Dora-Fearing Students

Recently at my kindergarten we had our Parent/Teacher meeting. This also consisted of a 40 minute demo lesson, in which the parents were able to sit inside the classroom to watch me teach. Does anybody else find this concept ridiculous? As a teacher of 3-year-olds, it's my job to set the foundation for classroom behavior. Therefore, most of my efforts involve getting the children to stop screaming out for Mommy and Daddy, sit still, and listen to me. Now they want me to do that with Mommy and Daddy in the room??

After the demo lesson, I gave my self-introduction speech and the floor was opened up for discussion. Any suggestions? problem? complaints? compliments? I was pleasantly surprised that the parents of my students were quite fluent in English, and not a word of Chinese was spoken throughout. I can also happily report that all the parents were satisfied with everything and were full of compliments and gratitude. I did receive this observation from one boy's father, which I found interesting:

Father:"At home, we often use a cartoon character to help control Eason. I notice you don't do that when you teach."

Me: Blank stare. "Well, yeah. What do you mean?"

Father: "We tell him to eat fast because Dora says so, and he usually listens better if we use a cartoon character. Maybe it's just a cultural difference."

Me: Blank stare. "Well, yeah, maybe. I guess I just try to get the students to trust me and not a cartoon character. I think it's better to get them to grasp something real at an earlier age. If I want them to do something, or not to do something, I do my best to explain why. I showed someone today that if he rocks on his chair, he might slip and hurt himself. I think he understands, even without Dora. "

Father: "That makes sense. I could see that what you are doing works. Do you think it's better to do what you're doing or to use somebody like Dora? Cartoon characters really work."

Me: "I think it's a little bit weird to..." It was at exactly this point in mid-sentence that a light bulb went off in my head, "... use something that's not actually there to enforce rules. I can't really say which is better, but for myself I'd like them to learn what's right and wrong, rather than scare them with some omnipresent cartoon character telling them what to do. Use logic and reasons rather than 'Dora said so.' Then again, most people don't actually grow out of that 'all-powerful Dora' mindset."

So this gives you an idea of the level of English being spoken. In another life, maybe, the conversation continued with him telling me that his son was asking questions about Dora and all of her rules. Apparently, the father made up this elaborate story about how Dora spoke to Sponge Bob and gave him a set of rules to preach to everybody. When a confused and suspicious Eason started asking too many questions, the father just told him be quiet and turned on an episode of Dora the Explorer. Instead of getting into too many details, my student's father implored me to watch Cartoon Network so I can become a better person. Dora can save me, too.