Wednesday, September 19, 2012

The Student Files, Episode 1: The Student Who Forgot he Has a Bathroom at Home

Hello Folks,

 I've again come to entertain you with some inanities that happen in my life.

I've been writing over at my other blog (Following the Masala) about a pretty funny run in with a newspaper if you'd like to read it here.

So. My student count now stands at 9, with the strong possibility of 10. I thought it would be fun to share some of the idiosyncracies that my students have. Some bring me great joy and entertainment, some make me want to tear my hair out. All names have been changed for my protection and are not indicitive of the order in which they joined lessons. Unfortunately, they are not Criminal Minds type cases as was suggested by one of my favorite Aussies, just entertaining kids.

I teach exclusively to students who live in the same apartment compex as we live in. As the complex can house about 500 families, there are no shortage of kids around. Now, I don't know if I need to explain this or not, but all the apartments here have bathrooms; most of them more than one. Student 1 came to me as a referral and had taken piano lessons before. They live 2 floors up from me. He is a very cute, polite, bright eyed 8 year old boy. I found it rather odd that 5 minutes into his first lesson, he asked to use the bathroom. I figured no biggy, he probably just forgot to go before he came. He went into the bathroom for all of 3.2 seconds (including washing his hands) and came back. I found this amusing, but we just went on with the lesson.

The next week came with a repeat performance. And another in the same lesson. Every week since, he has made a trip to the bathroom.

At first, I wondered why he wasn't just using the bathroom at home. I suppose there could be some valid reason for this. However, I have my own kids and I understand that sometimes, kids get bored and they come up with some pretty intelligent ways of getting the time to pass by faster.  I came to figure out that this was what was going on. It doesn't bother me - we always finish off the work we need to do for his lesson. It's more one of those things that just isn't worth making any kind of deal about at all.  As long as we can finish off his lesson and the work we need to do he's welcome to use the restroom.

Becky

5 comments:

stephen Hayes said...

I thought you were going to say he has so many brothers and sisters that he never gets time in his own bathroom.

Becky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Becky said...

Ha! That would be pretty funny - and would probably elicit much less of a chuckle from me every time. ;-)
As it is, the myth that Indians have tons of kids does have some validity. However, this is mostly restriced to the Muslim population (who as a policy don't believe in birth control) and those of very, very poor economic means. All the folks in our complex are pushing it to have 3 kids.
Most of the middle class folks of my husband's generation stopped at 2, because that's what they could afford. The generation before his was much more like 4 - 5. Now a days people are venturing back into 3.

Rusty said...

Could he be excited or nervous?

Becky said...

@Rusty - I don't think nervous. I'm pretty good at not scaring small children. Excited perhaps, but not likely.