Wrestling

I'm a very bad man. Today my boys did the usual nonsense. They hit each other, pulled each other's clothes, stole things from each other, and attempted wrestling moves. Someone gets hurt or ends up in tears every time. This afternoon three boys ganged up on a very small boy. They picked him up, slammed him on the ground, and then the three sat on the boy. Wrestling!

Needless to say, after we returned to the classroom I went a little crazy. "I'm tired of the boys in this class touching each other, taking stuff from each other, hurting each other, and trying wrestling moves on each other!!! You are not to touch each other! You are not to hurt each other! You are not to touch things that don't belong to you! You are not to attempt wrestling moves on each other! You are not wrestlers! You have no idea what you are doing!" Then came the kicker. "Let me repeat, you are not wrestlers!!! Wrestling on TV is fake and the moves are fake! They are professionals! You are not! You have no idea what you are doing and someone is going to get hurt! Stop it! Stop the wrestling now and for good!"

As I was saying "Wrestling is fake!" you should have seen the looks on the faces of the boys. Priceless. Their faces fell. I felt triumphant and awful all at once. I might as well have said that Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, and God don't exist and then kicked them in the balls. Telling them the Rock is a crock felt so good. I don't like to stomp anyone's favorite thing but wrestling gets the boys so fired up. Fake or not it's impacting my classroom. I'm so sick of piledrivers, suplexes, and headlocks. "Mr., do you think the Rock can beat El Misterio in a Texas cage match?" Ugh. Can they take wrestling off the air during the school year? Please? Oh, by the way, "It's fake!"

My morning was interesting, too. A mother came to speak to me in the schoolyard. Her son is always dressed in tatters. His clothes are filthy. His body is as well. It seems the children are making fun of him. Making fun of his clothes and condition. She's mad at me because she says I'm not doing anything about it. Her son may be getting razzed about his filthiness. I never noticed. He never said anything to me about it either. I feel bad for him but his mother never responded to my calls and letters about his filthy clothes. What has she been doing? Why is he so damn dirty and smelly? It's a crime. Can't she wash his clothes? Can't she return calls and letters?

Man, I'm so damn tired of lazy parents.