Learning From My Students

I am pretty sure I will finish my contract this summer and leave my current employer. It's a pretty big English school for kids, so big that most of my work feels like babysitting. One of my more memorable and of course, more problematic classes is a group of kids around eleven to thirteen years. Two girls and six boys, all of whom at best, will only say whatever I ask them to say, which is to say, there are probably a number various things they find more interesting than practicing English.

One boy named Hirotaka is your typical I-want-to-grow-up-now kid. I have to be careful not to present anything too “kiddie” or expect that he won't really take it seriously. He has a good head on his shoulders but spends most of his time trying to impress the people around him with extra English that he finds provocative, like “gay” or “sex”. Half of the other kids probably don't really get his outbursts, but I think that's half the reason why it's fun for him. Though he can be a problem at times, I quite enjoy teaching him extra English because at least he knows what he likes or wants. The more hopeless case in that class is another boy who basically ostracizes himself in order to not practice any English at all. He won't join class no matter what I try and it is likely that his family pressured him strongly in the first place. I feel the worst for Hodaka, but unfortunately I'm in no position to appropriately exert any sort of influence on the student body.

But what prompted me to write a little today about this particular class are the two girls I have, Yuna and Haruka. They are always quiet and docile, doing what I ask but never really quite exerting themselves. I asked them tonight what they'd like to do when they grew up, and most of the boys responded with comments like “pro soccer player”, “swimmer”, “race car driver”... but the girls and only the girls gave me a resounding yet unspecific “I want to work.”

Both of them in fact, and both of them couldn't say where specifically they wanted to work, just that they wanted to work. It really gave me a strong perspective on how strongly parents can influence their children, how society can, how ideas can cage us as much they can set us free.