borderline_dipso

I have a student named John who's pretty much off his head. He's about eight years old and is perhaps the best living proof that people can in fact be inhabited by demons. There's another couple of bad boys in the class, but they can be controlled through threats, coercion or punishment. John however has never cared. You set him extra homework he won't do it. You try and get him to do some writing he'll screw up his piece of paper (he never has a notebook), throw it at you then smack another kid for no reason. He might start screaming for no reason and start running around the room like a crazed chimpanzee on speed.

However three weeks ago I was taught a trick. A way to get through to this boy. One of my Korean co-teachers discovered that saying "I'll call your father" has an instant sedative effect on the boy. He'd grab your arm and beg you not to call his father. The patheticness of the imploring was amazing to behold. I figured his Dad must be absolutely terrifying to have this much effect on the boy. Every other student in the school was scared of the head teacher.. not John.. he'd just laugh at her like he did with everyone else. But the threat of calling his father had immediate effect.

I didn't use the line too much - I didn't want to wear out its effectiveness through overuse, but I've been using the "I'll call your father threat" once a week on average recently.

Until this week. On Tuesday I found out that three days previously his father had been killed in an accident. It was explained to me by a lovely little girl. She stood her hand up and said "John father!", she then made a fist with her other hand and said "Car!" she then ran the first hand over with her fist and said "John father die!". Lovely.

I wasn't sure whether to believe it because John was as manic as ever and seemingly no different to usual. However every sane person in the class confirmed it to be true, as did the Korean teachers later in the day.

It seemed a little odd - I rarely had any cause to mention any kid's father, except for this one. Then the father dies. It's a strange sad world sometimes.

I've tried to be especially nice to John in the two classes I've had with him since, but he's as manic and out of control as ever.

On that day, I carried on my class as normal. I always ask everyone how they are that day, It would have been strange to ignore John so of course I had to ask him as well "How are you?" just a couple of days after his fathers death.

The answer: "Very very very very very happy!"
Me: "Err.. why?"
John: "Candy isn't here!"

Candy is the name he calls a girl in the class called Cindy, who wasn't there on tuesday. He likes to call her Candy because it makes her burst into tears.