September 6, 2004 - That is Sherrie and the rest of my grade 3 classmates "sqatting" and counting to 300 because they scored lower than 7 out of 10 on our assignment. I got a 3. Here at our school, teachers have more tool for disciplining students than in America. Any teacher in the US would be in big trouble for practicing Kurt Angle (WWE superstar) moves on troublemaker kids like I do here.

If you have ever dealt with 6th grade boys, you know they are little tasmanian devils, spinning all over the place. However, if you put them in front of a 
computer and demand they learn to type with the threat of a sleeper choke hold, they will. It is strange to watch them click away so quietly and concentrate so hard. I downloaded a "learn to type" program from the internet that works on our computers. It is not the multi-media type, but it is basic keyboard learning and my kids are willing to try. The attitude of my children towards learning is great. Here, it is cool to learn and be smart. I wish it was that way in my school instead of being uncool to be smart. Why is it uncool to be smart in America?

There is always a lot of drama in our school. At least once day, one of my 3rd grade classmates will burst into tears. But it does not compare to the 6th graders. The boys and girls are currently at war. It is all because of Mourelle (pictured below).
Since he joined our class, 75% (100%?) of the girls have decided to have a crush on him. Anyone who has been in 6th grade knows this is not a good situation. There are jealous girls and bad things said. The girls are even upset at me (me!) for playing soccer with the boys (Mourelle). Last year's class was not like this!

Mourelle lives a few houses away from me. He would like to be a soldier someday (aspiring to the Philippine Military Academy), so we (along with Jericho, another boy who lives nearby) go jogging on weekend mornings. This upsets the girls into a frenzy.
Mourelle is 14 years old, 2 years older than his classmates. He was kept out of school for 2 years. He has 3 brothers and due to financial reasons, his family can only send a few to school at one time. He told me that staying home those 2 years was very borning. He has a very mature appreciation for eduction for someone so young. He lives with his grandparents here. His mother is a teacher in the US and his father lives in Manila with his other brothers. I think if he did not transfer here, he would not have gone to school.
He has had to deal with jealous girls, accusatory letters and a lot of teasing. I am impressed with his attitude through it all. He is a good church-going boy so, I loaned him my copy of The Purpose Driven Life (a born again Christian book by Rick Warren). It has a lot of good values lessons that I hope he will like.

He shared with me this story of computer gaming in Manila. When he was in grade 5, he attended a private school. He received 40 pesos/day as pocket money ($.80) for lunch. He would buy 6 pesos of bread and spend 30 pesos for 2 hours of computer games! He and his friends did this everyday. That is clever.

He is from Manila, a big cosmopolitan city, so he has slightly different attitudes towards things than many of us here in the province. He washes his own clothes and does chores around the house. Many boys here do not have chores. In the province, it is considered shameful for a boy to do chores (I don't fully understand this). I wash my own clothes on the weekends. One day while scrubbing away, my 6th grade girls came to visit. They laughed at me because I wash my clothes. They don't wash their clothes because their families have labanderas or househelp. It is one of the first jobs a family will outsource if they can afford it. The girls from these families are called "senioritas" because they don't have any chores. Last year, my girl students would offer to help me wash clothes when they came to visit.

What else makes Mourelle different from boys here? Last week while playing soccer, a 3rd year high school boy (15 years old) hit one of my grade 6 students! While we were playing, the high school boy called my student a pig. My student called him as a gay. Then the high school boy ran and hit my student. I was playing goalie, so I ran to confront the boy. What was he thinking? Watching the young males with their gangster and macho attitude is the hardest thing for me to stomach. They could benefit from some quality time with a Marine Corps Staff Sgt to lose some of their swagger.
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