I don't know if this job has made me heartless or if I'm just desensitized to it, but now I'll continue on with a lesson no matter how intense a kid is crying, or how many of them are crying. I had a class last week where four kids got into a fight before the class started, and each spent the majority of it in some stage of the weeping process. I couldn't have cared less.
Part of the reason for the lack of compassion I've developed has to do with the fact that Korean boys cry all the 'effin time. They have no shame about it. When I was in school, the last thing I wanted was for other students to see me crying, and I remember the derision kids would face if they were seen crying. Yet here there's not even a moments hesitation for these kids to completely lose their shit.
There are two main offenders that I teach now who have really pushed me over the ledge into apathy. This one kid, "Victor", is about 9 or 10. He gets his fair share of shit from the other kids, but that's just because he sucks. Alright, that's a bit harsh, but the kid really needs to toughen up. For the first month or so I taught him he cried all the time, any time another student said anything about him (he once broke down because another student alerted me that Victor wasn't reading in unison with the rest of the class), and I would kinda get on the other kids for causing it, even though it pissed me off that the kid was such an easy crier. Now I don't even acknowledge it anymore, I just share an incredulous look with the other students and leave Victor alone to pick up the pieces of his shattered, awful life.
The other kids is "Matthew". Matthew is a bit younger, 7 maybe, so I've been a lot more patient with him and just recently exhausted my compassion reserves in regard to him. Matthew's problem is that he's the most panicky kid I've ever had. He's at a low level and so he doesn't really know what's going on. The second he senses that he doesn't quite know what's going on, fuckin' hurricane Matthew shows up. The kid starts wailing and kicking his desk like a maniac. For example, at this early level their spelling consists of me saying the letters name and sound, while they write down the letter on their test paper. Here's how spelling tests went in Matthew's class for about the first month:
Me: A, Ah. A, Ah.
Matthew: BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!
The spelling test eruptions have cooled off for the most part, however there's still another solid opportunity for Matthew to lose it. At the end of class, I write down their homework on the board. It consists of what pages to read in their book, and what tracks to listen to on their CD. It's pretty much the same everyday, yet once I start writing it down and the other students start scribbling away, Matthew starts looking around, and then he goes nuts again. It always ends the same way, with me writing his homework down for him, explaining that I'm just writing down what's on the board.
The most frustrating part about Matthew is that his slightly older sister is in the same class as him, and sits next to him. Even though she's there too, explaining everything and trying to keep him together, he's still a huge pansy. It drives me insane.
So yeah, I've kinda given up on dealing with it. I just let it run its course, and leave it to the mandatory army service to straighten them out.
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