Today, I walked into my second grade phonics class
and found a kid, Alex, sobbing uncontrollably. Why was Alex sobbing? He had
just been hit in the face with a pair of nunchucks. Yes, you read that right:
Alex got nunchucked – in the face – at his English academy.
When I found Alex, he was sobbing too much to speak
to me. So, I had no idea why he was crying. I asked the other kids but, no one would
even look at me, let alone answer me. So, I took Alex to the office staff to
see if they could figure out what was wrong with him. Since he’s young, he
tends to lose his ability to speak English when he’s upset.
Back in the classroom, the remaining students and I
started our lesson. Once again, no one would own up to knowing why Alex was so
upset. Then, an administrator came and called two students out. When one
student, Daniel, got up wearing his hapkido uniform with a pair of nunchucks on
his belt, I knew.
Apparently, Daniel had come straight from hapkido
class and didn’t drop off his stuff at home. So, he had the nunchucks with him.
Also, it seems that Daniel’s hapkido academy is run by idiots. Instead of
giving Daniel rubber foam nunchucks for children studying martial arts, they
gave him a pair of real, metal nunchucks.
It turns that the other boys in the room had been
playing with the nunchucks before class and Alex got hit by one kid who was
wildly flailing his arm with the nunchucks in his hand. It’s not exactly a surprise
that children and weapons turned out to be a bad combination.
Later, Alex came back to class but, he was still
whimpering and clutching his face. He ended up leaving to go to the doctor to
get checked out. At the end of the day, I asked the office staff if Alex was
ok. They said he was fine, just in pain. It had to be a pretty dramatic day for
a kid too. So, some of his tears were probably from the shock of being
nunchucked in English class.
So, it looks like I’m going to have to start patting
down my students before the come to class. Who knew that teaching middle and upper
middle class Korean kids could be so dangerous?
It's a good thing no one had a sword.
ReplyDeleteBut Luiz, imagine how wonderful it would be to watch Koreans sword fighting!!!
ReplyDeleteJen--I'm so glad you're back up and writing on this blog. I feel incredibly sorry for Alex--can't imagine what that feels like...
You laugh but, I might get a sword in class. According to Wikipedia, hapkido uses a variety of weapons. So, who knows what might happen next.
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