Yesterday was a tough one. I confiscated a girls phone after she was sitting down playing on it during PE and after she'd flatly told me, no, she would not stand up and do anything. I told her she could have it back after class if she participated but still she refused to. Not only did she refuse, but she got a bunch of her girlfriends to stop playing too and to follow me around with their hands out saying phone...phone...
Anyway, after class she was like, ok, I want it back now, and I told her no, that she hadn't participated, and that she could have it back the following morning. I went back to my office and about twenty minutes later a teacher and throng of 4-5 of these girls came in. The teacher said I needed to give her phone back. I explained the situation to the teacher as best I could (she speaks alright English) and she was like, ok, that makes sense, I will explain it to her, and they left.
About 10 minutes after that they come back with another teacher, and they are like, we understand where you are coming from, but this girl's parents are really rich and she has threatened to have them call the cops on you, so you definitely need to give it back. At first I was like, fine, call the cops, they will see how ridiculous this is! The teachers were like, you don't understand, in Thai culture they are going to do what the rich people want, plus they won't be able to understand you anyway.
I was so frustrated! I didn't want to let this little brat win! Natalie, thankfully, was like, Graham, why don't you just give it back, who cares, we won't be here much longer anyway. In the end me and the teachers and a guy who I think is like the vice principal made a deal that the home teacher would keep it overnight. They might have just told me that so I would feel better though, because after they sent the girl to talk to the home teacher, and I think to get her phone back right then. I don't know for sure, I didn't understand what anyone was saying!
The attitudes of some of these kids are ridiculous, and stories like this one make it so obvious why- because they get whatever they want! And these were my 4th graders!
It's so funny to be in a position where I am saying - kids these days..... on a common basis :) I think Natalie is hoping that this experience hasn't backfired and left me scarred and scared away from kids for life. I don't know, but I am definitly looking forward to some detox when we finish in a month! Then its only seventh graders and older if you want to hang out with me :)
Thanks for reading and have have a great day! The subtext is that everything is going well in general, and we had a great weekend with some of our local friends. Natalie is working on a post to that effect which should be hitting a desktop near you soon! Bye!
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