Life's Little Lessons

Today one of my classes learned a valuable lesson in life, modesty. I am talking about Leeds, my "smart class." They are smart but the problem is, is that they know they are smart. Here's how it all went down:
We were finishing our math lesson for the day and the bell had rung. It was 12:40, which is lunch time. I had the kids go wash their hands and get ready for lunch. As my class was going out to wash their hands, the class across the hall (Preston) was also going to wash their hands. Preston is also a 7-year-old class but not quite as advanced as my class. As my kids were making their way back to class, a few of them saw the book that Preston was studying. It is called English Time 3. Well my kids are learning English Time 4 and they thought they should let Preston know this information. One kid said, "You are only learning English Time 3. We are doing English Time 4! Preston is not as smart as us." (Or something to that effect.)

I did not hear any of this take place but the teacher in Preston did. She told me the story as we were sitting down for lunch. I was so mad! A few of the other teachers started laughing but I was really disappointed in my kids. I knew that as their new teacher and as the foreign teacher they may not take discipline from me as serious as they would from my partner teacher, who is Korean. So after lunch I told Sheena about the incident. She was as upset as I was about it and she said she would talk to them.

After school I couldn't wait to hear what she said to them. The first thing she said when I asked her how it went was, "they were all in tear!" She went into class and asked who had said that to Preston and of course at first they all denied it. Then one kid fessed up and then one more. She told them to stand up, pack up their stuff and go home. She said, "I don't teach people who act like that." She said by then they were all bawling and apologizing. One kid really did start packing up his stuff and was getting ready to leave!! She told them they don't act like that and they don't tease other kids. Then she had them go across the hall and apologize to Preston.

I felt a bit like a tattle tail but I knew this was a valuable lesson they needed to learn and I knew Sheena was much better suited for that situation than I was. They are smart, but they needed to learn that their intelligence is not be used to hurt others.