The Christmas concert. My small group of high-heeled seventh and eighth graders sang “The Magic of Christmas Day” and “Jingle Bell Rock” quite angelically. (The only boy in the group was a no-show, alas unsurprisingly.) The fourth graders I taught “Jingle Bells” on the recorder to were adorable and more or less played the right tune—once I was able to get them on stage. After their class performance of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, they all mobbed Santa—one of their fourth-grade classmates—and knocked him over in his sleigh in an effort to steal his candy. I did have to play fairly loudly to guide them, but fortunately I was used to that light-headed feeling after three weeks of noisy lunchtime practices.
My middle schoolers prove that middle schoolers are universally horrible. By the time vacation came around, I was so sick of them I really couldn’t wait for vacation. There were only a few moments in my first four and a half months here when I let the thought enter my mind that I might not come back after Christmas, and most of those moments were in the final week of school before break. They were disrespectful to me, not paying attention, whining, hitting each other, calling each other names, trying to get off-task, not doing their homework, not taking notes, breaking classroom property and much more....not all of them at once, for the most part, but enough to really get me frustrated. During break the New York Times had an article about how adolescents are the plague of school systems and that all the reconfigurations—junior highs and middle schools and so on—have done nothing to fix the problem. I was glad that the paper of record could put it on the record that basically, when it comes to that age, you just have to remember that they’re inherently a struggle.
My last day reminds me (sort of) why I want to come back. On the last day, I insisted that they take their vocabulary test, which they had been annoyed about since Monday when I handed out the words. I reminded them that English learning couldn’t stop just because we were getting close to a break. Then I gave them a vacation homework assignment of three independent reading entries and three journal entries. (In retrospect, a poor idea, since it made this week a bit difficult—i.e. made them hate me—when some people just flat out did nothing and I had to get on their cases for it.) But after that, I let them more or less hang out and play games. Well, until at the end of the day they had to clean up the room and the yard right outside before I would give them their brownies. Food sure is a motivator... We watched some TV shows, played some games, listened to music and talked. Oh, and I let them throw water balloons at each other. I told them if they were responsible enough to remember to bring them in, they could throw them. Alas things got a little out of control and they started throwing buckets of water at each other. Of course, I ended up getting completely soaked and spent the rest of our final day of school seeking out sunlight in free moments in an effort to ensure that my underwear would eventually dry out. But even though a lot of times I’m no fun, I’ll admit it...I enjoyed getting soaked. The kids were at their best—they dropped the angst for a few minutes and just had a good time.
Goodbyes. I printed out some bilingual Christmas cards with a picture of Cusuco National Park as viewed from the window of the ecolodge there and the words: “Open the windows of your heart / And let in the light and peace of Christmas.” “Abra las ventas de su corazón / Y deje entrar la luz y paz de Navidad.” Then I went around handing them out to friends of ours here, mostly to the families who are friends of the volunteers each year. Getting that chance to talk to these people who we rely on so much for support and friendship was really wonderful. I was glad to be able to formally express my thanks to them. And when Dr. Z told me they’d be waiting for my return, I was really touched. Suddenly I realized that I have established relationships with lots of people here, even if I feel as if I should know them better at this point, that our relationship should be less superficial somehow. But even if our conversational topics are generally unexceptional, even if I’d like to get to know them all better in the New Year but don’t know exactly how to go about it, I felt really known. It was a good way to leave. And it gave me an odd premonition of what leaving for good will be like....how we’ll have these same small moments of goodbye, but
Christmas and New Year’s. I celebrated with family and friends, respectively, in
But here I am. More soon.
