Death's Door

Kids are brilliant. Really, nearly every day someone says something that older people should listen to. In one class we were studying superlatives and I was asking them about their classmates: Who's the tallest? Who's the smartest? Who's the richest? About the only student willing to admit to being the richest was Blake, who waved his hands wildly in the air and proclaimed to everyone, "I'm the richest! I'm very very very rich!" Charlie responded, "I am no rich but (pause as he thought) happy happy happy!" He said it very enthusiastically, as if he didn't care at all about money because he was so happy.

In one class they messed up one of the idioms we were studying. Instead of "I smell a rat," one boy said "I have a rat," while another said, "I smell a mouse." I emphasized that the expression doesn't have the same meaning if they use the other phrases.

In my first class of the day (2nd graders) Ricky persisted in leaving his seat and giggling insanely at every opportunity, so I put him in the corner. He continued to distract the other students there, so I sent him to the hall. I hesitantly grabbed a child-sized chair and had him hold it above his head--yes, he's young and small, but he would have continued the craziness in the hall had I not done something harsher than usual. With the older and bigger students I stick them outside and often forget about them for 10, 20, even 30 minutes . . . oops. But with Ricky I kept a careful watch out the window in the door to make sure he didn't get too fatigued, and a careful watch on the time, too. After about 3~4 minutes I brought him back into class. He was sweating and rubbed his arms like they were tired. He listened a little better for the rest of class. I told them that starting next week Matt would be their teacher, so they had lots of questions about for how long and why and such. Billy said that he wanted to change classes, too!

In Mona's talkative 5 o'clock class Laura was late. Her teacher had kept the entire class (about 40 students) after school because a few students were playing Go-Stop during the lunch break. Go-Stop is a card game that adults frequently play, with gambling usually involved. It's the Korean equivalent of Poker, although from what I've heard a lot more complicated. The students in Laura's class weren't gambling, only playing. However, parents and teachers don't want the kids to play it at all. Why not? Luby and her friends were playing it at one of their houses but when they heard the mother coming home they quickly hid the game and started doing something else. What's so wrong about teenagers playing a game that their parents play all the time? It's not like smoking or drinking or something that's harmful. They're not neglecting their studies. Sally said she doesn't understand it; neither do I.

In that class today I also got asked one of those "did the student really just ask that" questions. This one was worse than the others because I wasn't sure if I needed to take any action on it or not. Luby asked if I ever thought about what it would be like to die. Do you mean what it's like after death or the actual moment that I die? "The moment that you die." No, not really, I like to think about happy things. Why? Do you think about that? Some of her school classmates were discussing what it would be like to die, and some of them wanted to experience death. Luby said that her classmates knew how to bring themselves to death's door (an idiom we had studied). I told her that maybe she needed to get some new friends because that sounded pretty dangerous. The whole topic was really weird.

In the USA as a teacher I would probably be expected to make a huge deal out of it and contact I don't know who. But here, what is standard? If I told Mona she would dismiss it as nothing; it's not like I can contact the school and tell them that some of their students are dangerously stupid. No one's in immediate mortal danger. Or am I just trying to rationalize my inaction? Luby didn't sound particularly worried, just curious as to my opinion.

So many situations show the culture difference: a student drawing a picture of himself killing Tanya--no problem, it's just a joke. Students bringing toy guns to class or using small knives to sharpen pencils--normal. People asking each other, "Do you want to die?" isn't a real threat, just an expression. Me hitting a kid on the back of the head with a paperback book--fine, I'm the teacher with the authority to do that to bring the kid out of whatever dream land he might be in. One of the students today told me about a teacher who was fired for beating a kid so badly that he had to go to the hospital (middle school or high school, the kid didn't know many details). The punishment: the teacher was fired, that's it. It's a different country with a different culture. I can only hope that Luby's friends were hypothetically discussing things.

Mr. Kim didn't come in all day, so I couldn't give him the info about paying for the plane ticket. If he's not in early on Monday then I suppose I'll give the account number for the wire transfer to Joelle and ask her to pass it on to him. But I do really need to talk to him about end-of-contract things. Lately anytime he's been at school he's been busy on the phone or with a parent. Do I need to make an appointment?!