Patient Teaching
My experience today sitting in a Burger King doing work involved listening (and watching, because they were directly in front of me) to a father shout at his 7 or 8 year old son over some maths homework. There was banging of the table and harsh Mandarin words. It was awful to watch, but the boy did a pretty good job holding it together - although I never saw his face because his back was facing me.
It brought back some pretty bad memories of my childhood too. Which made me feel bad for the lad, since I know what he's going through. And this, in a public Burger King (not that there is a private one, unless you're Michael Jackson).
But honestly - when you try to teach a young person maths in a noisy, semi-crowded fast food joint with the occasional high-pitched beeping of some irritating oven in the kitchen, you can't expect too much. In addition, the bunch of teenage girls at the next table were constantly laughing, talking loudly and throwing their french fries around. Co'mon, even I was distracted by the flying food.
But it was very apt. Me, sitting in the table directly behind the boy and facing the father. Almost like a virtual reality experience, I wanted to cry and admit that my maths needed polishing up too. I was shaking in my boots (no shoes) and half expected the man to stand up and shout to the teenagers to Shuttup and then throw their fries at me for daring to look at him in the eye for more than half a second. I kept my eye on my Outlook, daring not to Lookout.
The lesson I learnt wasn't anything to do with numbers. It wasn't even Chinese. It's how NOT to teach your kids stuff. I admit I haven't really been Mr. Patient, I have become frustrated and slightly irritated with Nigel during his piano practices - so there, it's out, my blog confession. And I'm pretty sure that down the road, I will get equally pissed off about Maths, Science, Physics, Chemistry and so on.
Teach with patience, and love, and passion. In theory, it sounds like a way better idea than screaming and I'm sure it will be a welcome change for everyone, including the other folks in the cafe. In practice, your children might not take you too seriously.
It brought back some pretty bad memories of my childhood too. Which made me feel bad for the lad, since I know what he's going through. And this, in a public Burger King (not that there is a private one, unless you're Michael Jackson).
But honestly - when you try to teach a young person maths in a noisy, semi-crowded fast food joint with the occasional high-pitched beeping of some irritating oven in the kitchen, you can't expect too much. In addition, the bunch of teenage girls at the next table were constantly laughing, talking loudly and throwing their french fries around. Co'mon, even I was distracted by the flying food.
But it was very apt. Me, sitting in the table directly behind the boy and facing the father. Almost like a virtual reality experience, I wanted to cry and admit that my maths needed polishing up too. I was shaking in my boots (no shoes) and half expected the man to stand up and shout to the teenagers to Shuttup and then throw their fries at me for daring to look at him in the eye for more than half a second. I kept my eye on my Outlook, daring not to Lookout.
The lesson I learnt wasn't anything to do with numbers. It wasn't even Chinese. It's how NOT to teach your kids stuff. I admit I haven't really been Mr. Patient, I have become frustrated and slightly irritated with Nigel during his piano practices - so there, it's out, my blog confession. And I'm pretty sure that down the road, I will get equally pissed off about Maths, Science, Physics, Chemistry and so on.
Teach with patience, and love, and passion. In theory, it sounds like a way better idea than screaming and I'm sure it will be a welcome change for everyone, including the other folks in the cafe. In practice, your children might not take you too seriously.