The Rabid Chinese Kid

Not really much of a story hear... but the other day I was teaching a class in the small branch north of the river. I have taught this class a few times before.. but its been awhile. It is one of Lily's classes so of course like all her classes... they are far more violent then most other classes (kids constantly hitting and kicking each other).

For the most part the class was being pretty good this day.. I used some new games that work really well. There was one exception though... one kid that just could not stop hitting the people around him... and being kinda weird about it.... I didn't really think twice about it and just moved him to the seat closest to the door. Like ever kid, he of course wouldn't move. I did what I usually have to do and grab his arm and pull him over to the other chair, and he moved like most kids do.. but starts hitting my arm. He is a very tiny kid so I didn't really care he could hit me all day before I feel it, but its still odd for a kid to hit me. Granted I do have kids hit me occasionally but usually they are playing. In one of my songjiang classes a little 7 year old girl will slap my but occasionally if I walk past her desk... very strange kid.

So... this kid is hitting my arm and noticing that I don't care, then he decides he will dig his fingernails into my hand as I put him in the new seat. Now this should not happen, and of course the Chinese teacher is not there. So I tell him in the simplest English I can that if he hits me again he is out of the class. I continue teaching and every time I look over at him he makes a growling face and raises his hand and makes like clawing motions at me. With his size and actions he kinda reminds me of Gollum.

As I start the next game and am throwing a really big dice to a kid I catch a glimpse of my hand and it is totally bleeding.. .not badly bleeding... but still. I have already warned the kid.. and its been a few minutes since he did it.... and he isn't really disturbing the class, just kinda sitting there looking like Gollum... so I can't really throw him out at this point..... though I wanted to.

The class continues and he actually plays the games, but when he sits back down he starts hitting the kid next to him.. and scratching at him. So I just grab his desk and slide it a few feet away from the kid other kid.. so that he is isolated and in front of the open door (where some kids parent is standing watching the class). I continue teaching and the kid moves his chair back and continues assaulting the other kid... who for some reason is not fighting back at all! So I moved him again... this time he just jumps out of the chair and backs out the open door.... now standing in the hallway looking terrified almost like a cornered animal. He is out of my class.. thats good enough for me.. so I stick my head out the room and call down the hall for the Chinese teacher.......................................no response..........I call again.........still no response.... but this time the kid runs into a another classroom so I take a quick glance in there and he is hugging some older women that I don't know... so I assume its his mom.

At this point.. there's like 5 or 10 minutes left in class, so I finish up the class and then find the Chinese teacher and tell her about the kid. She tells me "Yes, he hurt me last week" and shows me the long scratches down her arm.... and says "He has head problem, its ok"......... um NO!

At this point Lydia finds us.. which is nice, Lydia's English is far better than Lily's and she is the head of the Super Kids teachers (this is a Super Kids class). We discuss the kid for a few minutes. Then I had to teach the teach another class.... which is Lydia's class.. and older class that is a good class. While I was teaching that class Lydia and the branch manager go to talk to the kids grandmother (the older women) and the kids mother.

After Lydia's class she tells me that the kid wants to apologize. So the grandmother drags him into the teachers office and is telling him over and over in Chinese to apologize. They finally get a sorry out of him as he is beating and clawing at his grandmother. I accept the apology and tell him to just be good in class, Lydia translates ( I don't let students or parents know I can speak Chinese). And the kid leaves still beating the grandmother.

This of course went to Simon the next day...(not by me but by the branch manager).. and they had a big superkids teachers meeting over it. And supposedly the Chinese teachers are actually going to stay in the classroom now (some do anyways). And one of the teachers told the other teachers i got "mauled" by the kid... that was pretty funny.. but really its just 3 small cuts on my hand that have mostly healed now. Though that kid did have some pretty dirty fingernails!

This kid obviously has some problems..... he is about 10 years old.. and smaller the most of the rest of the kids in the class... but not by much. There is a weird difference in how other kids react to this in China and America. From what I can remember, if kids figured out one kid had a problem in an American class.. that kid would be teased and beat up on and stuff. But here they let him freak out and beat on them... and sometimes look kinda worried about him... either that or they are watching him like some sort of freak show... "what will he do next?" kinda thing.

Its almost like a weird protection of the weak sometimes..... like when there is a new student, and I go to ask them a question, many of the other students will jump up telling me that student is new and try to convince me to not to ask them a question.... or just lean over and try to help them.

That was a much longer post than I had expected it to be.. and probably pretty boring..... hmm.... I guess I should add some random pictures at the bottom to make it interesting.