How Little Warriors are Made

Hey guys,

My name is Dragos and welcome to today’s topic:

How Little Warriors are Made

In my last article, I told you a little about one my kids that I’m teaching being quite a challenge. Originally, I also talked about him in details in my last article and then noticed how long that article was. Oh the dread… I know you guys have a very busy schedule and you have a hard time handling more than 600 words at a time. Oh… how thoughtful… Yeah I know. Good guy here. Sort of… Anyway, I wanted to get a chance to talk a bit more about my encounter with HeHe or Hojing He (not 100% sure how to write his name) and how this kid became my favorite. How he went from a real little “sh*t” to an amazingly smart mini human.

At the beginning, he was such a pain.

But then… something happened. Here’s what happened. This one time, he had this insane rage episode. What does that mean for a him? He started throwing chairs across the class. He’s 3 years old. Not even the tallest or strongest. But man, did he throw them far. Small kid size wooden chairs. The TAs started freaking out and wanted to stop him, but I stopped them. The kids were heading outside to play and he was already punished by staying inside with me while I had some work to do. One by one, chair by chair, was flying through the class. I was just watching, patiently, writing my stuff. Every chair he threw, he stopped, looked at me and waited for a reaction from me. But nothing. Other teachers were also looking through the window. What the f*ck was happening. 5 chairs. 7 chairs… 12 chairs. By that time he was in sweat, looking at me and breathing heavily. He was holding himself on the table and shaking, out of the energy he spent to do so. He had stopped throwing chairs and was waiting while looking at me. “Are you done?” I said. He didn’t understand the words, but got the meaning and just said “Yes”. “Good, now pick up the chairs and put them all back in place.” Again, he didn’t understand, but he just pointed at the chairs on the ground, I said, “Yes” and he started cleaning the class. One chair at the time, he cleaned it all up. Then came to me and said, “I’m sorry Teacher Big Dragon”. This is what we call a miracle. Since then, he listens to me. He even goes and gets me coffee. He helps in class, he learns English at an insane pace. What was he’s problem? His parents are quite absent. VERY absent. Basically, I saw his mom 3 times. Rest of the time, his aunt takes care of him. He knows that it should be his parents, but it happens very often in China.

Younger parents make a child, give it to grand-parents or aunts to take care of it while they keep living the dream of young professionals. This kid is too smart for his own good and knows when things aren’t how they should. You can’t bullshit with him. And for that, I really respect this mini adult. He’s so eager to learn English that he’s the only one in my class that doesn’t even try to speak Chinese with me. Just the English words he knows and the new ones he learns through me. All the other kids talk to me in Chinese, hoping I somehow understand. But not him.

He’s now asking me “Is it time for coffee?”, because he really enjoys walking with me all the way at the end of the corridor while holding my mug. It’s just a hot water dispenser. Sometimes it’s tea, sometimes it’s instant coffee. I know… I know… Instant coffee. What is wrong with me?! You do with what you have. And when we get to the hot water dispenser, he puts the mug down, I lift him up, so he can press the button. He then asks me “Enough?” And when I say yes, he presses it again. Boom! He just made me coffee.

All in all, this kid is just awesome and surprising. He cried twice in front of me. It’s not one of those “baby crying”, it’s more one of those powerful moving cries where he sees how unfair some things can be. He hates crying. He hates when other kids cry too. Rest of the time, he never cried. He will fight before he will cry. This kid is a warrior! I hope I get to see where he ends up in the future. Probably, he will be the leader of the Chinese mafia or something. Good luck little warrior!

Dragos out!

Today’s item on the list :

• Make a difference in someone’s life. 

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