Small face, yellow hair

Those who know me well know that I have never been much of a "kid person". I've never seen myself as being all that good with them and a lot of the time they annoy me, so what on earth am I doing putting my hand up to spend a year teaching grade five and six children in a foreign country?? I have asked myself that many times but I have also been amazed by how many times the kids have made me smile and laugh this year. There really are some great kids here, and that's saying something coming from me!

The children here work INCREDIBLY hard. Too hard, in my opinion, and yet somehow they manage to always find a smile and a hello for me. Of course there are bad kids and good kids, trouble-makers and class clowns, just as there are in schools the world over but I have met some kids here who I will remember for a long time. They have their charms and their quirks and I must say they have a knack for paying me compliments. Now, I'm certainly not complaining about having children knock on my classroom door in the afternoon simply to tell me they think I'm beautiful and that they love me, but some of the compliments have been a little unusual....... One day when I was walking out of the school yard I heard my name being bellowed out across the oval. I stopped, turned and saw three of my grade six girls barreling towards me at full speed. They reached me as I was wondering what could be SO important and it turned out that what they just couldn't wait to say was, "Lucy teacher! We love you! You have a small face and yellow hair!" I thanked them and they scampered off, content that "Lucy teacher" now knew of their admiration of her "small face and yellow hair". I asked Ellie what the story behind the "small face" comment was the next day and she told me that a lot of Asian girls believe they have large faces and wish that they had smaller ones like western women. These days, when one of my students tells me they think I'm beautiful, I tell them that I think they are too. I tell them this because it's the truth and also because I find it sad that these girls are growing up permanently believing themselves to be inadequate because of their nationality.

I have gone from being somebody who doesn't really "get" kids to someone who feels happy when a student does well or even just manages to speak english when they've been struggling with it for weeks. Sure, they still get on my nerves at times but they also make me smile and laugh and that, is something I didn't know I had in me.

Well, that's all for tonight so until next time, take care and be happy.

Lucy