::A Geek in Korea::

I teach a mischievous student that studies in a special English language elementary school. She takes classes entirely in English, then comes to my class to study with me for extra help. I act as a special tutor, helping her with some homework, helping with extra speaking, and we read stories she works on in school together. It’s a fun class, but the girl is really not very well behaved.

She’s excellent at getting me sidetracked and talking about something else. Anything other than her school work will get her talking. She doesn’t like to study any more than any other student. She intentionally asks me questions and plays like she doesn’t understand to keep me talking so we can’t work farther in her school books.

Her mother knows about her tendency to do this and told me that she wants to focus on her writing skills. Today that’s what we were doing when I happened to step out of class to pick up a journal paper. She needed it for homework. I left the classroom to see the mother sitting in the Director’s office. She had turned on the close circuit television in the room and had started watching her child’s behavior.

As I got back to class with the paper, I found the door locked, and the girl hiding. After she let me back into the class, I told her about her journal homework and how to structure her writing. She wasn’t interested, and tried to keep knocking me off topic. I was tempted the entire time to tell her that her mother was watching, but I decided to let her dig her own grave instead. Each time she ramped up her distractions, i told her to keep studying and writing. As the class started to wind down to the last few minutes, the girl started asking about the time, when she could go, and why I wasn’t letting her out a little early.

That is when I told her that her mother was in the next room and that she had been watching the entire class. The mother showed up after the girl had been in my classroom, so she had no clue. At first she didn’t believe me, but then I pointed to the camera in the ceiling and stepped out to see her mother rounding out the office.

My student’s expression said it all.

"I’m dead."