Boys and Girls

We went through the lyrics of the “Animal Friends Songs” from the PBS programs for kids. The children repeated each line in unison after I read each line. We then went over the meaning of the words of the song at http://pbskids.org/zoboo/karaoke/themesong.html.

I then turned on the Karaoke version and plugged in the microphone. The song played and the bouncing ball went across the words as I attempted my best rendition of this children song. A few lines in, I noticed no one was singing. It felt like telling a joke that no one laughed. The tempo was very fast and I could barely keep up with the words so the children did not have a chance. The song ended in a word “Yeah!” and that was the only part that the children were able to utter. We repeated the songs and they were able to join in. I tried several times to entice one child to the microphone but everyone shook their heads. Stage fright must be a universal fear but one of the boys who was writing down the lyrics said next time he would try to sing.

There were only two boys in the class among 13 children. It made me wonder why this is. I will visit the entire school on Friday so I will get a larger sample but I have several theories. My theories are not scientific but it is just a guess. The children I do see on the streets are more often boys so perhaps the boys are not on the schools and orphanages but on the streets. I also wonder if it is that boys and girls are judged differently from a poor family. If a poor family is going to give up a baby due to economic disparity, a girl could be a more common choice. I don’t know the real reason, but am grateful to teach the children. As they took off, the bus was late. I came down and the children were still standing in the street corner. I waited with them as they referred to me as “thay giao” which means teacher. The formality shows respect which is nice but I never always refereed to myself to them as “anh” which means older brother. The little bus came and as they all climbed on, and waved, I felt like the luckiest guy in town.