This year, there's this new fifth grade girl in the program. She's quite intelligent and so far she seems to be ahead of most of her peers, scholastically speaking. (I have noticed that the girls at this school are more mature and better at homework than most of the boys. Most of the boys would rather be playing, like, Connect Four or Uno. Sidenote to a sidenote: it really bugs me that kids are addicted to Uno but still don't obey the rules of the game and expect me to play with them.)
Anyway. So this girl seems to be able to carry her weight in terms of math and spelling and all that junk. Nothing too unusual about that because she also hangs out in the "smart crowd" with her friends. What's really strange is how absurdly polite she is. Almost every single time she speaks to me, she will take on a very deferential attitude toward me. Most of her sentences end with either a humble "please" or an overly enthusiastic "thank you!"
For example, this girl constantly finishes her homework promptly and needs very little help. I'll still look over her work to check it, even though she obviously knows she didn't make any mistakes. And then when I tell her that it's all good, she starts thanking me like I just pushed her out of the way of a moving truck and saved her life.
And then, there was this time when one of my coworkers gave the girl a challenging worksheet because she finished her homework so fast and needed something to stimulate her young mind. Well, this worksheet was pretty dang obscure. I mean, the whole thing was like this:
24 H, 7 D, 1 W
And the answer to that, of course, is to figure out what the H, D, and W represent, which is "hours, days, week". Only a lot of the other questions are weird, like "12 Signs of the Zodiac" and "3 Blind Mice" and "A 6 Pack on 50 Cent's Abs."
Somehow, I don't know how, but the girl figured the whole thing out. As a reward, she got TEN stamps for the day. (Usually, a kid gets awarded one stamp for successfully completing the day's homework. Stamps get tallied up later on and can be redeemed for prizes. I wish real life was just like that.) So I was impressed at her resilience and gave her the ten stamps. She must have said "thank you" for each stamp I placed on her stamp card. It was just ridiculous.
She was being so polite, I decided to give her an extra stamp just for the heck of it. And of course, she had to thank me for that as well.
It's really weird when a person keeps thanking you for something that they really don't need to be very grateful of. It's a strange feeling. It made me feel really guilty, like I had done something wrong. I can't explain it. I don't understand it, either. But just imagine how you would feel if someone kept thanking you all day long and you weren't doing anything special.
Thank you very much for reading this.
Somehow, I don't know how, but the girl figured the whole thing out. As a reward, she got TEN stamps for the day. (Usually, a kid gets awarded one stamp for successfully completing the day's homework. Stamps get tallied up later on and can be redeemed for prizes. I wish real life was just like that.) So I was impressed at her resilience and gave her the ten stamps. She must have said "thank you" for each stamp I placed on her stamp card. It was just ridiculous.
She was being so polite, I decided to give her an extra stamp just for the heck of it. And of course, she had to thank me for that as well.
It's really weird when a person keeps thanking you for something that they really don't need to be very grateful of. It's a strange feeling. It made me feel really guilty, like I had done something wrong. I can't explain it. I don't understand it, either. But just imagine how you would feel if someone kept thanking you all day long and you weren't doing anything special.
Thank you very much for reading this.
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