It's been over a month since the last entry. Sorry about that. It has been an amazingly difficult month. The kids are very difficult. They are like a force of nature. You can gain some small measure of control but it is only partial.

I don't know where to begin.

I guess I should start with the physical conditions. I have a room, fairly good size, with a teacher's desk, thirty student desks, two air conditioners, a shelf that extends across the back wall, four filing cabinets, a large metal cabinet and a metal bookshelf with four shelves. There is a connection for a computer but no computer. There is a phone that doesn't work. There is a clock, analog, and brown metal chalk boards across the front of the room. Some of the fluorescent lights are missing their covers.

Only 24 of the mismatched student desks are actually useful. The rest have broken seats and/or tops that are so scratched or worn the kids cannot write on them.

The windows cover one wall of the room and have metal louvers that are closed and cannot be opened. There is Plexiglas on most of the windows except the one behind the bookcase. That one has no Plexiglas and is missing a couple of louvers. One morning last week I walked in and frightened a scrawny mangy stray cat that was sleeping on my construction paper. It scrambled out the hole behind the bookcase.

The outer walls are concrete but the inner walls are thin plywood. We can hear everything said in each others' classrooms. Sometimes it's pretty funny. The AC wasn't working in one room (I've been lucky so far) and I heard the teacher yell, "I know it's hot! I've been in this room all day!"

I have added my old beat up laptop (5 years old at least, missing keys and battery completely useless), the projector that rattles on start up, a folding table, and two shelves of books for the kids to read. The books include Harry Potter, The Little Prince, Bridge to Terabithea, two books of Silverstein's poetry, the second Percy Jackson novel, Under the Blood Red Sun, and a few books intended for kids two or three levels below where these kids should be.

These are the books available to my students.
Bridge to Terabithia        Charlotte's Web        Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Ghosts, Pirates, and Treasure Troves        Grandma's Little Girls (2)        James and the Giant Peach
Life as We Knew It        Light in the Attic        Mariquita - A Tragedy of Guam
San Francisco Splash *        Sea of Monsters (Stolen)        Sheltie the Hero *
Sherlock Holmes        Stuart Little        The Adventures of Charlie and Mr. Wonka
Under the Blood Red Sun (2)        The Golden Compass        The Inheritor
The Last Hero        The Little Prince        The Sidewalk Ends Here
The Adventures of Tintin (Vol 3 & 6)        The Land of Droon (4 Vol) *        
* marks the books that are several levels too low for the kids
They are very thin and also the most popular.

I start my class with 15 minutes of silent reading (or as I have written it on the board, "SILENT Reading"). It takes 5 minutes to get the kids to settle down so they effectively read for only 10 minutes. Many of them in making their selection on the first day based that selection on the thickness of the books. Thus, the lower level books were the most popular. The first shocker for the kids was when they realized they had to read THE WHOLE BOOK! The second was when they asked what they were to do when they finished the book. They couldn't believe that I expected them to read a SECOND book. So far, as we start our 7th week only two of my kids have finished their books.

As for the students, well, they are kids, around 12 years old and full of the energy all the sugar and boredom can give them. They are continually pushing and shoving each other, grabbing things from others, playing keep-away, and talking. Most of them find it impossible to stay in their seats. They are primal humans in their most basic form. They KNOW there are no other people around them and what THEY want is what they should get, right now!

Example: In a few minutes of time before the bell rang I put up a YouTube video of a confrontation between 5 lions and a rhino. There were four boys avidly watching it when one of the girls turned to me and said "Put something else on, I don't like this." I pointed out how the boys were enjoying it so she went over to tell them that they didn't need to watch it. Fortunately the bell rang at that point.

Which brings us to their ignorance. I use ignorance in its proper definition, i.e., not knowing stuff. At one point early on I put up the Som Sabadol video showing the orchestra doing a flash mob in Vienna. The kids had never seen an orchestra let alone most of the instruments. They were fascinated. I called out the names of the instruments as they came out into the streets. They recognized the bass and the violins. I had to point out that those "violins" were actually violas. The bassoon threw them for a loop. When the brass section showed up someone commented that those were the expensive instruments. I guess he figured metal was more expensive than wood. I explained a little of the actual value of some violins. I don't think he believed me. He thought the musicians must get huge paychecks to afford instruments like that.

But they know NOTHING. They have experienced nothing of the world, many of them have not experienced any other part of the island. When I talk about Guam's history it goes right over their heads.

On top of that they ask STUPID questions. I put a picture of Wakana over my desk a week and a half ago. Even today they still ask if that's my wife. I started by answering with, "No, that's my girlfriend." That scandalized them. More recently I have countered with "Who ELSE would it be? Do you think I chose a random picture of an Asian woman and put it over my desk?" I wore shorts on Friday (permitted at IMS) and they took one look and informed me I was wearing shorts. I looked down and said, in shock, "Oh my God, I've lost half of my pants!" Someone saw me walking across campus with my guitar on my back and he had to ask if I played guitar. "I don't know what you are talking about. I've never seen a guitar in my life." Today one of my students asked the same thing and I gave the same answer. I almost had him believing me even with the guitar case leaning against the wall next to me. Then he pointed to a capo sitting on my desk and asked why I had that. I swept it into the pocket of the guitar case and said, "I don't know what you are talking about." I think I'm getting sarcastic.

We just gave the students the practice SAT 10 test and the HIGHEST reading score I saw was 59… out of 100. Projects were due today. Thanks to a couple of oversights I ended up giving them three weeks. Out of the 31 students I saw today I got about 8 submissions. The rest didn't seem bothered at all about not having it done. I told them the turnaround time for projects from now on is one week.

Today at the water store I told the guy, who we've known for years, that it was almost but not quite like having a room full of chimpanzees except these can talk and should know better when it comes to the things they do.