They Say the Darndest Things

They are my sunshine, as well as thunder storms. Students. I've only been in Korea for a little over 5 months, but have watched several of them transition from giggling kids,

to moody teens already!

Last week one of my girls hid her face and fought back tears for the entire class period. Normally outspoken and gregarious, her withdrawal was a dramatic change. But nothing eased or explained her pain. She escaped to hash out whatever was wrong with girlfriends immediately following class. Being the only girl in a classroom full of boys is no small impediment to her too. For this week's class she was back to normal and had a particularly great day beating the boys at nerf basketball during grammar review!

(These are photos of 1st graders playing the game. Rodin took to basketball immediately--see the smug, pleased face below).

She sang and danced happily around the room, somewhat like Tigger; and the boys looked from her to me, incredulously expecting me to mock her silliness as they, both trapped inside "cool mode," did. Nope. I love "Sandy's" craziness as much or more than "Joe's" dry humor, especially since Sandy loves everything I draw and expresses herself with zest! She's sunshine in my life, the bright, shimmering kind. These boys are sunshine too, only of the more diffused, subtle variety. I appreciate all kinds of weather, except cold gray days, which another middle school class emits regularly. Everyone seems to carry the same sleepy, blah attitude into the class with them--like yawning. Try teaching zombies in a speaking class... Maybe I'll take a photo of someone sleeping on their desk--not normally something I try to capture in a photo and getting a decent photo of a teenager isn't easy!! Most HATE the camera. But, no matter the temperature or mood of any particular student on any given day, I enjoy teaching English because I get to read what they write.

Much of it is hurried, shallow and/or unapologetic, regurgitated plagiarism. But some of it's insightful! On "Should Money be Saved or Spent," "Grace" writes (edited, but the ideas and phrasing are all hers): "Saving too much makes us misers and spending too much makes us beggars...money needs to be rotated, like water...we need [it] like we need water. Money should be saved, but [it] also needs to be used. If not, the economy would stop developing. Also, both saving and spending money makes us happy, so we should both save and spend appropriately for the most delight in life!" Female students in particular write about stress woes (unedited): "I get rid of my stress for play the piano or listen to music. But I'm sometimes cry. I get stress every day...I'm every day tired and angry...I want to be happy...but, sometimes I can't get rid of my stress..I'm ok," she adds, "because my mom sometime [helps] me." Then she asks me directly in the diary, knowing I'll read it to correct it, what she can do about relieving stress more effectively. I felt at a loss...I'm no pro at healthy stress release either! But then another student's insight saved me the trouble of answering on my own(edited slightly): "To get rid of my stress I sleep. It works great. When I get up, I'm okay. Also...I doodle. When I finish doodling, I forget why I was upset. So, I feel fine!!! I hit my doll [too]. It is my favorite way to get rid of my stress." WOW...withholding my source, I shared most of this, (omitting the hitting tip--although I believe in it!), and, "Also, I get rid of my stress by studying hard. Then, I'm very tired, but, I forget about angry things...I almost never get stressed."

There you have it. What a great collection of creative, intellectual, physical, and emotional stress relief advice, w/o one word of the healing powers of chocolate! I must study this further...