Toby, The Seoul Man: Alice

Please focus on the girl looking at you..... Her name is Alice.

I thought it was about time that I wrote a piece about one of my babies. I have taught a number of kids in the past 13 months, but my current BLUE class kids are the ones that have segmented a bigger percentage of my heart. Alice is today's case study. Before I proceed, I will however, not be referring to her as a case study. She's one of my babies.

The term 'babies' is obviously a play on words. I didn't impregnate a Korean women, or many for that matter, all those years ago. I like to use 'babies' a number of times throughout the day. It can be implicated to ridicule an infant. If they're behaving below their accumulated years then I will ask them "Are you a baby?". This results in an uproar of laughter from the endearing classmates, therefore striking a message to, from now on, act your age. On the flip-side I use 'Baby' and 'babies' in order to deliver my affection to them. At lunchtime, a number of the kids, decide that they will take a long time to eat their food and in the process of this, they play with it, or in Alice's case, secretly deposit it onto the floor. Cunning. So, as an incentive to a quickly eaten meal I reward them with 'baby time'. I think I have mentioned this before. It simply means I cradle them like a newly born and swing gentle from side to side, for about 30 seconds, then we both get bored and move onto the next adventure.

Anyway, I'm drifting away from Alice. I have taught Alice from day one. When I first graced the wooden floors of Kids Herald back in August 2008, Alice was one of the 5 VERY small babies that was looking up at me I was escorted into RED class. I was petrified and I'm sure she was as well. Alice is properly one of more substantial cute kids of the entire school, past and present and optimistically, the future. To explain. There are an abundance of cute kids throughout. But their cuteness waivers as they grow or as they are molded into perm-babies by their mothers. (Perms - some kids get given perms by their mother's - disgusting behavior, but deeply amusing when they walk into school styling their new wave)

Alice has maintained her cuteness since day one. It's the kind of cuteness that gets her out of so many situations. Arguments flare up on a daily basis and Alice, with a slice of pure genius, tilts the head to one side, frowns (whilst holding the infamous cute rounded eyes), and squeaks out a little "Teacher". Every teacher in the school knows what she's doing, but none of us have the ability to conquer it. Her biggest sin is depositing food onto the floor at lunchtime (as mentioned above). Most kids swallow all their culinary delights. Alice is the solitary exception. Every day, once the masses have digested and departed the class, there is a scattering of un-chewed foods splattered around her vacated seat. Christine Teacher and I both know it's her and have even seen her doing it. But! Why shout at her? If she doesn't want to eat a bit of spicy, boiled and fermented cabbage, then so be it. She's young, she'll learn.

Another thing I love about Alice is that I also teach her sister Wendy. Wendy is two years older than Alice. Their sisterly love is very strong and warming. I regularly use ask them how their sibling is doing. With Alice being the younger, she's is frequently mentioning Wendy's name. One day I asked Alice to write "I Love Wendy". Just a time filler before next class. She wrote "I love Wenby". Alice has always struggled with the d-b, b-d concept. I pounced on this error like a newly born would do to it's food source (nipple). Immediately, and from then on, I would always ask "How's WenBBBBy?"..... It sends her potty. As predicted Wendy isn't too keen on the purposeful error either.

Alice is currently doing very well and is progressing exceptionally. I have at least 5 months left of teaching with Alice. Then she will promote to her third and final year of kindergarten. Hopefully I will be lucky enough to teach her in her final year. We'll see........

Here are some snaps......