Children?

I've been working at the school for about 2 months now, and so far so good. Despite what the sarcasm of my previous post may have implied, I actually like my job. Working with children is a new experience for me. I have taught adults and teenagers, but this is the first time I have ever worked with kids this young. I teach 6 year olds, first graders. After a few months, I have gotten to know them a bit and begin to appreciate them as little people. It is amazing how adult they can be, even as young as they are. You can already tell which ones are going to be popular, which ones are going to be the lame-Os. Some little girls are already quite catty with each other, some boys are clearly going to be jocks. You have the artsy kids, the class clowns, the nice guys, etc...

Working in my school you see some sad cases too. I work the in the neighborhood with the highest illiteracy rate in the city and famous for having lot of marginal groups such as gypsies. It is a low income area and you see some extremely bad cases of poor parenting. One boy has 4 brothers, each one of a different father. One kid had complained about a toothache for weeks but his mother didn't feel like taking him to the dentist. A little kid came in with a weird case of a chicken pocks that affects only the inside of the mouth, parents just left him there crying all day. There are children that seem quite psychologically scarred as well. One little girl came in after christmas with a phobia of being left without an adult; she was fine in the fall, but now she even clings to the teachers even in the playground. Or the boy who poops his pants several times a day; the school counselor has been working with him. One kid is a compulsive liar; denying things as you watch him do them.

It has been nice to see that most of the kids have taken a liking to me as well. I am not super gregarious, I am mostly pretty quiet; but I do tend to treat them nicely and consistently. It is kind of fun to hear a chorus of high pitched spanish accents saying "hello Ryan!" in unison as you come in the room. Other things are cute the first few times but gets old after a while, like having to to give high fives to everyone or being clobbered by 4 or 5 kids who run up from their desks to hug me.

Today I was told "I love you" by an ecstatic little girl clutching at my arm. I thought, "aww." But then later on I was told something similar that left me quite disturbed. In a different class, a girl told me "so and so likes you!" I didn't think anything of it, as kids do that sort of thing to each other and have crushes on their teachers. But the girl kept taunting her classmate and then said that "so and so wants you to do-" and proceeded to say something so obscene that I just stood there dumbfounded. Now, I dont even think that she knew exactly what she was saying, because she got the... genitalia wrong, but still, I dont even want to know where she learned it. Also, I'm supposed to act like I don't understand spanish, and my act has become so second nature, that I don't even react when I am told something shocking like that. In retrospect, if I am ever told something like that again, I am telling their teacher immediately. God forbid that someone overhear the girl wrong, rumors get started, and I get accused of inappropriate behavior.

Children, children, children.... complicated little people.