Is the story of King David and Bat Sheva appropriate for gan

chanchy123

Mon, Mar 08 2010, 12:43 pm

My kids (3 and almost five) came home from gan today with a project they made of כבשת הרש, which caught my attention. I asked DD (almost five) what a רש was and she knew it was a poor man, I started asking her more questions to see if the teacher also told them the story of King David or just the story about the sheep. In the begining DD said something about King David taking a poor man's sheep but with the right questions she remembered (on her own accord) that King David sent a man to be killed in battle because he wanted to marry his wife. We made sure to reiterate the story of his teshuva, and she obviously learned that as well.
We are unhappy with this teacher. She has the gan twice a week and from what we can tell she cannot control the kids, the aid is the one who actually controls what goes on in gan, and I know the teacher doesn't keep to schedule. Once I happened to come in at eleven am and they were still davening and didn't even sit down to eat their snack until 11:15 when they are supposed to eat at ten!
But I know this happens on many occasions with this specific teacher and never with the main teacher who is there the other four days of the week.
Am I overreacting by thinking this is innapropriate for 3-6 year-olds? Is it enough to complain about to the main teacher, while there are so many other things bothering me with her.

Any input would be welcome.

louche

Mon, Mar 08 2010, 1:15 pm

Why are you clouding the waters with comments about the teacher's competence or lack thereof? That has nothing to do with the question of whether or not the topic is approapriate for the audience.

I would love to say "it's Torah and nothing in Torah can possibly be inappropriate," but that would be dishonest and silly. There are things a child doesn't need to know and shouldn't know till he's reached a certain level of maturity and understanding. IMO this is certainly not appropriate for gan...although there are those who would argue that the story of Kayin and Hevel is also not appropriate. Discussing fratricide? in kindergarten?

There are less controversial examples of teshuvah in Tanach...like the people of Nineveh.

chanchy123

Mon, Mar 08 2010, 1:29 pm

Basically, we are very unhappy with many other aspects of this teacher and think she's not the world's most intelligent person. I'm wondering how much is it worth my while to make a stink about this or even mention it to her. Also, I was thinking that maybe my preconceptions of her might be clouding my judgment about her choice of story telling.
The story was chosen, I assume because they are learning about David Hamelech as their chosen topic once a week. I guess they ran out of David stories.

Tefila

Wed, Apr 07 2010, 1:26 pm

B'h
Ok here is my 2 cents from both a teacher and a parents perspective

1. Whilst I do agree that there are so many age appropiate storys to tell a child of this age and whilst personally I would not choose this to relate to a child of 3-6 on the other hand, it is from the Tanach which is Torah, so to fault the teacher on this, I would not.

2. As far as the snack time is concerned yes I do feel too 11:15 is late.

3. As a parent I ask myself sometimes , in general is my child happy and progressing or do I feel that a particular teacher is a detriment to my childs education and wellbeing?!

If it's not the latter then leave it alone, imho