It had come to my attention that after one semester of teaching that I was no longer a teacher. I was a councilor, a keeper of secrets, a clown, a pleading being, a giant pair of ears, a social worker, a housing advocate, a cultural Dr. Phil, Oprah (but without the money and the fame), a storyteller, a perplexed Bostonian trying to explain our bizarre behavior, and an eternal optimist.
After Valetudinarian changed his name to Miles, it became quite clear that he was....unusual.
He was rather odd, showing up to class very early, sitting at attention, looking straight ahead, as if there were some mind altering abyss to peer into. He was very formal, always greeting me and always looking off into the distance.
Our second week had started and true to form, I had the students grouped and engaged in work that they would present at the end of class. Miles would sit on the outside and peer into the group he was suppose to be involved in. When asked to join in, he stood up and starting yelling in Chinese at the girl who merely asked for his participation. Immediately, my student who had been shouted at, got up, screamed at him and bolted into the restroom.
I just stood there. What the *#! just happened? No teaching seminar, no amount of graduate training can prepare you for this. I gave the class the mandate to carry on and told Miles to sit down and keep his trap shut! I raced out the door to find my student in the girls room crying her heart out. She interpreted his remarks and now I understood why she reacted in such an explosive manner. He had told her that she was stupid, silly and had no business telling him what to do. I was stunned. So, I grabbed the verbal bull by the horn and talked her into coming back to class. I would deal with Miles! Her eyes glistened at the thought of Miles getting his! Oh, did I mention that I had to be a psychologist as well?
She believed me, she calmed down, she followed me back to class. She opened the door and raced back to her group. I asked to see Miles out in the hallway. You could hear the crickets, I swear to god! I took him in another room and ripped into him. He tried to stick up for himself, but thanks to my inablity to tolerate injustice, I shut him down.
I went back to the office that day stunned that this kind of behavior could take place in MY classroom! After I dragged myself into the office and threw myself down into the chair, I spilled my guts to my colleague. Ah, colleagues! What would the world be without them! She had more experience with Asian culture than I did. After she heard about the incident, she filled me in on the very real world of intimidation, bullying and harrassment within this culture and told me that I was in for more of this, as many of my students felt it was perfectly fine to behave in this fashion while in class. Huh? Why did they feel this kind of behavior was acceptable? The answer was simple.
There is a line in a classroom and most American students know not to cross it. What I was experiencing was a lineless classroom. These students did not know where the line was! A friendly, warm, smiling teacher meant that you can do and say anything without any kind of repercussions!
Looking back on this, this was the day I developed my Jean Claude Van Dam teaching persona!
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