Dialogue | Extreme Occupation: Primary School Homeroom Teacher

In times of economic downturn, people tend to choose relatively stable and secure jobs.

Professions such as teachers and civil servants have always been preferred. Compared with the civil servants who are generally considered idle, the paid winter and summer vacations of teachers are more exciting.

In the spring of 2019, the new crown epidemic has not yet arrived, and Mei, who recruited a job in the spring after failing to pass the examination, mistakenly applied for a math teacher at a private primary school in Wuhan, and after a year, he served as a class teacher, and has since begun to deal with children and parents.

July ushered in a two-month summer vacation that was a headache for parents, but it was a time for teachers to breathe a sigh of relief.

After a day of training, Ms. Mei returned to the staff dormitory and began to share with me the experience of being a primary school class teacher.

Echo: Why did you choose to be a primary school teacher? Does this have to do with your personality?

Teacher Mei: At that time, I also happened to encounter this opportunity, so I wanted to say that I would try it. Later, I found that it was indeed a good fit for my personality, and I preferred to get along with children rather than socialize with people. The child changes quickly, and you can feel the traces of his growth, which makes me happy.

Echo: What are the responsibilities of the elementary school homeroom teacher?

Teacher Mei: The scope is very wide, in general, it is to be responsible for all the behaviors of children in school, the most important of which is the safety of children, which is the bottom line.

I was a subject teacher in my first year of teaching, and I began to be a class teacher in the second year, taking the first grade. Subject teachers basically only need to be responsible for the classroom, and it can be said that the workload only accounts for 20% of the class teacher.

In addition to teaching his own teaching subjects, the class teacher is also responsible for the moral education of the child, that is, the education of behavior habits and the cultivation of personality.

Echo: Actually, when it comes to children, many people have headaches, because children have not been disciplined and are difficult to discipline. When the first-grade homeroom teacher often has this headache?

Teacher Mei: This is no way to do it, because children have not yet established their proper behavior habits, and hygiene habits also need to be cultivated.

When students are disobedient, I usually remind them verbally, and usually the obedient students will immediately converge. Individual students need further education, such as verbally threatening him that I would contact the parents.

There are also some parents who know that their children are naughty and tell me at the beginning that they can fight if they are disobedient. Of course, only moderate corporal punishment, such as punishment stations, I will also report the situation to the parents afterwards, and the information transparency is good for everyone.

Echo: When it comes to contacting parents, how did you communicate with parents? Are there times when you feel difficult?

Teacher Mei: There are about 40 or 50 people in my class, 10% of the parents are very cooperative with my work, maybe they or their relatives and friends have teachers, can understand me.

About 80% of parents communicate more smoothly, of course, the remaining 10% of parents have to communicate a little harder, basically feel that their children have been treated unfairly at school, such as being criticized, changing seats seems to always sit in the back, and being bullied by classmates in the class.

In fact, it is a manifestation that parents do not trust teachers. Teachers most want children to be well in school, because this is our responsibility. Like being bullied by classmates, many times children can't distinguish between playing and fighting.

Of course, I can also understand the parents' concerns, so I will try to communicate as well as possible.

Echo: Have you ever had that special, memorable time at work?

Teacher Mei: Yes, I feel like the kind of single old father with children, sometimes really angry, but sometimes I will be touched by them.

There is a child who often brings some fruit snacks to the teacher in the morning, because he knows that you are sincere with him and are good for him. Be attentive to the children, care for them, they all know.

Echo: The good side of the teacher, children can feel it, but the same way, the bad side of the teacher, may also bring negative effects, how do you think the teacher loses his temper in front of the child?

Teacher Mei: This is a very normal phenomenon, after all, the teacher is not a god. I hope that the public will not deify the profession of teacher, teachers are first and foremost an ordinary profession, and teachers will also have emotions.

When students are not performing well, the teacher is appropriately angry, which can make the students realize that their behavior is incorrect, which helps to establish the child's concept of right and wrong.

Of course, negative emotions may also come from many aspects, and venting emotions when facing children is easy to be paid attention to by them, will be amplified, and the impact is not good. So still try to converge as much as possible.

I myself am growing up, trying to avoid looking at children from the perspective of adults, trying to understand that they can make people less angry. In the past, when communicating with other teachers, there were also teachers who said that they had a heart attack, which was a real heart attack (bitter smile), and the average life expectancy of teachers was not high.

Echo: Haha, then still pay attention to the body, more considerate of children. Speaking of understanding children, in recent years, there has been a phenomenon: "chicken baby", have you met the parents of "chicken baby"?

Teacher Mei: I haven't met it yet, probably because I'm in the lower grades. Generally speaking, the first and second grades of primary school pay more attention to children's behavior habits, hygiene habits and safety education, and the third grade and later will pay more attention to learning. However, there are also parents in my class who pay great attention to the cultivation of their children, and their children's performance in all aspects is precocious than other children.

"Chicken baby" is also caused by the environment, and now the pressure of social competition is too great. "Chicken baby" should be purposeful and targeted to improve children, but I feel that many parents are following the trend of "chicken baby", out of a psychology that cannot lag behind other people's children. I hope that parents can also be more demanding of themselves, and many parents of "cow babies" are also strong, and they will be "chickens".

On the other hand, many parents think that their children do not listen to lectures in class, and they can make up for it after class. In fact, the child does not listen to the lecture in class because of lack of concentration, and the child's concentration should be cultivated. Some are in the wrong direction.

Echo: When you used to read, everyone may have had the situation that "a classmate in the class is the teacher's child", will you teach your own children in the future?

Teacher Mei: In fact, after becoming a class teacher, I don't want to have children. On the one hand, I have experienced the difficulty of educating children, and on the other hand, it is also the reason for my profession, and I feel guilty.

The day of the class teacher revolves around the students and the parents of the students, all of them are paying for other people's children, and they have no time to take care of their own children.

I won't teach him when I have a child in the future. The relationship between teacher and student and father and son is difficult to balance, and it is always necessary to lose sight of one or the other. I hope that other teachers will teach him, and I will trust other teachers.

We talked for a long time, talked a lot, about what kind of most troublesome child in the class is, how the class teacher like him earns, and whether he will stick to it in the future after becoming a teacher.

Ms. Mei has been a teacher for two years, and the class teacher has only one year of service, as a novice class teacher, there are often times when she is overwhelmed, but fortunately, there are also senior teachers around her and the grade director who assists in handling affairs. He stressed, however, that other class teachers were usually reluctant to give advice because they did not understand the specific situation and that all matters concerning students had to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

I asked him to rate his year's work as a class teacher, and he said without hesitation: "Just 60 points, pass first, and then do a good job." How to calculate 100 points, Ms. Mei's ultimate ideal is that children are "happy to go to school and go home safely."

In the two months without going to class, Teacher Mei still needs to stay in school for training for one month, and the remaining month, he has already arranged for his riders to ride Qinghai Lake together. Pack yourself up in the beautiful journey and return home as a full-spirited, serious but gentle homeroom teacher.