Boston

Boston (click to enlarge)

Dave teaches the Boston kindergarten class in the mornings. Today he was telling us about an email that he sent to friends back in Arizona telling them about the kids that he teaches. He sent me a copy of what he wrote about the kids. Some of his insights are hilarious, yet so very true.

There's Sally Kim, she is standing on the far right. I told the kids to look unhappy, and for the most part they did. But Sally always looks like that. She's the Korean kindergarten version of (the cartoon) Daria. Sometimes when we're doing something childish, something that kindergartners are suppose to do, she will turn to me and say, (very articulate) "this is really stupid and childish" just as serious as cancer. It cracks me up. She speaks 3 languages and says she is going to be a doctor. A doctor! That girl is gonna be president one day. She truly scares me.

Then we have Kenny (pictured front row far right). He's the only blue collar kid in the school and also the only kid in the school with a mullet. God blessed me when he put him in my class. He is funny. Now Kenny can't really speak a lick of English. He really shouldn't even be in my class which is accelerated. If asked him to say something like, "the dog jumped over the cat," it might come out of Kenny as, "d do dum d do d dat," but hey patience is a virtue right?

And then there is this other kid. John. This child is the bane of my existence. He is standing top row far left in the picture. Every day I have to yell at him for kissing some bewildered boy. It's also his voice and the fact that the poor kid has ADHD. I hear his voice before I get to the classroom. I hear his voice outside the school. I hear it in my sleep. His squeaky, fingernails on chalkboard, voice. There is even a desk in my classroom that is referred to as the John desk, which is isolated and used for punishment. This desk was instituted by the teacher before me. No kid wants to sit in it. I need only point at it to get silence. John was at his worst on Halloween. I think the mixture of candy and all the visual stimulation caused him to cease to be understandable even in Korean to the Koreans. He was just speeding a million miles an hour. His costume was this lacy, shiny, strange affair that left all the faculty completely perplexed as to what it was was supposed to be. But I guess to John it was just his way of being "fabulous".

All us foreign teachers make predictions for our kindergarten's futures. Dave made a good sum up of his class:

I will start with John top row and work my way to Kenny far right bottom row.

1. John: a woman!
2. Danny: a cop because he's always snitching on everybody.
3. Rupina: a house wife. Just one of those things I know in my gut.
4. Juliet: a disco bunny who will be wearing that school girl uniform or one like it until she's 40.
5. Byoung Joon: He's gonna be Korean! Why? Cause no one ever gave him a western name.
6. Sally Kim: She's gonna be God
7. Beckham: He's gonna grow into his enormous head. I hope. For his sake.
8. Jack: He'll be a lawyer. I just know these things.
9. Kenny: Kenny will work in a carnival by day, and be a psychopathic killer by night.

I had a good laugh, I hope you did too. Just a little insight on the kids that we teach everyday.