Parent Teacher Meeting - A gladiator ring

Parenting is no easy job and I feel there is no better place to view this anxiety and concern than at a parent teacher meeting. I always come from any such session feeling completely bemused ! :)

A gladiator ring with many participants is what comes to mind when I attend one ! :)

So ....

• One set of parents are annoyed that there is too much homework and another wants extra homework in holidays too !! :) Seriously ?!!!

• Someone says there is too much writing in the class and another says the school should have weekly essays so the children can improve their handwriting ! 

• One set of parents are so anxious about marks that they want every single question that can possibly come in the exam - written and thoroughly drilled over and over again into the kid ... and another set complains no end about how much the school emphasises academics !

• Checking spelling in the test paper causes anguish - after all the kids do lose marks in this endeavour of learning to write correctly. Can it not be eliminated ? Justification is that .. hey spell check is every where. 

I envisage a future --- "their" or "there" - both are perfectly fine and can be used interchangeably ! ;) The poor kid does not know any better after all !!! But I am wrong I realise -- I mean in sms lingo - it will be 'thr' after all so why worry ? :)

          

• An entire group of parents bemoaned how they do not know Marathi words and asked the teacher to ensure the kids jotted down word meanings so that the parents could understand what was being taught in the class !!! Ha ha ha .. this made me itch to say - Get a Marathi - English dictionary people ... problem solved !! :) 

• We all believe our children are Einstein, Picasso and Mozart rolled in one - so this dazzling array of talent has to be displayed (for each child)  in the school concert of 30 minutes ! :)

• It does not matter how the school infrastructure is - there will always be parents for whom the sunlight is not bright enough or the rain is not wet enough ! ;)

• And let us not forget eating !!! The talk goes like this - children should eat their food and so the teacher should check their lunch boxes daily but but but .... they are to learn to make the choice to eat healthy food given to them [ Err when ?] ! :)  You know what happens right ? The food goes down the toilet ! Literally !

The list goes on and on .... 

And so while I listen to these contradictory demands - I wonder if internally the teachers have the following thoughts in mind ! :)