Case Study: John 2

As I am preparing for my Doctorate of Clinical Psychology interview (yes, did I tell you that I made it to the interview round? I am so excited but nervous all the same!!); I began thinking of all the different types of people I encountered here in South Korea. Considering only the kids, I interact with a vast range of 9 year olds through to 17 year olds. Even within the same age group, we have some crazy kids, some super smart kids, some regular kids, and did I mention the crazy ones?

Today, we’re going to examine a case study of one of my students, John 2. It is his name, since there were two John’s in the class and neither was willing to change. There was a bit of a fight over who would be 1 and who would be 2 and in the end I settled it with a game of good old-fashioned rock, paper, scissors.

Okay.

Are you ready?

Picture in your head a chubby (but not fat) 11 year old boy who is super tanned by Korean standards. He has small eyes which curve upwards like an inverted U hiding behind emerald-green rectangular frames, with Harry Potter printed on the side. He sports a bowl cut with copper highlights which is usually sweaty and matted onto his forehead and neck. He often comes to class, or rather, bounces into the classroom, or runs into the classroom, or screams whilst running into the classroom, wearing a sleeveless bright orange tee and lime green Fila slippers. He is probably the most energetic 5th grader I have ever seen, let alone taught.

John 2 has a habit of calling me Tamie (pronounced Tayy-meeeee), because on the first day of class, he thought my J looked a lot like a T. Oh, and he often remarks that I’m from “Zombie-land” (pronounced juumbi-laen) because he thinks I look scary. He has a way of sneaking those comments in everything we do. Let’s make sentences! “Tayymee is from juuumbi-laen.” The best method I have found to calm him down is to say, or rather, shout, exasperatedly, “John TWO! Chair! NOWW!!! Minus 50 points!” And then he will clumsily but quickly clamber over all the desks and push all the squealing girls aside and plonk down on his chair with a heaving sigh and then look at me innocently, like he’s been sitting down all day long. Then he gives a little shrug and protests, “What? Me nooo~ I sit!”

You might think he is a horrible kid and I am always angered by him. Quite the opposite actually. Yes, there are times when he does pushes my limits, but more often than not, he amuses me. It is often that I will look at him, ready to punish him or tell him off, but then I see his face and I just can’t help but laugh. Something about this kid gets to me and I always let him off the hook. He is just so cute!

Am I a bad teacher? I seem to favour the bad kids way more than the good ones….. the naughty kids usually are funnier and just much more curious and amusing than the goody-goody ones. Maybe it’s just me, but I really don’t like kids who try too hard to please me. What is wrong with me?