‘There was hairdresser played in class’
Image: Getty Images
A teacher tells Kek Mama what she is experiencing. This time: Miss Elsbeth (64) teaches group 1-2.
After lunch I am waiting for my toddlers. I doze off a bit. I do that more often these days. Luckily I’m retiring after this year. I look forward to being free.
Caper
When the kids start streaming in, I’m wide awake right away. Six of them have a new, strange hairstyle, consisting of tufts of hair and bald spots. They look like ostriches. Geertje (5) walks behind them, with a pair of scissors. “I cut them, teacher,” she says proudly. “Nice huh.”
“’I cut them, teacher,’ she says proudly. ‘Nice huh'”
The ostriches also look radiant. They are five girls and a boy, Steef. He had beautiful black curls. Only a few of these are still visible. The five girls, blond Taat and Noa and Yoena, and the brunettes Viek and Aafke, still had long hair this morning. That now hangs in some pathetic tufts on their heads. I can’t say a word for a moment. In 40 years of teaching, I’ve never seen anything quite like this.
I feel a thunderous giggle coming up, which I suppress with difficulty. On the other hand, I am concerned. What will the parents say about this? And how did Geertje get those scissors? “Took it from the craft corner, teacher,” she says. “When playtime began.”
The craft corner
“Where did you do this?” I ask. “In a corner of the hallway near the coats.” “Didn’t the lunchtime teacher see you?” I ask. “No,” Geertje says happily. She clearly doesn’t see the problem. I am thinking. Can I charge myself for this? When Geertje took those scissors, I was sitting in the teacher’s lounge. And scissors are in every craft corner of the entire school. Either way, the school is responsible.
“You are only allowed to take a pair of scissors from the craft corner when we are crafting in class. I am a little angry now, but if you do it again I will be very angry”, I say.
Geertje and her customers look stunned. Miss angry? They never experienced that as toddlers.
Read also – The teacher called: ‘Don’t be alarmed if you come to pick up Amber (7) from the out-of-school care’ >
Trim
After school, the mothers of the cut girls do not see the humor in the incident. They apparently cultivated their daughters’ long hair with care. Laura, Steef’s mother, has not been involved in that. That’s why he gets the giggles. “It’s just her, isn’t it,” she splutters. Nancy, Tom’s mother, who is a hairdresser, is the savior. She offers to trim the ostriches the next day.
I’m overjoyed. “The school pays,” I say. “I do it for free,” she says with a laugh. I will immediately send an email to the parents of the seven children with this message, with apologies from the school. To my relief, no one sends an angry email back. The parents apparently realize that you cannot blame a five-year-old for this.
“I will immediately send an email to the parents of the children, with apologies from the school”
The next day, Nancy cuts the children’s hair. They now look like little hipsters, with their short heads. But I know one thing: in group 4 the girls will all have longer hair than before their visit to ‘Geertjes Kapsalon’. Their mothers take care of that. Steef will have his black curls back sooner. And I? I realize that my preschoolers surprise me every day. And suddenly I don’t like retiring so much anymore.
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