I teach the computer class for 2nd through 5th graders at an academically accelerated private school.  All together I have 12 classes and roughly 315 students to get to know, teach, and grade every week.  For 4th and 5th grade, they also get graded on typing proficiency.  Each week they are all required to take a speed test and I record their average words per minute (AWPM) scores.  Then, at the end of each trimester, I average all their scores to get an overall average and compare that number to the speed required for their grade level.  What it comes down to is that for 4th graders, they need to achieve 23+ AWPM for an A grade in typing.  5th graders need 29+ AWPM.

In one of my 4th grade classes, one of my students, Cassandra, holds the current highest overall average for all of 4th grade.  So far, she has gotten the top speed for 7 out of 9 weeks of this current trimester.  Her overall average is 41.1 AWPM which is well above the necessary average for her grade level.  Many of her peers are in awe of her speed and several have attempted, and failed, to dethrone her as the fastest 4th grader at typing.

Cassandra is one of my best students. Not only does she perform very well on all of her projects and typing, but her personality is full of respect, kindness, and maturity.  For somebody that young, she has a good sense of when to be serious about her work and when to joke around.  She also has a well developed sense of humor so that when I jokingly pick on her for misbehaving, she actually understands that I’m not serious and laughs about it.

The other day, on her speed test, she got a 40WPM score.  One of her classmates, Kiki, who had often spoken of trying to beat Cassandra’s speed, achieved a 44WPM score which gave her the top speed of the week.

As a result, Kiki beamed with pride and celebrated about having the fastest speed.  Announcing the top speed of the week is commonplace at the end of each class period.  After 7 weeks of always hearing her name as the fastest speed of the week, Cassandra, along with her peers, all heard the name “Kiki”, announced by me, as that week’s fastest typist of the class.

This topic is generally received with support and encouragement from the classmates of named winners.  Having the fastest speed in the class has absolutely no effect on if they receive a better grade for the computer class.  However, it’s a nice way to instill some competition among the students and for them to admire each other for their achievements.

When class was dismissed and I was finishing walking that class back to their homeroom, I noticed that Cassandra was at the back of the line and her eyes seemed slightly red.  My first assumption was that she had teared up from yawning so I jokingly asked her in a playful tone, “Hey Cassandra, why are you crying?” A few other girls in line giggled since they were used to me asking them similar questions when they were obviously not upset about anything.  It is common for me to approach a student with a serious expression and then ask them why they are so sad which has always resulted in said student laughing and arguing that they are not sad.

Cassandra was smiling along with her classmates so it seemed like another typical joking matter and that she had actually just yawned.  However, her lips quivered and she ended up unable to hold her smile that she was using to hide her true emotions from me.  As her eyebrows started to curve inwards, I immediately sensed a problem so I shooed the rest of the girls into the classroom and pulled Cassandra aside outside the door of her homeroom.

It’s often been taught that when you speak to an upset child, placing your hand on their shoulder helps comfort them and let them know that they have your listening ear.  I placed my hand on her shoulder and asked, “Cassandra…is somebody in the class bothering you?”

She shook her head, no, but did not speak, holding her lips tight while blinking heavily to fight off the tears.

“You do realize that when we joke about you misbehaving and such, we’re just joking with you right?” Cassandra nodded, yes, but still did not say a word.

“If something is bothering you, you can let me know so I can help you with it.  Are you upset about something computer class related?”

Cassandra shook her head, no, once more but finally uttered the words, “Bathroom?” It took me a moment to comprehend what she meant since I was not accustomed to her speaking with incomplete sentences.  However, she motioned with her hand towards the restroom and said, “May I go to the bathroom?”

Somehow, I knew immediately that she wanted to wipe her tears in the restroom, far from the nosy eyes of her classmates who would most likely pester her with questions of why she was unhappy.  I let her go right away and she sped off towards the ladies’ room.

—–

20 minutes later was the end of the school day and departure time.  The entire student body heads to the auditorium to wait for their names to be called as their parents pull up in cars, holding visor cards with student names printed on them.  When I arrived to my post, I found Cassandra sitting with her friend Janie at the front table while student names started being called.

