12. DEGREE IN EDUCATION

Next evening Minki got her long awaited ride on Jonghyun’s bike. But before it could happen, imo insisted on him having coffee with the family. Well, a puppy getting his wish was not going to say no. Uncle, I and Jonghyun talked about his police work while imo and Soo grew the coffee beans. Minki insisted on getting ready with Jiyeon helping her.

Jonghyun had brought over a child helmet and safety harness from his friend, like he had told me over the phone. I was very touched with his care. Only uncle had ever taken Minki’s safety seriously. And then came along this baby dragon with puppy eyes. I lost a little bit of my heart when I saw him strapping a helmet on Minki’s head, after uncle had helped put her in the safety harness in front of him. He pulled down her visor and promised us that he would go slow. I did not worry. I knew my child was safe with him. Would always be safe with him.

It took Jonghyun and Minki half an hour to get the roses she wanted. She returned so exhilarated and exuberant that I did not have a heart to say no when he promised another ride soon as he took his leave. Minki chattered non-stop and wanted to know if she could get a bike too when she grew up. I told her that we would see if she still wanted one on growing up and then get her one. I did not want her to begin hero-worshipping the puppy. When he got married, she might be left out of his life.

I went back to teaching Soo-jin, she had tests coming up soon and we were studying longer hours daily. I did my school work too while the girls studied. With imo’s help I had made the desired changes in the daycare schedule.

That night when Jonghyun called, we discussed about Minki’s happiness about the bike ride. Jonghyun wanted to take her out again next day but I warned him about it becoming a habit that might be difficult for him to maintain. So he decided to give a day’s break. He sounded as eager as Minki so I gave in.

He then brought up Jongin issue. He had made inquiries in the station about the best way to deal with it, without revealing the concerned persons. Everyone had only one advice to give. As a police officer, he should keep out of it. His interference will only make matters worse for the child. Some of his colleagues and seniors had narrated their personal experiences of trying to help and ending up causing more abuse for the child. The sympathetic ones were outnumbered by the ones who believed it was parents’ prerogative to bring up the child as they see fit, including punishments.

We were silent for some time. It was not easy. Seeing how good and caring Jonghyun was with Minki, I could understand his silence meant how difficult it was for him to keep out of little Jongin’s abused life. He spoke after a long silence.

“Promise me you will never hit Minki.”

“I will not hit her Jonghyun. I may threaten her but will never do it.”

“I wish I could break their hands.”

“With your police baton?”

“With my bare hands.”

“I am sorry for dragging you into my family problems.”

“What are friends for Onew? How can a toki like you have a family like that?”

“We cannot choose our family.”

“I want to change my family too. Why are you staying with imo?”

“My father and Jongin’s parents wanted me to go back to Minho. I did not want to do so.”

“Why not?”

“Minki is not safe in that house. I promised her when she was not even born that I would always keep her safe. And the only way I could think to do so was to leave Minho and then my parents too.”

“How could you promise her when she was not even born? Did you know her mother?”

“Don’t ask, I won’t lie.”

“You still don’t trust me, do you?”

“Ten long years of conditioning Jonghyun. It was not a lesson easily learnt. It’s not a lesson I will easily forget either.”

“Even if I promise to never hurt you or Minki?”

“My parents told me promises were meant to be broken. Minho did not keep his promises either. After spending your entire life with broken promises, would you believe one?”

“I wish I was not sitting in the station or you at home. I wish I was with you.”

“If wishes were horses beggars would ride puppy. Tell me about your next date? When are you having one?”

He let me change the topic. Yoda puppy.

Over the next month, I found both the upside and the downside of taking care of kids. I found it difficult to keep doing kiddie chatter all day long. Alone at home with Minki was different, but with many kids together, I found it a challenge. I realized that you don’t have to really listen to everything they are saying. They just like to talk and you can listen and nod at the right times. Some of the kids had been bold enough to touch my double adam’s apple which had fascinated them very much. After that every kid wanted to touch it. They would touch it in turn when I talked or when I sang to them.

