Freedom of Speech

As a relatively crude writer and definitely no saint in the swearing department, I sometimes let my students write and say whatever the hell they want.  I am entertained, and Bhutan would benefit from a more liberal take on freedom of speech and press anyways.

My sixth grade students are just discovering the art of cursing and harassing others.

Last week, we played the game "Concentration" using parts of speech.  My students kept a snapping rhythm while giving examples of proper nouns, pronouns, adjectives, etc.  When we got to verbs, the game got about half way around the circle as the students took turns calling out verbs such as, ”kicking”, “eating”, etc.  Then a clever student of mine pulled out the big guns.

In Dzongkha, he said, “F***ing.”

I replied in Dzongkha, “I understand what you said.”  The students laughed as the trouble causer cringed.  Next I replied, “if it were not a verb, I would be mad!”

I am a bad teacher.

The day following, a sixth grade girl raised her hand and told me that the boy next to her kept saying dirty things in Dzongkha.  This is what I told the young lad.  “Hey, this is English class, so come on up in the front of the class and say it in English to all of us.  Then go into the bathroom and say it another hundred times aloud.  After you get it out of your system, you may realize it is a stupid thing to say.”  The kid said nothing.  As I continued encouraging him to come on up and say the dirty phrase in English, he sunk deeper into his chair.  Sometimes I like to play, “Who’s horrified now?”

Freedom of Speech.

I have another student who has been trying to test the waters lately to see how much I will take when it comes to writing.  The problem is, I cannot tell him to clean up his act because his writing is just too damn funny.  Last week he wrote from the perspective of a stray dog who was exhausted upon just being born.  The student claimed “anyone would be tired if they had just popped out of an ass”.

I called the student over during free time to chat about the journal entry.  I had no choice but to say, “Hey, you do know that babies don’t come out of asses right?”

“Yes mam.”

“Okay, just checking.  You can continue playing.”

Today we wrote about time machines and the same student said if he had a time machine he would do two things.  First he would travel back in time to moments before Michael Jackson died.  He wrote, “I would slap him in the face for using all the drugs.”  He next wrote that he would then travel to the future to see if he had a wife, and if he was so idiotic, he would break it up.

Freedom of press. 

Let’s just say I try really hard to not pick favorites.