I took a seat next to Cassandra and asked her if everything was OK and she nodded.  “What was bothering you?”

Cassandra looked down, apparently embarrassed to have shown me so much emotion from her typical stoic personality.  Janie spoke up for her and explained that Kiki had bragged so much that it bothered Cassandra.

Inside my head I burst into laughter but on the outside I nodded.  Moments like these always crack me up because it makes you realize just how small of a scope of the world these children have that something as simple as bragging can bring you to the verge of tears.

I reassured Cassandra that when people brag, their whole purpose is to make YOU feel bad because they are jealous.  I told her, “You never have to tell people that you’re better than them because you already know that you are, right?  You already KNOW that you have the highest overall average so you never find the need to brag.  The only reason people brag to make you sad is because they wish they were as good as you.  So don’t worry, OK?”

She managed a smile and nodded but it was apparent that Kiki’s bragging episode had a really strong impact on Cassandra’s afternoon.  Moments after this conversation, Cassandra’s name was called and she left the auditorium to get into her mom’s car.

———

Departure ended and the rest of the day seemed pretty typical.  I stayed after work to do paperwork and grading, followed by getting into my car to drive home.  However, after I arrived at home and checked my email, I was shocked to find a Facebook notification telling me that Cassandra had sent me a messsage.  Apparently she had gone home after school, searched for my name on Facebook, and sent me a message!

I opened my email notification and read this message from Cassandra:

——————–
Subject: thx

Dear Mr. Lau,

Im okay now……………  Thanks!!!!!!!!  I will c u the week after next week cuz im going on vacation to Ohio and Atlanta. It is my dad’s mom’s bday…… I will c ya!!   Happy Valentine’s Day. What r u gonna get ur girl friend???? jk

Thanks,
Cassandra
——————–

I was definitely astonished to read this because I never expected anyone to ever really feel appreciation and thank me later on for it.  Let alone, a 4th grader who is probably 9 years old at most.  Yes, definitely amazed.

Not only that but she even pulled out some humor at the end with the whole,“What r u gonna get ur girl friend???? jk”, bit that, generally, no adult expects a child to understand at that age.  The students often ask me if I’m married or have a girlfriend so they are aware that I’m currently single.  However, only students like Cassandra know how to use that bit of information and expertly poke fun at me for it.

I did not reply to her Facebook message but I’m pretty sure she knows she found the right person on Facebook considering how the following day, she knowingly stared at me with a big grin on her face.

What a great kid.

