Naughty Boy

July, 2009

21st July was my first day for teaching and learning activity in the year 2009/2010.

Arriving at the teacher’s room, I hurried to see my schedule.

No	Time	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
1	07.00 -07.45		XI. S-2		XI.S-3
2	07.45 – 08.30		XI.S-2		XI.S-3
3	08.30 – 09.00		XI.S-2		XI.S-3
BREAK
4	09.30-10.15		XI.S-3
5	10.15-11.00		XI.S-3		XI.S-1
6	11.00-11.45		XI.S-1		XI.S-1
BREAK
7	12.00-12.45		XI.S-1		XI.S-2
8	12.45-13.30		XI.S-1		XI.S-2

 NB : S = Social department

          XI = eleventh grade of Senior High School

At 7.00 a.m, I entered class XI.S-2. Before I started teaching, I saw the circumstance of the class, like students’ seat position, the class size, pictures stuck on the wall, and the other things available in the classroom . I managed my mind’s way figuring the title given to social class. Most of teachers said that the class was usually fulfilled by stupid, lazy and naughty students because they were the rest of the selected ones. I could conclude their opinion that the dilligent, smart and obedient ones usually took the Science department class.

I took a deep breath for a minute to chase away such bad thoughts about them. Then, I smiled to them and started teaching.  In the course of teaching a boy named Adi (unreal name) knocked the door, and said in Indonesian “Maaf saya terlambat”(Sorry, I’m late).

As an English teacher I asked him to say in English. To my surprise, he answered in Indonesian again, “Aku tidak bisa” (I can’t). I took a deep breath to control my emotion. Then, I wrote how to  ask permission in English on a piece of paper. I asked him to memorize it and left him for a minute to focus on teaching the class. A few minutes passed, I didn’t see his action at all. When I approached him, he said in Indonesian, “Saya lebih suka lari mengelilingi lapangan sekolah 10 kali daripada menghafalkan kata-kata yang sulit dalam Bahasa Inggris” (I like running around the school court 10 times better than memorizing the difficult words in English)

I couldn’t bear anymore to see his attitude. Then I said angrily, “If you like running, just go!”

He went out classroom and ran 10 times around the court. My deepest heart said, “Why do you choose the wrong way?”

That day was the most terrific thing I had had in my life.

On Thursday,23rd July , I entered the class XI.S-2 again but in the afternooon. As we know, such hours, the willingness of sleeping could happen to students. To avoid such a situation, I tried to be enjoyable teacher. I combined serious and relax way in teaching. Entering the class, I didn’t see Ari, the naughty boy. I checked the class journal, he was present at the previous hours. “Oh, dear. What happened to him?” I had a negative thinking of him.

On Tuesday, 28th July, as usual I entered the first and second hour to class XI.S-2. I saw him in my class and he was not late that day. I approached him and asked why he din’t join my class the day before, and he aswered that he went home to sleep because he was tired at the time. I advised him not to do it again. He just answered, “yes, mom!” I felt so relieved hearing this.

On Thursday, 30th July, I didn’t see him. He played a truant again. The days after, I called him to see for councelling and he promised me not to repeat it again. The fact, he did this again and again until three times especially on Thursday,at afternoon hours. I could not bear anymore with his bad attitude. It seemed that school was only a place for playing for a while. I felt that he didn’t respect me as his teacher. To eliminate my stress, I shared this problem to my friends. I didn’t get the solution at all, they just said “that’s him. We really dislike him. He may be dropped from this school next semester.”

Hearing my friends’ answer, I felt dissatified. Then I thought over what to do to make him change.

The result, I got the idea. When he was absent, I always sent him a message via mobile phone, like the following message:

“Ari, Mengapa kamu selalu bolos disetiap pelajaran bahasa inggris, khususnya Kamis? Kamu tahu nggak kalo aku  kecewa sama kamu”

(Ari. Why are you always absent for English class especially on Thursday? You know that I’m dissapointed with you)

Here, I acted as a nice girl paying attention to him by saying hello, asking his activity, advised him what to do though only via sms.

Thanks God, this message changed him. He always came to my class. Seeing this, I was very happy but I didn’t quit my acting at the time. When I was teaching his class, I never paid attention to him at all. I could see at a glance that he tried to pay attention to me but I never cared of him.

On the other day, he finally knew that the message was from me. He couln’t bear anymore with what I did to him. He, then, sent message like this, “Mengapa ibu tidak pernah memperhatikan saya pada saat ibu mengajar kelas saya. Rasanya sakit bu. Saya murid ibu juga kan?” (Why did you never pay any attention to me when you are teaching my class? It hurts me so much, mom. I’m your student too, right?”)

Reading his message I just smiled and I didn’t give any response at all. The following day, he often sent me me message, “Please, forgive me, mom. I promise I won’t repeat my mistakes again”.

Since there was no response from me, he kept sending me such a message. I could say 20 times a day.  The following days, he sent the same message again...and again. Eventually, I gave response by sending him message, “I don’t need your promise, Just prove it”

Thanks God, he really changed his attitude. He never played truant until the end of semester. Seeing the change, I changed my way to treat him. One day I approached him and said,”You are great. You’ve proven it. I’m very proud of you”

He smiled and thanked me. He said that what I did really made him impressed.