I had to yell at and punish some of the good kids today. I always hate doing that. I was a good kid in school, and I never liked being yelled at. I always knew there was a reason and that the teacher would forgive me, but there stood the yelling and the punishment. And after that, today, came the fifteen minutes of complaining and protests that none of this was fa-air. Somehow, eighth grade Bulgarian kids pick up American pre-teen affectations when they whine. I would call it a universal thing, but the kids never say "Ne e chest-no!" when they complain in Bulgarian, so it must be something about English. Further research is obviously needed.
Anyway, eyes were getting watery and I cut them a deal based on their future behavior in class. I realized I had gone over the line, and now acknowledge the whole thing as a failed experiment rather than a mistake, per se. I have to experiment because I can't send a misbehaving kid to the assistant principal's office in Bulgaria (It doesn't exist), I can't give them detention (Again, the existence problem), and I can't send them out to the hall to sit and think about what they've done because they'll probably just go downstairs to the cafe and buy some breakfast or lunch.
So I today I decided to use grades at their most vicious. I put 2s (Fs) straight into the Dnevnik, the class register. And for kids that don't like getting 2s, that was really severe punishment. Of course, they didn't immediately grasp the concept that this could serve as a warning and that being good the rest of the term would mean excellent grades. They just see that 2 and freak out beyond all consolation. I probably would have done the same thing when I was their age. You tend to have these things figured out by senior year, but when you're 13 or 14, an F still screams failure.
Oh well, at least I can expect a day of silence tomorrow, that was the deal I arranged. They'll be "acting" (multiple definitions) on their best behavior tomorrow. It'll be hard, and it was hard today, but silence must be earned, I guess.
Posted by Rob at March 17, 2004 02:34 PMNick, you're the one who types "Bul-f@#$ing-garia" and disparages the way that many people on earth make their living (goat-herding), and yet the people there volunteering are the supercilious ones?
I have asked for advice from other Bulgarian teachers and been told that the only option for controlling behavior is by giving them 2's. Teachers here simply have no other options - no detention, not allowed to send them out of class, all they have are grades, so fair or not, it's culturally acceptable.
Posted by: PVC-Bulgaria-13 at March 18, 2004 03:49 PM