We've recently moved to a new village. Really lovely place, really nice people. We needed a Violin teacher for my DS who is in secondary school. His teacher lives too far away now and we were looking for somewhere that wasn't too far away.
How lucky we were to find a classical string instrument teacher a walking distance from home. I spoke to him over the phone and he sounded lovely. He is in his 50s and teaches lots of children in the area. He also plays the guitar and sings in the choir of the local church. We went to see him in his cottage-like home for an assessment and he took us into his small music room. It was gorgeous! Lovely instruments around, beautiful decor, very old style but really nice. One side had little figurines of angels and fairies, one wall had really old photos of what looked like old relatives from before the 1970s, he had a frame of old miniature trains etc.
I sat on the rocking chair he offered while he talked loads around planning the ABRSM grades and the different classical violinists. I'm not very musical but listened on. Then it was time for my DS to play so I sat back and listened while looking around. I looked towards my left and there was a cabinet with glass dolls and about 25 miniature Golliwog / Gollywog figurines. Now, I should probably say here that I'm black.
I froze from shock and just looked on and pretended not to see them. I'd never seen one in person before! When we finished, we made some follow up arrangements and left with a promise to get back in touch.
The man was so very lovely, seemed so kind and welcoming and encouraging that I don't know whether to be offended!
AIBU to ignore it and just keep taking DS for the lessons? He's the only one at the level we need in a 3mile radius.
What would you do in my shoes?