NOT EXACTLY A MORON, BUT

Min Kyung is not the devil. She is not to be confused with the evil Kelly in any way, shape, or form. However, I’m coming to the end of my rope with her. I’m very concerned and bothered as I have mentioned more than once, about the extreme low level of many of the students. Today I tried the finger test. “How many fingers am I holding up”? I do this to be sure that they know as little as they appear to know. Guess what? I have kids who can’t answer that.

I gave them work out of the workbook. I tell them to ask questions. I tell them that it’s stupid to not ask questions when they don’t understand. I get the odd question. I get a lot of kids who don’t do anything.

Obviously the level is low. I came into the teacher’s room and told Min Kyung about it again. I also told her that after summer vacation that any student who doesn’t have their textbook will not be allowed in class. They will be sitting in the hall because they are wasting my time and the classes time.

I tell her that I don’t blame the school. I say all school systems have problems and we have a problem. Here are her responses:
“I tell the kids to bring their books”.
“It’s almost vacation so it’s difficult”.
“Maybe you are expecting too much from the students”.

Of course I’m expecting too much. I want to expect more and settle for less instead of what they do here which is expect nothing and ignore the fact the kids know nothing. I’m fighting a losing battle. I’m starting to want to scream, “Fuck you, you stupid moron. I’m not teaching these kids. If you or anyone else doesn’t give a flying fuck about them, then neither will I. Goodbye and drop dead”. I haven’t stooped to that yet.

I’m tired of hearing how busy and tired she is. She has more excuses than Carter has pills. (I’ve always loved that line). It would have been so good to have a teacher to work with where I could have learned something. I’m floundering to a certain extent. I’m good for the average to better students and pretty much useless for the rest. I think I’m just going to have to accept it. I should ignore the underachievers and just work with the brighter ones. No one cares. I care, but I can’t do anything.

In the 2nd class I had today I would leave the classroom while they were fumbling through the worksheets. I went in the hall because there was a nice breeze so I would stand by the window. It was quite comfortable. After class a boy from another class came to the teacher’s room to see if I was all right. He saw me with my head down relaxing and he thought I was just fed up with the class I was with. I was quite touched at his concern. This is one fine young man. His English is excellent but that’s not why he’s a fine young man. It’s his kindness in inquiring as to how I feel. He’s also the boy who came to the teacher’s room on my first day here to welcome me. It’s kids like this that I can be a huge benefit for so it’s one of the reasons I’ll let the weak kids go and keep floundering. I’m not proud of it.

That may not be news, but it’s reality.