Parent-Teacher Conference

I went to my first parent-teacher conference today. I got to his school early in the morning so that my wife and I could line up early and finish early as well. I wasn't really worried about what the teacher would say because I knew my son is such a good and smart boy.

The school implemented a priority number system so all we had to do was pick a number and wait in line. We first went to his class adviser, picked a number and sat down. After a few minutes, my wife and I decided to talk to his Chinese teacher first because there were some parents already in line for his adviser.

Our son's Chinese teacher is a young Filipino-Chinese, who could speak fluent Chinese and English. I thought this was good since I knew some Chinese teachers were mainland Chinese who spoke just some English. We didn't have to wait long to talk to her. We just expressed to her that we were concerned that we didn't know Chinese and that we couldn't tell if he was pronouncing the words correctly. We asked if she would recommend a tutor. The teacher told us not to worry since our son was one of her most attentive students in class. Feeling somewhat relieved, we decided to talk about our son and how he likes Chinese. We mentioned that he would offer to pray or sing in Chinese and that from time to time, he would teach us Chinese words. I could see that she was happy to hear that. We left her feeling good that we didn't have to worry. We kept repeating what she had said: He was one of her most attentive students in class.

When we got back to his adviser, we saw that the line had hardly moved so we decided to have breakfast. After a hotdog and an order of siomai, I asked my wife if she planned to discuss anything with our son's adviser. She just mentioned our son's complaints about a classmate who was often rough with him.

We got back in line and after around half an hour, it was finally our turn.

Our son's adviser said our son is a model student. He is always so well-behaved and he recites frequently. She explained that she would ask the class to behave like our son, making our son quite well-known in class. We were also told that he is a bit slow in writing and coloring exercises and so we 'll need to support him there. Then we brought up the complaint of our son about his rough classmate. The adviser laughed and said that while it's true that the other boy can be quite rough, that boy actually declared that our son was his best friend, hence all the attention he showers onto our son.

When I think about this whole experience, I can't help but smile. My son is a good boy. Of course I already know that, but it's nice to know that other people think so too. I also realized that my son has this whole world now that I am not a part of. My son is experiencing the world on his own and he is coping quite well. He is forging his own friendships, facing his own challenges and learning new things from other people.

I better get used to this, I guess because that world will get bigger and bigger as he grows up.