Rants, Raves and General Musings

I find it very interesting the various ways that I am greeted by my students in Szerencs. Here is a list of ways that I have been greeted so far this week:

1.) Hello!

2.) Szia! (hello)

3.) Goodbye! (used as hello by the confused)

4.) Chocolem (I will kiss your hand)

5.) Good morning, miss! (said at all times of the day)

6.) Guten morgan! (by the students taking German)

7.) Shut up, teacher, hello! (by the very confused kids at Beckes)

Some of the students run up and hug me around the waist. Others sneak up behind me and poke my sides. Some linger shyly at the outskirts of the group until I speak to them. Many bring me treats... bits of food or random crap that I think they have found on the street. 90% of them have a rote question that they ask every single time they see me. These questions vary by four: "What is your name?", "How old are you?", "What is your favorite animal?" and "Where is Reagan?"

Since I have hundreds of students I have made them pose holding a sign with their name on it so that I could take their picture and memorize their names at home.

Here is my rave for the day. I was quite impressed with the language skills of two of my eighth graders today. While pretending to not understand the assignment or a word I was saying, they forgot for a minute and started insulting each other in English. One boy called the other a peasant. The second responded with "f*ck you smelly pig"! The first, "You are a foolish boy!". The second, "You are crazy and stupid!" I walked to the back of the room and congratulated them on their vocabulary. I said, "You have now saved me from having to cover the English lesson on insults. You have it mastered. Now do your assignment."

On to my next class, which is one of my favorites, but also one of my naughtiest. This is my fifth grade class and they are a bunch of rowdy little boys. The girls are all very quiet, but the boys love to torment me in a good natured way. Today we talked about advertisements in magazines and I gave them the information they needed to make their own. One boy drew a stick man with a very large.... part. All the boys thought that was soooooo funny. So I asked him to bring the drawing up to me. Then the boy got kind of scared that I was going to get angry. He set the drawing in front of me and the other boys were giggling in anticipation. I looked at the picture. I looked at the boy. Then I grabbed my blue marker and drew a large pair of shorts over the bottom half of the man. Problem solved. They all thought that was great. They will not get the best of me!!!

Here is my rant for the day. Racism is an issue that I have always had a problem with. My friends and colleagues know better than to use racial slurs in my presence. I have worked with, gone to school with, been friends with and even dated various races. Ethnicity is a non-issue for me. So it is really hard for me to listen to the ranting in Szerencs about the gypsies. When my students found out that I had pizza with the gypsy children, they were all in an uproar about it, telling me that the gypsies were dirty and no good. The boys in my fifth grade then informed me that they are skin heads and they beat up the gypsies, sometimes with bats and sticks. What to do? I can try to share my thoughts and feelings on the topic, but between the language barrier and their own overwhelming hatred, it feels like a lost cause. I wonder if that is what the gypsy children feel like... a lost cause. Is this really the best it's going to be for them?