Silent Mobilisation

Another routine day in school.
Taught my P3 kids ABCs...can you imagine that?
Some of them are unable to read words like 'it', 'in', 'is'..
which appears in 33% of sentences. I had to run down to basics
to show them the phonics of how to read the sounds of each
alphabet. I even got them to sing the ABC song -_-'

Class...'A' is pronounced as 'ahh'...

I had a kid cry in my class today. Prior to that one of my
students complained of a bad stomachache and I sent him down
with another student to accompany him to call his mother to
come and fetch him. During which, I asked the other students
to turn around and read the words to each other. One of them
took the worksheet belonging to the boy I sent to accompany
the sick chicken, erased his name and wrote his friend's name
instead. I childed him gently, telling him he couldn't do that
as the worksheet wasn't his. I told him to erase his friend's
name and write the name that was originally supposed to be there.
But when the boy I sent to accompany the sicko-stomachache fella
returned, I think he questioned the boy so severely he started
to cry...you know in the usual way kids go 'Orrrhh orrhhh...you
go and erase his name....orrrhhh~'

No, it wasn't the normal sobbing of a child we'd expect. Or the
silent trickling of tears. The kid started hyperventilating,
eyes wide and tears pouring down his face. His fists were clenched,
which brought fears that he might be having fits. I tried to calm
him down, but other kids poked fun at him for crying and I turned
on them in anger, shooing them from the class when the bell
resounded. After a while, he stopped hyperventilating, and the
tears stopped, but now he started wailing...making the sounds
that kids make when they cry....'weeeehhhhhh'....then he started
hyperventilating again. I tried to get him to control his breathing.
Managed to calm him down by talking gently to him and stroking his
back and head. Told him it wasn't his fault. Brought him back to
his class and told him to tell me if anyone poked fun of him. At
the end of it he waved to me as I saw him to his class. Felt this
sense of satisfaction that I helped at least one kid today.

Went for my silent mobilisation. Met the gangster Gerald and
attended this lengthy briefing where the head trainer talked a
lot but said nothing at all. I don't think I'm supposed to discuss
the contents of the briefing so I'll leave it at that.

A lot of people seem to be breaking up during this period...3 of
my old, long-lost friends recently called me because they'd broken
up and suddenly became quite free. Haiz~...is this trend to be
adhered? Its ironic how I refered to her as the 'sunshine after
the rain' only to have dark clouds blanket our relationship all
over again. Fuck. Things are so simple, yet so complicated. And
the wheels within wheels of wheels....and changing changes...and
ambiguous ambivalence...


Riding hard, fast, safely AND taking a few corners.