I am enjoying my Wednesday afternoons recently. The reason is because I went to one of my children's classes at the beginning of September and when the hour finished the mothers apologized saying they wanted to end the class from October.
"Why wait? Today can be the last class."
I have taught the three children (there used to be four) for five years. Sort of a mismatch of mothers and come to think of it a mismatch of the four children too. One extremely quick and eager, one socially challenged, one with a ferocious temper, another very involved with sports. It was one of the few children's classes that I've had where I taught in the child's home (not have the children come to my house) and from the beginning I felt like a hired hand. The mothers rarely came out of the other room, leaving me to straighten up the room a bit and assemble the boys who were outside playing soccer. There was never a clock that worked in the room, the boys and I always had to push aside wastebaskets and ashtrays. At the end of the class one of the boys would hand me a can of coffee and that was that.
I enjoyed teaching the boys, especially the bright and eager one, but it has been harder and harder to get the challenged boy to participate; the angry boy had his good days and bad days. I got the impression that the mothers had a misunderstanding when the fourth boy quit earlier in the year.
Tetsu has been telling me from a few years ago that I should just insist that the mothers bring the boys to my house (and if that was too much of an inconvenience then they really didn't put that much importance on their sons' English) but since my going to them had been the original arrangement, I was too wimpy to make a change.
I'm sorry that I will no longer be seeing the boys but not particularly unhappy that my weekly trip to the next town is finished. And I am amazed at how free and cheerful I feel when Wednesdays come along and I realize that I don't have that one short hour any more. One short hour to use as my own makes a surprising difference. I can stop at the supermarket! I can cook an extra dish for dinner! I can take Choco for a walk on Wednesday!
(I didn't have enough Boggle blocks to spell out the word WONDERFUL.)
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