Kindergartners

Monday is kindergarten day. For my regular elementary school kids, I usually do a little bit of review in the beginning, teach some new material, and then play one game. If the game goes bad, I'll play two games.

I applied the same plan today, and I went through three games. Meaning, everything fell flat.

I try to play English games only, because part of my job is to not only introduce the English language, but its culture too. But the trick comes in explaining how the games work. I guess I take for granted what has been drilled into my head and what I take to be common sense. I also think it is best to assume the way the kids acted today isn't how "Japanese kids" do it, but how my specific class behaves.

Game 1: Fruits Basket. Okay, I said I like to stick to English games, but since I was teaching fruits, this was an easy one to start with. Basically, you make a ring of chairs with one missing. A kid stands in the middle and calls out a fruit. Everyone holding a card with said fruit jumps up and changes seats. Actually, this game went okay with the exception of the fat kid refusing to get up out of his chair, along with little Sylvia Plath, who sits and cries every time I show up.

Game 2: Red Rover. Of course I wasn't going to teach 5 year olds the entire Red Rover song. I thought it would be easy to teach "Come here, please" instead. Well, the way the Japanese *cough*, I mean, the way my kids played the game was one team huddled up and took about 5 minutes to decide who they should call over. Then, after calling out the kid's name, the kid on the other side would freeze and say, "I don't want to." A few brave souls, bless them, actually made the run to the other side. One kid, when he was called, turned around and cried.

I swear, EVERYONE was crying today. I was playing a staring game with one girl, and she literally collapsed and fell smack on her face. For no reason! She cried, too.

Game 3: Orange, orange, apple. AKA Duck, duck, goose. Again, when a few kids were picked, they didn't want to get up and run. One kid, after being unable to catch up with the kid and having his seat taken, walked up to him and kicked him in the FACE! If that doesn't signal instant beating, I don't know what does. The kid who got kicked just ignored him. Didn't cry, didn't yell, just sat there looking off. The teachers looked stunned, and I was waiting for hardcore discipline. What happened? They ignored it! They cried out with a "Kenji!", and that was that. I've been told that elementary school kids are not disciplined, because kids should be kids. The switch, as I understand, is turned on in Junior High.

Afterwards, I learned they enjoyed "Jump on Cliff-Teacher", "Climb on Cliff-Teacher", and "Pick Me Up So I Can Touch the Ceiling". They obviously do not care about "Cliff-Teacher's" back. This is where there were more crying kids. No, I didn't fall on any this time. It was from kids shoving other kids out of the way so they could be picked up. The shoving was usually little Japanese boy asserting male-dominance over little Japanese girl.

Honestly, with the amount of drilling they give kids in respect to those of higher rank, they should give equal time in teaching manners to those on the same or lower level. But I guess they are only 5. *sigh*

In all, it actually was a fun day, because I didn't take anything personally. I just stopped the game and moved on. When I left, I had a group of five walk me to my car and wave goodbye till I was out of site. But I also walked out knowing that they hadn't learned a single thing today.

Next week: group games only.