One of my favorite students, a gregarious trouble-maker who calls himself "The Rock" after WWE Wrestler and wannabe actor Dwayne Johnson, has learned a lovely new phrase in English. "F*** You." Fantastic.
Indubitably with the best of intentions, as knowledge should always be shared, he saw fit to teach this phrase a good portion of the class.
"The Rock" sits on one side of the classroom and his best friend sits on the other; I'm confident their homeroom teacher separated them for a reason, but that's neither here nor there…
Today we played a game with teams. With the class divided into two teams this threw the Rock and his buddy into a spirited rivalry both for my attention and to win the game. Competition naturally brings out the best in people.
This is how I came to have a class of 7th graders playfully yelling "F*** You" at each other when the other team scored a point or seemed to have any sort of advantage. Charming.
But that's not all. Not all of the students were privy to this new information. During my shocked moment of hesitation as I desperately tried to think of a way to get teenaged boys to stop practicing their new vocabulary, (while simultaneously thinking, "At least they're speaking English?"), a shy girl in the front asks,
"What means f*** you?"
"Ummm…. that is a very bad word. You really shouldn't say that. It's very naughty."
I don't think I was all that convincing through my suppressed laughter. Clearly I'm not much of a disciplinarian… I probably need to work on that.
:) it's always funny to hear kid say things with such conviction when they don't know what the heck it means. One of my daycare kids said one day, "the babies are crab asses today." :) Not sure where she heard that from, but at least she hit the meaning dead on :)
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