Scabs and Failure

Once again faithful followers I have a summer tutoring story to share that treads ever so slightly upon the fence that separates sadness and hilarity. As I have mentioned before on previous post I would much rather laugh than cry, so please enjoy the following tale of scabs and failure.

Earlier today I had the joy of working with a student I have tutored before several times. I believe the little boy is 8 years old. Every time he has been assigned to my table, he seems to always have varying amounts of new scabs covering old wounds. This is nothing out of the ordinary as the rambunctious behavior of most boys his age often leads to accidents occuring. The issue I have is that half of the time he spends at my table is devoted solely to the picking, pulling, scraping, and jabbing of his scabs. It is disgusting, bizarre, and makes me want to vomit everytime I think about it like right now! It is clear from his perspective that he is not doing anything at all unusual or disgusting which creeps me out even more. Chances are he would be much further along in his parent's objective of improving his math skills if he were not engaged in trying to dissect himself half the time.

What added to the weirdness today was the following three things...

1) He kept crossing his eyes and looking right to left for some reason.
2) He kept taking his right hand, and using it to jab his left wrist in his mouth. He then
serenaded the entire table with a magnificent symphony of fart noises.
3) At one point when I looked over to check on his progress he was steadily rocking back and
forth while looking right in my eyes and saying, "You're crazy man!" To which I replied,
"If I wasn't, I certainly am now."

Now, depending on whether you share my philosophy of it being better to laugh than cry will likely determine your displeasure or enjoyment of how this strange story concludes. It may help for you to take into account all of which I just shared to truly get a kick out of this, and I'll tell you now I am so disappointed that this medium does not allow me to adequately express this student's body language and facial expressions that took place when the following conversation occurred at my table.

Me (assigning another student at the table her assignment) - Are you pretty good with division?

Girl at the table - Yeah, I love it!

Me - Great! You need to complete problems 1-14, and they are all division.

Scab Boy (who I did not even think was listening says the following to no one in particular) - Division...I have no idea what division is. I'm in second grade, and I'm already in summer school!

I realize that I have a sick, rather dry, sense of humor but the inflection of his voice, the look on his face, timing of the statement, and his overall body language was one of the funniest things I have witnessed in quite some time.