My son's been going to ESF Tsing Yi kindy for the past month. I've already witnessed numerous accounts of children aggression toward one another without any supervision from the teachers or teacher assistants (including hitting each other with metal toys, throwing toys at each others' heads, pushing and shoving, etc.), but this morning was the last straw. I left my son at the gate where he lines up and goes upstairs to his classroom following his teacher. Parents are not allowed inside. He walks up two flights by himself. Between the first and second flights there is a landing with a window were most children will stop and wave to their mommies and daddies standing outside. My son waved at me and I waved back. Then, a girl came and stood next to him. She was also waving. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, she turned and pushed my son HARD until he almost fell down. She then pinched his nose and cheek before pushing him again twice. I could see my little guy was in shock. He didn't defend himself, but just stood there. Eventually, he turned and resumed his climb up to his classroom.
No teacher saw this, and no one came to stop it. It leaves me to wonder: what if she pushed him hard enough for him to fall down the stairs? What goes on when no one is watching?
From my count, the kindy certainly has more than a few teacher assistants walking around. I think for K1, they have at least 8 assistants and 4 teachers. Where were they? How can they leave children to go up and down stairs without watching? What if someone is seriously hurt?
Further, how can I teach my little guy to not be a bully when he is on the receiving end of such aggression? No one came to say "hey, that was not right". No one even saw it. I will have to discuss with him when he comes home today.
Needless to say, I am a bit upset over this. I am not understanding what the fuss over ESF is about. Seems to me the kindergartens (at least this one) is not special, if not a little subpar.