2.Teachers

Here are the qualities I look for in the teachers :  first and foremost, they must be compassionate and patient.  It is not easy dealing with so many preschoolers the whole day.  I know how my son can drive me up the wall.  Multiply that by the number of similar kids in a class of say, 10 – 15 kids.  The teachers must really have the compassion and patience to deal with them!

Secondly, I would like to see some 'try a little harder' (vs 'couldn't be bothered') attitude.  During my visit to a 'brand name' school, I witnessed a Nursery level class (ie. 3 to 4 year olds) in action.  The children were sitting in front of a white board looking at the teacher teaching them how to sort shapes.  On their tables were worksheets on same subject.  The teacher basically drew what was in the worksheet (candy jars and candies) on the white board and using many lines to join the candies to the right jars.  What a tedious way to illustrate!  I suppose the kids were supposed to go back to their worksheets and complete the exercise after listening to such instructions.

In my opinion, a 'try a little harder' teacher would have used manipulatives or actual objects to teach sorting.  E.g. Sorting manipulatives of different shapes or using buttons.  It would have made the illustration clearer and much more interesting for the children, especially considering they were such young children whom every education expert would agree that they learn best through play.

Needless to say, my opinion of that brand name school went down quite a bit.  On top of that, I saw children of every level working on worksheets, which I felt was a bit too 'worksheet based' for my liking.

Another example of a 'couldn't be bothered' teacher.  I was told that a teacher from a brand name school went for an interview in another school.  It didn't work out between the hiring school and the teacher because the school required its teachers to do their own lesson plans whereas this teacher was used to simply teaching whatever was handed to her.  The school that she came from was a franchise and the curriculum was centrally prepared by the franchiser.  All that the teachers needed to do was to follow the syllabus.  That particular teacher was put off by the requirement imposed by the hiring school.  She simply didn't want to do lesson plans.  I wonder : will such teachers actually pay attention to the capabilities and needs of individual students since they didn't have to put any thoughts into the crafting of the lessons?

Thirdly, of course, is competency.  You may be surprised but it seems to me that it does not take a lot of qualification to become a childcare teacher.  I once knew someone who basically took up some childcare courses through the assistance scheme for the jobless, run by the CDAC (Chinese Development Assistance Council).  She confessed to me that she had never taken care of her own children.  Her mother basically brought up her kids for her.  She was not the most thrilled by the prospect of taking care of young children and only took up the course because she was jobless and it was probably the only option she had then.  At the time when I knew her, she just completed her course and would have become a childcare teacher if not because she found another job.  Looking at her, I wonder how many childcare teachers out there are in the job not because they love children or enjoy teaching preschoolers,  but because they need an income and being a childcare teacher is their only option?

Another person that I once knew was a childcare teacher for quite a number of years before she finally changed job.  When I spoke to her, she could hardly hold a conversation properly in English.  She spoke broken English that was thick in local accent.  I couldn't imagine how she could be a childcare teacher.  Don't be surprised if you visit a school and hear such accented broken English.  Apparently, I am not the only one who have encountered childcare teachers of such calibre.