"I will kill you"

A few days ago, I gave my students a writing assignment to tell me where they would like to travel if they could go anywhere. Since then, I've been going around and talking with each student about their writings. It gives me a chance to chat with them one on one, which is something desperately needed in these overly huge, naughty classes. Anyway, as I was sitting there chatting with a girl about her writing, Owen, one of the more hyperactive, poor-English-speaking boys from the back of the class slipped in, grabbed something laying on her desk and said, jokingly, "I will kill you".

My first reaction was that he had just learned a new English phrase that he thought was funny. Then I realized the thing he had grabbed on her desk was actually a little razor blade sheathed in harmless looking plastic, and I was sitting there helpless. I honestly think he had no idea of the gravity of his "joke", and I really didn't feel threatened. But, being a truly serious offense that would at the very least get you kicked out of school anywhere in America, I quickly got very serious. I stood him up (we were already at the front of the classroom) and began explaining to him in no uncertain terms that you NEVER EVER DO THAT TO ANYONE. 

The first time I tried, he laughed - which of course made the rest of the class laugh too. The best way I've found to get through to these kids is to yell and wave your arms around. So I yelled and waved my arms around and said it was not funny at all and you never do that and it would get you kicked out of school in America. They listened. I glared. They probably didn't understand anything except that I was still mad. Several of the girls up front meekly whispered for him to say sorry, so with a half grin still on his face, he turned to me and said in a mocking tone, "I'm sorry teacher!", thinking that would fix things. The mockery of an apology put me over the edge so I made it clear I had had enough and instructed him to write his Chinese name on a piece of paper. Immediately, he became aware of his serious blunder. He stumbled over a plea for a 2nd chance 7 or 8 times before reluctantly writing his name. I showed it to two other students in the front to verify that what he had written was actually his name and then told him to go sit down.

I apologized to the class for the interruption and stated once again how serious it was to do something like that to anybody. I got back to talking with a few more students about their travel writings while keeping an eye on Owen. He just sat quietly at his desk with a very forlorn, worried look on his face, clearly thinking about what he had done and what would happen to him when it got back to the head teacher.

With a few minutes left of class, Owen's paper happened to appear at the top of the remaining stack, so I decided to have a chat with him and see how he was doing. As I approached his desk I saw that he had 2 pieces of paper. One looked like scrap paper where he had practiced writing several forms of an apology and a few other phrases that he could come up with that might get him back into my good graces. The other looked like his good copy. He had titled it at the top with "Guarantee:" and it had maybe 2 sentences saying how sorry he was and how he would be a good student and always try to learn in my class. I wish I had kept it. I actually felt sorry for him, and realized that I had a chance to gain a foothold with a hopeless student, and possibly even an ally in the dreaded, always naughty, boy-filled back of the classroom. I agreed to forgive him and give him another chance if he promised to be good the rest of the year. I also wanted to keep my leverage so I made sure he understood that our secret would get out if he didn't keep his end of the bargain up, and one last time explained the seriousness of it all. So far, it has worked. He is actually a fun kid, and he has been happy to see me since, and good in class.

You might think me crazy to keep something like that from administration, but in our experience so far, nothing ever happens to these kids no matter how bad they are, save a verbal scolding from a stern man. Most of the time, when we tell our English translator about a very disrespectful student, he just laughs and says that the kid is spoiled and to not worry about it. So I figured since he didn't really know what he was doing, I'd rather try gaining a good student than muddling through the fruitless mess that is getting anyone else involved.

All in a day's work!