If I could teach...

[M2TandM]

Today Cafemom asks us what subject we would like to teach if we were teachers. Well, I am one (and before I continue I am going to put as a disclaimer on here that I am currently on maternity leave - so forgive typo's and spelling errors!!)

I want to answer this from two perspectives...

Firstly, as a teacher who didn't have children, I'd just like to teach. I don't want to be a nurse, a dentist, a police officer, a prison warder, a referee, an old nag. I just would like to teach. To have the kids come in after lunch and not tell me that so and so called them names or that so and so pushed them over or that the football hit them on the head or that mum doesn't know it is choir tonight so could I please call her. I'd like them to come a sit down and me to get through an hour our the latest science topic without interruption because you know what - if I did that it would be so much more fun... you'd learn so much more - and I wouldn't be keeping L'oreal hair colourants going single handed.

But the also as a mum.... I want to know that my child teacher will listen to him, that she won't shout and lose her patience. That if he does get injured he will be OK and if he isn't she'll take appropriate steps. That he can sit in her classroom, safe in the knowledge that Johnny won't kick him. Because that child in her class isn't just any old child - he is MY child. And I am quite sure that every mother feels the same way.

It is so hard. Being a teacher - and a mum. My child is currently experiencing issues at school. He is 3, the youngest in his year group and he is (I hate to admit it) THE child whom your child complains about. He won't share. He will push. He will hit - and I have no idea why. The mum in me says 'he isn't like it at home' (and I swear on my life he isn't. The word NO! is heard occasionally - but he shares, he is loving, he does not hit, he does not push...)  but the teacher in me thinks 'yeah, and I have heard that one before. As his mum I see him hold doors open for little ladies, telling them "you're welcome" when they thank him. I hear him say "bless you" when a stranger sneezes. I see him run for a cloth because his baby sister spit up or put her music on her bouncer chair because she is upset. I hear him tell me he loves me 1000 times a day. I love him with all my heart but as a teacher - I have dreaded getting certain children in my class because their reputation precedes them, but they are children whose mums feel the exact same way about their child as I do mine. Now my child could be that child and to think someone might dread to teach him... it breaks my heart. He is 'special needs' because he is socially and behaviorally behind his peers. I have seen these kids - no one likes them. They don't get invited to parties. They don't get invited to tea. They don't even get invited to play on the playground. 

If he was in my class - he'd be on the special needs register. It would be easy. I'd write him targets, I'd get mum in and we'd put them in place and I would not even flinch. I now know how much pain that causes a parent. I know now how it feels to sit on the other side of the fench and you don't flinch either - you crumble. We are working on this, the school and I. He is so young, this is just a phase.

I hear parents on the playground moan about school and I feel the same but I also know - and completely understand - the teacher response and reasoning. They say  "I wanted to film the nativity as my bloke is at work - now he'll miss it. Its stupid!" The mum in me agrees but the teacher in me knows that maybe just 1 child's parents refused to sign the permission form. The permission form schools have to send out because one child, in one school, was abused. Their image was taken and used indecently, our hands our tied, yet we get the backlash.

*sigh* I have rambled off point here. I guess I wish a few things other than what subject I would teach... I wish all teachers were mums and all mums were teachers - just for a week or two. I sure as hell know, that as a mum and especially a mum of a school aged child, that I will be a different teacher when I return to work.

[Cass052005]

Jan. 23, 2010 at 10:18 PM

I know exactly what you mean!  I am "that mom" that all us teachers complain about pretty much daily who is overbearing and constantly calling and writing notes and wanting things to be perfect for my child and hating to admit when he is acting up, even though I know its impossible to watch one child constantly when you have a class of 16 running around.  Its a daily struggle but I think it helps to make me a better mom, and helps me to be more understanding and patient with children and all the other "that mom"s out there! 

[jas_momof2]

Jan. 25, 2010 at 6:51 AM

((hugs))