Childlike Enjoyment

(photo taken from http://www.bigphoto.com)

I am the youngest daughter in my family and am the apple in my parents’ eyes ever since I was a kid. My parents’ love was like the sun that shone, throughout my journey of life. I used to be a joyful girl and enjoyed companionship from my little playmates and my elder brother in my childhood.

However, when I started to accept formal education in school, my mind was preoccupied by the ‘vision’ like getting the highest mark in class and my daily duties were attending tuition classes and made revisions or did additional exercises at home. Since I enrolled in elementary school, I lost all the childlike enjoyment. I couldn’t have games with my friends or explored the little garden in front of my house during my leisure time anymore. I had to study and made sure I scored 100% in every subject. The stress tripled as the years rolling on. I tried to live up to the expectation of my parents. The childish laughter, which was supposed to be mine, lost its track. I forgot the way a child should be. My lost childhood was stored somewhere else and I couldn’t retrieve it.

After my graduation, due to my further plan in life, I took up the job of a tutor in one leading tuition centre in my hometown for two months. (Ya, I have just resigned last month: P). I was in-charged of primary students, who are 9 and 12. I couldn’t bring up myself to love the job as the workload was incredibly heavy and those standard six kids were truly a bunch of rebellion-spoilt brats! It will never be a great experience to work with adolescents, who couldn’t even fathom the meaning of ‘respect’. Though, later on, I realised that it’s always better to treat them as your friends rather than giving out orders like a commander. Well, adolescence is a painful phase, I understand. Anyway, if I were given a chance to choose, I prefer to work with younger kids. :P hehe.

Like what I have mentioned above, I was in-charged of several 9-years-old students, too. I had a great time with them, they enriched my life and I gained a lot of inspiration from these lovely kids. I was lucky as out of my ten standard three students, five of them are diligent and obedient. Two of them are a bit slower in learning but they are well mannered and I enjoyed teaching them. Another two of them are talkative and playful but they are clever and would show me respect when I ordered them to so something. Er… the last one, JJ, was truly a hard nut to crack. Every tutor there would feel a pain on her neck when JJ is put into her class.

JJ attended my afternoon class. After having him in class for once, I could fully understand the reason for teachers to hate him. I myself hated him a lot at first and wished that he would never appear in my class. He likes making wave in class and enjoys becoming the clown of the class.

The things he did to make my blood boiled:

@He would never complete the extra exercises I gave.
@He would never concentrate in learning his spelling or dictation.
@He took three hours to finish his homework, which were actually three pages of vocabulary writing.
@His handwriting was like sh*t, which made me felt like shredding his exercise books.
@He is a REALLY fat boy and he smelt like a skunk due to his vest damp with sweat.
@He would talk back to you like nobody and complained for the corrections you asked him to make.
@He would talk and joke with pupils around him for hours, treating your scolds as nothing.
@He would run around the class and borrowed eraser, pencil, colour pencils, sharpener, textbooks, and some other tiny little things with his friends as if he came to class with empty hands.
@When he was punished, he would never learn a lesson and straight away making funny faces to make everyone laugh.
@He held the class’s dustbin in embrace for hours, refusing to let others using it.
@He loved mocking his friends and caused a lot of conflicts in class.
@He brought a tin of potato chips and spread them all over the table before eating them.
@He brought his frozen mineral water and continuously disturbed my class by squeezing the bottle.
@When you called out his name in front, he would never answer you.
@When he was forced to do some exercises, he would simply do then until he gained a ‘0’ mark.
@He seldom passes his subjects in school.
@He couldn’t walk properly and prefer to jump or crawl on the floor, which sometimes gave me a feeling that Malaysia was facing some kind of natural disaster like ‘earthquake’.

As a devoted and loving teacher, I tried to advise and talk to him nicely at first but all my kindness was in vain. As a normal human being, I know that kid-glove methods haven’t work; it’s time to get tough. So, I punished him, yelled at him and scolded him intently like a termagant until I got sore throat and couldn’t speak. Then, I chose to give up. My strategy was separating him from the rest of the students, leaving him making noises alone behind the corner of the class. Meanwhile, deep inside my heart I prayed for him to transfer from my class.

Things went on this way until that magical Saturday. I was having additional class with my students and JJ was definitely one of them. As usual, he was playing and chatting with himself behind the class while I was teaching in front. Suddenly, a girl in class fell of the plastic chair, as it wasn’t in good shape. All of the other students laughed at her. Surprisingly, JJ ran to the other corner and took her a new chair. I was puzzled for this chubby kid’s kind heart. Since then, I told myself that I have to judge him from another angle. He has his unique points that should be praised!

The next day, he continued showing his mischievousness in class, interrupting others. But, he completed his homework and spelling learning in time. I checked on his little *report book. (* Tutors in that tuition centre are required to report on the students’ attitude in class everyday. Those who done well would be given credits like 20, 30 or 50 in order for them to change some cute souvenirs. Their parents have to sign under the report in a daily basis, too.) I realised that he never received any credits before. The worst of all, none of those comments was good.

I gave him 50 credits that day besides praising his speed in doing homework and the concentration he gave in class. The next day, JJ underwent a total transformation. He completed his homework in great speed and did all extra exercises without grumbling. Besides, he was quiet and would seek help from some friends when he had problems in exercises. He talked to me in a very good manner and grabbed every minute to learn spelling and had revisions. He even skipped his 15 minutes recess time in order to do more revisions. He turned into a model student and I was scared of his demonic learning spirit! It came too fast and out of everyone’s expectation!

He wasn’t having fever. He was just encouraged by me, to become a better kid. Yes, we have to praise our kids, in whatever way he deserves. Never stereotype him or her into any kind of category, our generalization can destroy theirs future.

Try to judge things from a different perspective. Every young soul has its tendency to become successful and kids are playful, it's in their blood. You and I was the same, too! They just need a person to guide, lead and nurture them with an appropriate method.

I have resigned, and I am not sure if JJ still remains his diligence. In fact, I am worry about him and I wish that he could have a better teacher to accompany him, in his voyage of learning to be himself, to be a responsible student. I pray for him…