Not funny

So…I had a kid make a September 11^th joke recently.  Needless to say it was not funny.  I debated about posting about this at all, but it provided me with some reflection so I decided to share. 

In my junior high second grade (8^th grade) class the students were learning the grammar for, “I _____ to ______.”  We had them use “I study English” as their start to provide not only a grammar lesson but to get them to think about why they were learning the language.  I had some great sentences pop up from this such as, “I want to study English to go to America,”  “I want to study English to help people in trouble,” and “I want to study English to be an English teacher.”

Once they wrote that sentence we asked them to add to it with other “I want to” sentences.  For example one student wrote, “I study English to read English books.  I want to read Harry Potter in English.”  And this was where the trouble started.  One of my boys had written “I study English to travel on planes” assumedly because he wants to travel.  But he was having trouble with the second sentence and I don’t think he knew how to say whatever he really wanted to say.   Most of my students would just have sat there or asked the teacher for help.  Unfortunately this is one of my most creative students who is very good at thinking about what he is able to say in English, even though it is often ridiculous.  

And then I heard him say, “I want to attack.”  “Attack?” I asked confused, and even slightly amused by this point as I had no idea that this thought was connected to his previous one.  “Yes,” he said, “I want to attack biru by plane.”   Biru is the Japanese word for building. 

My initial reaction was just to say no and look sad and turn away.  I was shocked that he had said it.  He is one of my best students, and certainly not one who I feel would say hurtful things to me purposefully.  So, as with other inappropriate things that pop up in English class from time to time, I ignored it and went to focus on other students.

The English teacher also overheard this exchange and immediately came over and told him that that was not an acceptable thing to say or even joke about.  I appreciated it, as I know I would not have been able to express the seriousness of the matter in terms he would have understood.  He talked to him for a bit and I think that the student really started to think about how I felt when he said that.  He didn’t say anything like it again.

Looking back, I’m really glad that I didn’t freak out about the whole thing.  My student is too young to remember the September 11^th attacks.  He doesn’t really understand how serious of a thing it is.  It’s something he probably read about in history class, but it’s detached for him.  And then I remembered students in my high school classes making jokes about the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Those jokes weren’t funny either, but they could make them and laugh because they didn’t really understand it.  They knew what had happened but again it was detached and far away. 

I’m glad I kept my cool and let the English teacher handle it.  I really do think it was one of those speak-before-you-think situations and know he didn’t mean anything by it.  He was trying to be funny, which he failed at miserably, but the words were said without any malicious intent.  Hopefully he learned something from it as well and won’t make a similar mistake somewhere where it could really get him in trouble.  I think the worst thing I could have done would have been to freak out and let it jeopardize my relationship with one of my favorite students.