HT and Joonghyeon with INP in the middle.

You'll notice that in the earlier post, although I mentioned Joonghyeon, I didn't specifically outline anything that he did wrong in today's class -- it was his cronies I was talking about. That's because Joonghyeon, as far as I saw, didn't really do anything wrong today.

Joonghyeon came in five minutes late -- that's true. Joonghyeon always comes in five minutes late. And his classmates come in not long before him. Because they always come late to Head Teacher's class, no matter how often I tell them that on Tuesdays, they'd better be on time. Tuesdays are the only days they get punished for being late. But the fact remains that Joonghyeon was not the only one who came in late.

When he did come in, I heard some sort of scuffle start up between him and Head Teacher. Something about "why only me?" and "five minutes". Joonghyeon was sulking when it was time to start the game and I asked him why, but he just shook his head and I let him be. Then Joonghyeon didn't make a peep for the rest of the period except to tell other students to be quiet, when I was shouting for them to settle down during the game.

The thing that Head Teacher has to learn is that, to some extent, you need to just let Joonghyeon be Joonghyeon. I've well learned that, even if he is speaking too loudly, and answering too often, if Joonghyeon is engaged with the lesson, you let him be. I use him for examples throughout the entire class. Joonghyeon is almost always, to some extent, somewhat of a center of attention in my lessons. And when he's in a shit mood, I let him put his head down on the desk. Not all the way down and not with eyes closed -- he knows where the line is. But I allow him to slump over.

In return, if I tell Joonghyeon to be quiet, he is quiet. If I tell Joonghyeon to sit up straight, he sits up straight. And when I asked him why he was sulking today, instead of disrespecting Head Teacher by explaining to me that she had singled him alone out for minus points for coming in late, and had told him alone to be quiet, when all he had done was turn around and tell his friends to be quiet when I was calling for it, he just shook his head and sat up a little straighter.

And Joonghyeon held it together until the second the bell rang at the end of my class.