendance i.e. thirteen children in Mz's group. Like yesterday, we were to look after both the groups together and the rest of the groups were fine with their own respective teachers.
I started my morning circle without letting Stfn take another drastic decision that 'There is no need to do this..' and narrated the Jesus story to the children explaining why we celebrate Easter and how. Lm who had played the part of king Herod in my play was also there and I was so glad that he knew the entire Jesus story and I made him narrate it in his own way. He really knew everything!
I requested Stfn to do the entire thing in German. She winced and moaned and proceeded to do so with visible displeasure and such an effort as if she had been asked to climb Mount Everest.
While we were thus engaged who should walk in our classroom? None other than Mz and My!
We stared at them open mouthed and none too pleased. Why are they here? I wondered and just hoped they were not going to come back again. That was too bad even to imagine.
They kept talking in German to Stfn, Ndn and Asy while I tried my best to concentrate on the morning circle.
I learnt with great relief that they had just come to visit the kindergarten. They then visited all the other groups too. Significantly, Gbt went out of the kindergarten and was not seen till the end of the day!
After about an hour they went away.
They will have their farewell when the school reopens after Easter holidays. This is without doubt, the Parent's committee work!
Before going, I had a talk with Mk. I was surprised to hear that he too didn't approve of Stfn's decision.
He sighed," She was unstoppable. We, i.e. I and Ndn, tried telling her not to do so but she didn't listen. How could she do this? But you know what, she is right."
"What do you mean?"
"In Germany, only German teachers are considered as teachers. So technically at that time there really were only three teachers in the kindergarten; you, Mk, Mr etc could not be counted. And just three teachers are legally not allowed to look after so many children- not even with the help of other non German teachers- because if something happens to any child at such a time, then the German teacher would be held responsible. If I had been in her place I would have shut the place too."
"You too?" I cried incredulously.
"Yes. Me too. Because if something happens to any child under my care, then I will be responsible."
"So it is just this feeling of fear and risk that something will happen! Is it not the same everyday? Everyday we look after so many children and do various tasks with them. How can we prevent ourselves from taking any decision just because it involves minor risk. Isn't there similar risk in boarding your train, a flight or adventure sports too?" Everything we do has some risk attached to it but we don't stop living because of this. Sorry, but I really find this idea horrifying that we cannot handle a minor situation just because of a remote sense of risk!"
The school has now closed down for the Easter vacation of ten days....!
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