I Will Throw You Out The Window, Not a Good Thing to Say, Isaan Thailand.

Well today something out of the ordinary happened; this morning was going as per usual at school. I arrived early and started organising my day and then I had a couple of parents wanting to speak to me.

In my primary class 1 class or 6 and 7 year olds, I have a handful of what Thais call Luk Krung or half foreigner, half Thai. One of their students had reported something that had made their father concerned.

In my class I had used these words to a student, “I will throw you out the window.” Now this does sound severe and something that would petrify a young learner but it was in no such way.

Anyway, the father raised his concern, and then we had a discussion about a certain student, I will call “A”. I directed these comments to A, as he is a handful and a half. The parents know this and that he is very disruptive.

“A” is a special student, he can read and do a lot of the activities in the classroom, but his writing is terrible and nearly impossible to read, his attention span is seconds and he never listens to instructions. He continually stands up and plays with anything in range of him.

I virtually have to remove everything from him before the class starts, as he plays with anything near him, he talks to himself out loud and also yells noises at times in the middle of activities.

I know his mother, have for 4 years and she was so concerned when he was in kindergarten they took him to a specialist to see if they could diagnose a problem such as ADD pr such I suppose.

She came in to see me not long after school started after she saw some of his scores for in class work, and also notes written in his workbook. She asked what she could do to help “A.”

I honestly told her I had no idea or could offer any advice on how “A” could be helped. I am not a specialist or have any experience in such cases. I cannot teach such students as there are special ways to teach them and I have no idea how to approach this.

Anyway, so “A” has a problem, not sure what, it could be immaturity or something else. But at times he does really get to you in the classroom. After telling him numerous times to sit down or taking him back to his seat as he is annoying other students, stop talking to himself or yelling out, playing with anything and everything, you do get short.

I have said to “A” a few times after so many warning in a class, “A sit down or I will throw you out the window.” Never with malice, but yes, I said it. To a 7 year old maybe this is not so good as they are young in mind and naive.

Anyway back to the father, so after raising his concerns and then giving me a small lecture or advice on what and how a teacher should conduct himself and speak, he asked that I apologise to the students as he thought I was way out of line. This I did in the class to make sure the students understood I was not serious about what I said to “A”

The parent was an educator for 10 years he told me in his country and he never lost it or said anything like this untoward his students. He did offer one bit of advice to me that I thought was completely oddball or way off kilter, he could read this blog and so be it, but to me this was weird.

He said to me, that no matter how angry or whatever you are you cannot show this in the classroom, so if you feel getting like this, take 10 seconds out and then this, “think what Jesus would do”

Now I have no fucking idea what Jesus would have done as I don’t read the bible and think religion is a load of shit. That is me personally and to any religious people reading this, it is my view. You continue worshipping your fable gods if this is what you are happy doing. I have no gripes with anyone following a religion, do so but don’t preach it onto me.

When he said this to me, I lost concentration as it was bouncing around in my head then. I was thinking what the hell he meant. I was then thinking if he was a bible kook or such but he seemed really nice, passionate and a concerned parent.

So can anyone offer me the answer to what Jesus would do in such a situation? Would he turn water into wine, part waters or such? He was a teacher, wasn’t he? Wasn’t he a carpenter as well?

The father also said some thing that didn’t add up to me. He made good points about teaching and how to conduct yourself but the suggestions on how to control “A” were not what I consider right.

He asked if we had a time out room or discipline room like we have back in our countries, I informed him we didn’t. Then make him sit on the floor, by him self outside and so forth.

I have had “A” totally isolated from other students and near as possible to me so in the hope of being able to control him or keep his focus, but no such luck. Sending him outside the room unsupervised for a few minutes is too dangerous as he could wander off and end up on the busy main road, now this would be terrible. But as the saying goes when kids annoy you, “go play on the road”.

Trying to see what makes “A” happy, what gets his attention and keeps him happy I haven’t found, yet. I have used colouring sheets, draw pictures, games and such to no avail.

The parent said to give him comic book and let him do whatever for the 50 minutes and then pass him onto the next teacher and let him be their problem. This I would love to do, but I want him to learn, I know he does learn and understand as he can do the work orally, read words and also identify flashcards.

So, what to do? No more threatening to throw him out the window, seriously or jokingly. This also means no other advice like, “take a long walk off a short pier”, “jump out of a plane without a parachute”, “play Russian roulette with a fully loaded gun” as “A” or the kids could take it to heart and literally.

I am open to criticism as I am not perfect and do make mistakes. I say things off the cuff and so forth but that is me. I am not Jesus and never want to be anything like what he is supposed to have been.

I am me, and stone me to death for this. I am sure there are readers out there who would like to. But I am not going to change myself. I will try and make sure off the cuff remarks are kept to myself and are just thoughts in my head and not actually said aloud. “Man I could give this kid a huge kick in their ass” or “if they speak once more when I am talking I am going to stick a dirty sock down their throat”

I will still get satisfaction from the thought, but will not have said anything and just have a dumb and amusing grin on my face in front of the kids.

Brunty