The kids were beginning to learn to have fun with a man watching over them instead of a woman. For one thing, I had more physical strength. Then, I was taller. I had a deeper voice. I shaved. For some of them it was like getting a chance to interact more with a father-like figure than being with a motherly woman all day long. All of them loved for me to sing to them. The infants gurgled happily and the toddlers clapped, waved their arms or bounced which they termed as dancing.

Minki had initially showed jealousy in sharing me with other children, but I made her incharge of minding the work of others, as she was the oldest amongst them. That made the little dictator very happy.

I taught the children a lot of English rhymes as well. I got instant feedbacks also from their mothers who came to pick them up at the end of the school day. Almost all of them were happy that their child was learning more English. Only one mother was concerned that her child was speaking more English than Korean. I reminded her that it was a daycare and once her son went to Kindergarten he would learn all the Korean he needed.

I was letting my instincts guide me in taking care of the children. And I liked doing things differently. In the one month under my care, the children had learned the basic colors and could use them appropriately, that was not counting the odd pink leaf we had or the black flower or the one child who insisted on painting all his grass blue and sky green. I thought the boy had color blindness and requested his mother to visit a doctor to confirm the color vision. When I got the report after a few days, I took extra care with the boy.

The kids’ work would be proudly displayed on one wall of the work room for the whole day then sent back with them with a note to the parents to display it on their wall too. There was an improvement in the children whose parents followed the advice. The kids made more effort to make sure their coloring was better and worthy of the display. They became more creative too. Minki added borders to all her coloring sheets. Others added sun or birds or bees or whatever their little hearts desired.

In the same month they learnt counting till ten. They could count on their fingers. There were a few young stragglers but since it was all in fun, we laughed when they mixed up their counting. They learned to laugh on their mistakes too. They all had sheets full of images and counting now. We started with one car and moved to ten leaves.

There was one two-year boy prone to throwing tantrums when he did not get his way. I asked the assistant how the previous lady managed him. But she had no idea. I spoke with the boy’s mother and it turned out he was the same at home too. I asked how they dealt with the problem. She informed me they just slapped him. I made her promise to never hit him again and let me resolve the problem.

I thought over the problem and began experimenting. I was successful in my first attempt. When the boy threw his next tantrum, I just ignored him. He lay down on the floor and began howling louder, throwing about his arms and legs. I just made everyone sit facing away from him and gave them coloring sheets. Coloring was this boy’s favorite activity. He waited for me to call him, but I just ignored him as he was still lying on the floor flailing his limbs in his tantrum. As everyone began coloring, I took out lollipops and offered one to each child to have after they finished coloring, except him. Within ten minutes he had gotten up and approached me with his hand out for the lollipop. I wiped his face clear of his tears, gave him a coloring sheet and the crayon box. He understood my silent reproach that he wouldn’t get a lollipop till he had begun coloring. Once he began coloring, I put his favorite colored lollipop in his hand. He gave me his best picture ever and happily on the lollipop.

There was only one more episode of a tantrum and when I dealt with it the same way. The boy stopped throwing them altogether. His mother reported he had stopped doing the same at home too. And since they had begun displaying his colorings, he was happier and gave them less trouble.

After a month, the director called me for a meeting. I became very anxious because I had not sought her permission before making my changes. She put my mind at ease and asked me where I got my ideas for the changes I had made in the daycare routine. She’d begun receiving feedbacks from parents. I honestly informed her that I had no idea where my ideas came from. I just wanted to do things differently and constructively from the first day. The children and their enthusiasm inspired me on a daily basis to do more of what I was doing. She requested me to prepare a dossier of all my activities. It should contain everything, from the first easy nursery rhyme to the progressively difficult ones. A copy of each coloring sheet, number sheet and she wondered what I will do next month. I asked her for a few minutes to bring my prepared work.

When I showed her the alphabet work I had prepared for the children, she was impressed. She wanted to promote me to take the Kindergarten class even though I lacked the formal education for it. She was willing to let me get a degree while I worked. I thought it over for a minute and then politely refused. I did not wish to keep her in the dark, but teaching tiny tots was not something I wanted to do all of my life. I had taken it on as a temporary assignment and that’s the way I wanted it to remain. I was happy that my work was liked and honored to receive a promotion so quickly. I offered to set aside a sample of all my daily work with the daycare children, for others to follow. The director accepted the offer with a smile and told me that she was not taking my ‘no’ as final.

