One broken child.

You've heard the story about how I have inspired a child, now it's time to hear the story about the child that I broke. Let me set the scene. This was back in October, I had agreed to cover a friends class for them. The night before the cover class there was a big Halloween party. It was a typical night on Bui Vien, ending with a 5am swim and a bedtime of around 11am. Heading into work I was still feeling the effects of the night before. As if teaching with a throbbing headache isnt usually bad enough, try teaching 17 devil spawns. These were some of the worst kids I have taught. They were loud, easily distracted and frankly uncontrollable. The two hour lesson seemed to absolutely drag. I spent the majority of the lesson just trying to get them to stop talking. To top it all of the air conditioner in the classroom wasnt working so I was sweating via every inch of skin on my body, my eyes were dry and throbbing at the same time and it sounded like a jar full if rocks were being shaken around in my head. At one point I couldnt tell if I was sweating through my eyes or if I was actually crying. I had to act fast, I was losing them and there was still an hour if class left. During the break I went to the roof for sonlme fresh air, looking over the edge I thought about it, decided not today satan and came up with my plan. Heading to the staff room I did what every teacher has done in order to get five minutes of peace.. I made a word search. Now I knew a regular word search wouldn't be enough to give me a decent break so I was a little cruel... I gave them a list of fifteen words to find.. but only included fourteen in the grid. It brought me the time I needed as they would never be able to find all the words. Evil I know but I was ill. My plan was working. The little degenerates were all sitting quietly at their desks trying to finish the impossible word search. I had done it. 5 minutes till the end of class and they were still quiet! I just had to hang on for 5 more minutes and I was home free. I could almost hear the panadol popping out of their little plastic container! That's when the classroom door swung open, a child stuck his head in, screamed into the room and quickly left. I snapped. Every last inch of my body was trying so hard to hold onto my sanity and at that exact moment the flood gates were opened and I saw red. I jumped up from my seat at the desk and bounded into the hallway to find the mystery screamer. Rounding the corner I saw the culprit bouncing away. "Stop" I yelled. The petrified boy did exactly that and turned a cool 180 degrees to face me. "Come here" I said as sternly as I could. His head down he approached me. "What is your name?" I barked. No answer. "What. Is. Your. Name." I repeated slowly and clearly. "D..d.. Dinosaur" he muttered back. Still not looking up from his tiny spiderman shoes. "Who is your teacher??" I responded. My initial plan was to ask the teacher to give him a bit of extra homework or something. Until he responded.. "You are my teacher now" he said with the clarity of a hi-def speaker, and he bowed. The little sucker bowed. I couldnt hold in my laughter. "Go" I managed to mutter before I completly lost it. Returning to class I said goodbye to best contraceptive incentive I have ever seen and headed to the staff room to put away the supplies. I still see poor dinosaur around from time to time and he is still unable to look me in the eye. He looks at his feet, bows and still calls me his teacher. The fact that I was able to break a child with one question and a look gives me absolute confidence in my future parenting abilities but also explains why I cant keep a man! Oh well! Until next time, stay in your bubble, wash your hands and stop coughing on people! What is wrong with ya'll??