—————–

January 2010
Dear Ralph,

It was proposed to me, by Terra, that I write you a letter with the purpose of providing advice on how to be 25 years old or anything that you should know about being 25 years old. I accepted the proposal but was uncertain of what to write considering how I have only been 25 years old for about 10 months and have, so far, learned nothing of substantial value about life.  At least, that is what my parents told me at dinnertime last night.
You already achieved more than me in life the moment you were born and looked in the mirror to see a handsome fellow staring back at you.  You are self-reliant, you do not live with your parents, you are married to a woman who is not mentally unstable, you are Mexican, and now you are soon to be a proud father of a human female, Ralphina.  My achievements in life pale in comparison to you.  Therefore, it is actually illogical for me to be providing you with any advice.  In fact, I should be taking notes on how you live your life so as to improve my own!  Unfortunately, that would not be what Terra asked of me and would defeat the purpose of this letter.  Because I value the fact that I am alive and do not wish to be beheaded by Terra for ruining her birthday project for you, I will now attempt to provide advice and identify what I believe you should know about being 25 years old on planet earth.
When you are 25 years old, it is the only age where you are able to divide your age number by 5 and get 5 as your solution.  Of course, that is not the only benefit of being 25.
When you are 25 years old, you are still considered very young in society.  Dogs do not receive the same benefit.  By 25 years of age, your dog, Lucky, will most likely be a walking skeleton of disease.  I have learned that being 25 as a human allows this awesome perk that dogs do not share.
When you are 25 years old, your life has virtually just started.  You have only been legal for about 2,555 days.  You are guaranteed at least 50 more years of healthy life thanks to the wonders of modern medicine.  That, and the fact that you have a dog which extends the human lifespan by several more years according to a recent study that I am unable to cite.  For a very long time, I asked my parents if I could have a dog at home so as to extend my lifespan by more years.  My parents told me that is the exact reason why they would not want to get a dog for me.  In addition, my father told me that he does not believe dogs should live in the same dwelling as humans because they are sons of bitches.
Unfortunately, 25 is really just a number.  At least, that is what I keep telling myself every time a new girl chooses to converse with me and I find out that she is under the age of 21.  It does not guarantee success or maturity in people.  My ex-girlfriend is in college but harbors the maturity level equal to that of a 2nd grader.  Just because you are perfect does not mean everyone else also shares in your conqueror status.  Kanye West is older than 25 years old. He may make a lot of money at his age, but his mental capacity is probably only a little better than a salamander.  He would never survive as a 4th grader in your E.C. class at Challenger School.
Sitting back in my chair at home, I failed to come to any realization that I have learned anything brand new regarding the age of 25.  Turning to my father, I mentioned this birthday letter project to him and he laughed at me.  His suggestion was to tell you that by 25 years of age, you know you have at least 25 more years to figure out what you are doing.  I felt great relief when I heard those words because it meant I did not have to rush in deciding if I should wear my khaki pants or black pants to work on Mondays.  I could get dressed in the dark knowing that I still have 25 years left to finally make my decision.
Since I have botched this apparent attempt at providing you with any substance or value, I will instead tell you that it was nice knowing you because while you are reading this letter, Terra will have most likely already disposed of my charred remains.  When I reincarnate as a dog, please find me at the humane society.

Imaletyoufinish but, Mr. Ralph had the best 25th birthday of all time.

With valiant support of your values and determination for conquering life, I wish you a very happy birthday!

Landis

———–

The following day, he told me that he got quite a kick out of my letter while he read it out loud with his wife.  They were laughing a lot and he said he really enjoyed it.  I was thrilled that despite being unable to provide any sound advice for him, I was at least able to provide laughter and happiness on his birthday.  Mission accomplished.

The other day while waiting for my clothes to dry, I observed two different Filipino families also doing their laundry.  One family consisted of a father with his 2 sons.  The older boy looked like he was of middle school age while the younger boy was in lower elementary school.  The other family consisted of a woman with her daughter who, to me, looked like she was in middle school as well.

The man struck up a conversation with the woman for a while, talking about their families and what they do.  During the conversation, the older son of the man crept closer to eavesdrop, leaving his younger brother behind at a bench next to their machine.  The man asked the woman what school her daughter goes to and she told him that she attends Fremont High School.  In return, the woman asked the man what school his son goes to.  He told her that the older son attends Sunnyvale Middle School.

Their conversation continued on in such a monotonous fashion that I began to drift back to the hum of the washing machines  when suddenly, the older boy walked back over to his younger brother and sat down next to him.  “Well?”  Asked the younger boy.

“Dude she’s in high school….it’s never gonna happen!” Exclaimed the older boy.

That’s probably the most entertainment I’ve ever had while sitting at a laundromat.

——

November 17 at 11:04am via Facebook

landis!! I got your picture! I can’t believe you came by to drop it off~ sorry Mondays are the only days I don’t work wish you called… Btw~ love how I look~ you captured my image exactly! Hahaha

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Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 11:19 AM

To: Lau, Landis

Hi Landis!!

This is *****~I came into work today, only to find a huge white envelope in my box…usually only filled with pink time sheets and boring stuff about work.. but to my delight~ I found a wonderful drawing of me as a super hero!!! HOW APPROPRIATE!Lol…. Sorry I missed you, it was very sweet of you to make me that picture.. btw. SUSAN wants a copy now ..sorry not my fault I had to show it off! Next time, just call me~ 408*******. =)

-*****

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Despite Monday’s plan not happening properly, everything worked out for the best.  I am happy the surprise factor still worked.

Pulchritudinous

-Landis