Imo was very happy to hear my summary of the meeting with the director.

“Jinki you should seriously think about becoming a kindergarten teacher.”

“I can’t imo. I feel I will have an overdose of young ones. Let it be temporary only.”

“Ok. Think it over though. What do you plan to do once this assignment is over?”

“I can teach weaker students of any grade to improve in their school performance. Soo and Jiyeon are doing much better in school since I began helping them at home. Maybe I can teach more children.”

“Hmmm. Yes, that might work too. Do you want to begin now? There is one girl in my class who badly needs assistance at home but her mother does not have time. She lives nearby. I want your opinion on her before I say anything more.”

I nodded and imo called up the girl’s mother to come with the girl to meet me. Imo had something up her sleeve, she looked too much like the cat that ate the cream.

When the girl, Seul-ki and her mother had settled down, I took a paper and asked Seul-ki to write down numbers 1 to 10 and alphabets in Korean or English, whatever she knew. It took her half hour to complete my request. I studied the paper she gave to me and took imo into the bedroom to talk.

“Imo Seul-ki has moderate dyslexia. How come you did not tell me?”

“Jinki that’s what I wanted to see whether you would catch on to the girl’s problem. She has spent three years in kindergarten but they did not catch or correct this problem. Now she is having difficulty keeping up in my class. I cannot help her much during the class. And neither can I tutor her later on. Will you do it? But I want to know later how you could diagnose her without proper training in education.”

“Let me talk to her mother.”

I spoke honestly with Seul-ki’s mother. I pointed out the things on the paper that led me to diagnose little Seul-ki with dyslexia. I assured her that almost every child suffers from it when they begin to learn to write. Her daughter’s was not mild, but of a moderate category, and had remained uncorrected. It would take at least a month, may be more, to just correct her dyslexia before I could begin teaching her the school work.

Seul-ki’s mother became very anxious on knowing the problem. But I calmed her down and promised her that Seul-ki would get over it very soon. But she had to promise me in return that she and her husband would not get upset with Seul-ki at home. They would give her the emotional support needed for her to get over this. I alone could not help her if they undid my work by scolding her or making her feel inferior in anyway.

When asked about my fees, I was blank. I had not thought about it at all. My only thought had been to help little Seul-ki. I looked at imo and told the mother to pay me whatever they wanted. Imo began laughing and Seul-ki’s mother joined her. When the mother named a figure, I turned my expression blank to hide my shock. It was the same as my monthly earning from the daycare. I nodded but made the condition to be paid in cash.

When we were alone I looked in shock at imo who was grinning with a know-it-all look on her face. She urged me to get a degree in education. But I was not willing. I honestly could not see myself working with kids all my life. She asked for the origin of my knowledge about dyslexia, but I did not know. I just knew the girl was having dyslexia and since it covered nearly half her writing, it was at least moderate if not severe. Seul-ki would need to work hard to overcome it. Maybe it was all the reading I had done all my life that had given me this kernel of knowledge. I really didn’t know.

Another month passed with my life changing just a little bit to adjust the tutoring of Seul-ki. The girl worked hard and could write the alphabets and numbers correctly for most part. Every time she wrote things down without a mistake I rewarded her with a chocolate. I did not want to move on till she was over her dyslexia.

Our life was moving along comfortably. In the past two months, Jonghyun had been invited many times by me to join our Sunday family dinners. He would take out Minki for bike rides. He had even purchased his own set of safety gear for Minki. I was not happy with his spending the money but he would not let me reimburse him. He seriously got very upset with me. So I let him do what he wanted and just enjoyed the happiness in both their faces every time they went for a ride together.

I also came to know more about Jonghyun, like he was younger of two sons, his father did not have a regular job, and he did not get along well with his mother. His elder brother worked in a company and brought in the most money into the family. He shared with me his dream of earning more money than his brother one day. He already knew the basics of my family when he had researched me before we became friends. He did not press me for details related to my various problems and the things to which I said ‘I will tell you later’. He understood that I would open up to him in my own time and was willing to wait.

He was a patient Yoda puppy.