Problem children are international

Yes, indeed. Every school has at least one kid who is just trouble. Well, my school is no exception. We have a student, let's call her Snow just for facility in telling the story. So, last year I noticed that Snow liked to wear her skirt very short, but I figured... you know, teenage girls, they do that sort of thing. Well, Snow has continued to wear her skirt very short into her third year, but she has also started to sort of dress a bit like a slut, for lack of a better word. Let me clarify, she wears her blouse with only 2 of the 6 buttons buttoned (guess which ones?) and NO undershirt. It is gross to see!

Ok, well I can hear you wondering what is so wrong with this behavior? Well... this is at a Japanese school and there is a dress code. There are uniforms and rules. Also, in addition to the rolled skirt and shirt, she has earrings, wears make up and has dyed hair, all of which are "no-nos" for my school. There is a particular teacher who, when he catches Snow wearing makeup or earrings, drags her to the teacher's room and removes the make up/earrings. If she will not take off the make up herself, then it is done for her. Same with the earrings. It is actually a sad sight to see her, almost every day having her makeup forcefully removed. I understand teenage rebellion, but can anyone explain to me the repetition of such behavior? Every day, really?! He also bought hair dye for her, but I have yet to see that forcibly applied, though I am looking forward to that day, whenever it comes.

ok... and the best story... One day, Snow came in with newly dyed hair! The teachers asked her why she dyed it and her answer? What do you think she said?

a) because it is cool!
b) because I want to look different from everyone else with dark brown hair!
c) because Elissa's hair is this color, so why can't mine be?
d) because I wanted to see how it looked.
e) dyed? this is natural!

While you think that over, I will tell you the most frustrating part. The teachers don't do anything! I mean, yes, they do forcibly remove her make up, and one time she did get majorly chewed out (though that was for storming out of the teachers room and knocking a trash can over, not for the earrings and make up), but all in all, she does not get into trouble. This is normal here, where kids do not get into trouble for anything. Also, if a kid is bad during English class, we are just supposed to tell the homeroom teacher, rather than do anything about it. I am so used to the American way of embarrassing kids in front of their friends to make them behave, but that is not how it is done here! It is aggravating to just see the kids doing the same $hit over and over and over and never getting in trouble for it. I have no idea why her parents are not doing anything, and I do not know enough about families in Japan to even try to guess at what sort of family classification situation she would fit into that could cause this behavior.

Ok... back to the question...

I would love to make you all wait for a future post to learn the answer, but odds are I will forget. So, believe it or not, her answer was C. Yes. She pointed to the foreigner in the room, who has lighter hair naturally, and used that as an excuse for dying her hair. The teachers sorta paused for a minute and just bust out laughing! I would also like to point out, that my hair is NOT that color at all! Snow's hair is sort of orange-y... you know the color... someone with really dark hair tried to dye it lighter? Yeah...didn't work.

So anyway, just know that there are problem children around the world, and that even in japan, they pull ridiculous excuses out of nowhere to try to explain their actions.

the end!