kids

Kids. I have definitely gone a 180 on how comfortable I feel around kids.

I've always sort of known that I liked kids, but they freaked me out because I had so little experience interacting with them. What's nice about my job is that I've basically gotten a crash-course in interacting with children of all ages, and even though these kids are from the other side of the planet, I'm pretty sure the fundamentals are the same.

Basically the best students ever.

What has pleasantly surprised me is that I enjoy interacting with kids. Where I used to be unsure of myself around them before, the more time I spend teaching my own kids, the more I find myself actively engaging any kids who display interest in interacting with me. If they're staring at me on the elevator, I smile at them. If they try to talk to me, I talk to them. If they seem unsure, I smile and let them come over if they want, or not.

Liz is active and engaging on her own, and does not require encouragement.

Last week a little girl (couldn't be more than 5 years old, if that) at Starbucks stood a few feet back from my chair looking at me messing on my iPod. I pulled up the game Fruit Ninja and offered it to her to play. Her parents were like, "Yeah, go ahead, it's okay," so she messed with my iPod a bit and tried to talk to me. I used what little Chinese I knew, but I'd say English too, and the look on her face when I used English was hilarious; it was like I'd suddenly started making duck noises. We made faces at each other and established I was "meiguo ren," an American. The whole interaction was short, but it made me completely happy.

I like being a "good foreigner experience" for kids. Or even just a "good stranger experience," because you have to be careful of strange people, but you also can't go through life mistrusting everyone. I think it's good for kids to have pleasant interactions with unknown adults, so they don't view the world as a menacing, hurtful place. I think it's important to encourage a child's sense of discovery and curiosity. I see kids as works-in-progress. We're all works-in-progress, continuously evolving and upgrading, but kids much more so. Part of me has a blast being even a small part in a kid's adventure in growing up.

One thing I've learned from these kids is how important it is to listen to them. Everyone says it; it's practically common knowledge, and yet you really can forget how important it is to take the time to let them really, truly express themselves. Because they won't leave you guessing. They spend a lot of time taking things in, and because of that, they have plenty to tell you.

I explained the definition of "awesome" and gave them five minutes to write examples.

They had a few ideas.

The one thing I always try to do around my kids is assume they have something to teach me. They never stop impressing me with their insight, their humor, and their very strong senses of self.

I'm going to miss my kids. I've had wonderful experiences with them and they have definitely taught me a lot more than I've taught them. I hope their new teacher at Shane gives them the respect and dignity they deserve, and readily acknowledges how awesome they are. Without these kids, I wouldn't have realized how much I enjoy teaching, and I wouldn't feel so confident going into a new teaching job (when I get it) in Japan.