It’s time for class. As usual, the JTE comes to my desk to pick me up, and we head off to the classroom.

We arrive to be greeted by a rowdy bunch of second-years (equivalent to US seventh graders). It’s supposed to be the JTE’s job to keep the kids quiet and in line. They’re the teacher, it’s their class, and pretty much everything is their responsibility. JETs tend to be mere ornaments. You stand there. You pronounce. You look foreign. The details may change, but the general idea stays the same. With some JTEs you’re even less (stand in the corner), and with some you’re much more (to the point of you pretty much running the class).

Usually with teachers I let them take the reins and see where they’re leading it. Sometimes it works, but sometimes it doesn’t and I start picking up the slack. So when there’s a discipline problem in the class, I usually let the JTE handle it first. Then, if it’s quite ineffective or they do nothing at all, I’ll start stepping in. Sometimes, though, if they teacher isn’t good enough at controlling the class or if the class is simply full of rowdy kids, nothing much gets done. This story concerns both of these.

We walked into the rowdy class and attempted to do the regular method of opening the class (good morning, how are you). We didn’t really get very far. The class refused to settle down and to an extent even got worse. As the JTE was telling them to stop talking, I was standing in front waiting to begin, giving the silent “I’m waiting for you to be quiet” treatment, that was apparently quite ineffective.

I was then surprised when the JTE literally pushed me out the door and into the hallway. She leaned against a wall and started crying, only able to say, “I don’t want to teach them,” over and over. I said ok, we went into the classroom, grabbed our materials, then walked back to the teachers’ room. On the way back she said that the kids had been saying quite mean things (which I hadn’t understood) in addition to being loud and obnoxious.

While the JTE went back to her desk to recoup, I went back to my own desk to think about what had just happened. It was all so surprising that I hadn’t had much time to really think much.

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