Soccer Part II-Making kids cry!

The Friday before the Korea/Uruguay game, our school had all the kids wear their Korea soccer gear to school. Then they bought face paint to paint the kids' faces, got them some props, a few soccer balls and some headbands, and took about a million pictures. It was a complete waste of time but the kids did look really cute! Many of my kids are huge soccer fans and play soccer themselves. One kid in particular, Ian, loves soccer! I mean he lives and breaths soccer! This World Cup is like his Christmas. The previous games I had worn my own Korea soccer shirts to work and I told all the kids I was cheering for Korea. I was sad when they lost in the first round, but we were all really excited Korea had made it to the second round.

As the day was winding down, I told my kids that if Korea won their game, and the USA won their game, they would play each other. Then I asked them who they thought I would cheer for if that happened. Of course they said Korea! It was then that I crushed little Ian's heart! I told them that IF it would happen that Korea and US would play each other, I would indeed cheer for the US. As I said this, the look on Ian's face went from shock to complete and total heartbreak! His head went down, and when I looked over at him again, he was crying! Now I'm not talking just a few tears, he was sobbing! It was as if his mom just died! I had torn out his heart and did a little dance on it! I went to console him and as I did, I was trying not to laugh. That may sound heartless, but the kid was crying because I would cheer for the US over Korea! It was a bit funny.

Just after that, the bell rang and we had to get ready to go home. As we got ready, Ian would not look at me! He was so mad! I got the rest of the class ready and I tried to tell him I would still cheer for Korea and that I still wanted Korea to win, but he would have none of it. As we were walking down the stairs he said, "Katie teacher is bad! I'm angry at teacher!" Even though that was a little harsh, I still thought it was funny!

As it turned out, both Korea and the US lost so we didn't have to deal with the two teams playing each other. By Monday he was over it and told me he was not longer mad at me. How precious!