#85: The Odd Spark.

I have this one student in one of my classes, where when I first started teaching him 2.4yrs ago, he was the happiest kid in the world. Deliriously so. The kid exists in his own fantasy world and when I first took over the class, his quirks was just another feature of an already-quirky bunch of kids. His doodling style and his mannerisms made me wonder at times whether he's on a permanent acid trip... the kid is totally harmless, not a hurtful bone in his body. Just not quite in sync with the rest of the world.

The original class was a good balance of boys and girls, and the kids got on well with each other. They accepted each other. However as the evolving nature of classes in a cram-school tend to do - some students left, other students came in and gradually the dynamic changed.

The class now is the same size, but almost all boys, and almost all of them are good friends outside of school. It's become something of a boys club. This one kid I was talking about, he doesn't fit in. And by god don't the others make him feel it.

I absolutely will not tolerate vindictism in my classes. I've laid down thunder more times than I ever should have to do so with this class, and this one kid, he just takes it. As far as I'm concerned, he's the strongest kid in the world. So much more so than any of his classmates. He's already proved it more than a few times. But he doesn't help his own case when he's not in the present frame of mind 90% of the time.

So when twice a week you're in a class where 80% of your classmates take every opportunity to take a shot, and you only have one friend who will sit next to you (...mainly coz that particular kid's love of the teacher's approval outweighs his own annoyance of you). Then sooner or later something is gonna come to a point.

As the teacher I have to remain fair, as there is only so much that I'm able or allowed to do. After all we're talking about attempting to make 10yr old boys understand tolerance here, there's only so much reasoning you're able to do at their logic-level, both directly and indirectly.

Every week I've been watching this one kid retreat more and more into his own world. There's creating your own fantasy world, and then there's total rejection of reality. It's heartbreaking. It's also the makings of a sociopath.

As adults we're lucky in that we (usually) get to have the option to walk away when we find we're some place we don't belong. Classroom politics is tough coz you don't always have that option.

I really really hope his mother accepts our suggestion to move him into another, infinitely more accepting class.