US History Class

We wrapped up World War II a couple of weeks ago and are now in the middle of the Cold War.  However, a student of mine in my ESL US History class mentioned a while ago that her grandmother was from Hiroshima.  (The student is an exchange student from Japan.)  She didn't know much about it, but was going to find out.  She has been prepared to talk to the class for several class periods, but I keep forgetting to let her talk and she is too shy to remind me.  Today, we remembered.

Here are the interesting things she told us today:

• Her maternal grandma (who is still alive at 87 years old) was away to college when the bomb dropped, though Hiroshima was her home town.  She heard news of the bombings on the radio and returned home to see the aftermath 2 days after the blast.  She found her house completely gone and her mother (my student's great grandmother) dead.  My student referred to the bomb's center as "ground zero" and said her grandma's house was very close to it.
• Her paternal grandpa (not living in Hiroshima, but in another town), survived and air raid during the war and was nearly bombed at one point.  He narrowly escaped.
• Her paternal grandma (also not living in Hiroshima, but somewhere else) remembers learning in junior high-aged school about the US soldier.  She remembers reading in books about how evil he was, how to protect yourself from him, and how to fight him off.  It was part of the school curriculum.

This was all very interesting.  The student didn't have much more to say than what I just wrote.  She obviously had not be taught this information as a young girl because she had to find out from her mom in order to share with our class.  Though I don't have any personal connection to the bombs, knowing that my student does, really makes the world seem small and gives you a mighty appreciation for the safety and security we have as well as immense gratitude for the fact that our country (besides singular events in 1941 and 2001) has never been invaded, bombed, or occupied.  We are pretty lucky!

Unfortunately, to put a damper on this post.  I have several very rude students in this class, who, although were give specific instructions to be quiet and respectful to this particular student as she spoke, weren't.  Not all, but most of the rude ones are from a particular eastern European country.  Though I've never known anyone else from this particular country, I have made some harsh negative judgments about it just because of the kids in my class this year.  Though they were quiet for most of the student talking, they had rude and stupid questions, asked about China (not Japan, and when corrected responded with "whatever"), said they couldn't understand the student, etc.  These kids, of all kids, should have more sensitivity towards accepting people of different cultures.  I don't get it.  I was ready to kick them . . . hard.

I loved teaching this ESL class LAST YEAR.  It was so much fun.  The students (representing countries from Mexico and Honduras to Nepal and Thailand) just soaked up everything I told them, were eager to learn, and appreciated so much their good fortune of being able to live in the United States.  The class this year is a different story.  The majority of the students are rude and arrogant, fail to try to understand different perspectives from their own, have no respect for me or my classroom, and . . . I am ready for this school year's class to be finished.  There are about 4 kids in the class who I genuinely like and they try to do well.  The other 12 are just . . . ugh.  Of those 12, five of them are from the same country and tend to lead the disruptive behavior.  With this class, most days I feel like a 1st year teacher with no management skills and this class of 16 feels like 50.  Sigh.

I am grateful today that my Japanese student was able to give her little story.  Maybe one of these days the other students will have a change of heart and be nice.