Daddy Knows Best

Brian* is in 4th year. He is studying in a small private school somewhere in Bulacan and he was my student for the UP College Admission Test review.

He is a quiet boy of 16. In fact, he is very quiet that even when we ask him, he usually never answer, he just.. smile. So, I learned to paraphrase my question and instead of asking for the answer, I would ask him if he knew the answer. To this, his most frequent answer is ‘no.’

He doesn’t know that children is a plural noun because he doesn’t even know the difference between a singular and plural noun. He couldn’t identify the subject in the sentence much more the form of the verb that agrees with it. When I found out that he doesn’t know whether the word cake is a name word (noun) or an action word (verb) I made my decision, I have to talk to his father. There is no way Brian is going to pass the UPCAT. How he passed his 3rd year in school, I have no idea, especially when I learned that he was even worse in Math and Science.

As his father usually picks him up at the parking area of the mall, I asked our Officer-In-Charge to please formally invite him to come over the center. And he did.

I began by asking about Brian’s performance in school and after a long silence he admitted that Brian was really not doing well. He said when he asked Brian why he was getting such low grades, the boy said that his classmates were so noisy that he couldn’t understand the lessons.

I waited until he was done talking and so explained to him (sparing him some painful details like the ‘children’ and the ‘cake’) that Brian seems to be unfamiliar with the basic rules of grammar. I also told him that his son has limited English vocabulary that affects his reading comprehension skills. So, I recommended that he enroll Brian in a tutorial center though not necessarily in ours but maybe somewhere closer to their house, or they may hire a private tutor. I told him that it will be better to do it while it’s still the first quarter of the school and the lessons are still few. And that, it will  help Brian not only in school but also in his future college education.

Brian’s father listened carefully and appeared to have understood what I was trying to tell him. He said, he is going to discuss it with his wife and decide whether to enroll the boy in our center or hire a private tutor. He thanked me sincerely and bid us goodbye.

Brian took the UPCAT last Saturday. We may not hope he would pass, we still prayed that he would..

Teachers are second parents. Generally, they love their students like their own children. I wish I could do more to help Brian, and as I believe parents know best when it comes to their children, I know his father would do the right thing..

*not real name