this morning, i termianted another student. i dread teaching him, just like i dread going over to (i-cant-remember-name)'s house cos half the time i will be concentrating on the directions of the ants, praying that they would not crawl into my pencil case or my bag. i had to exercise high level of self discipline not to scratch myself every passing minute. ok thats the past. but for this particular guy, he is actually a classmate of one of my current student. hmm.. i taught the later one for going on 3years but the former one, i taught him only for 2 months, which is like about 9 lessons. for the past nine lessons, he cried twice. first day of the lesson, i was teaching him a particular maths question and he said he understood, so i removed the my working paper and asked him to work it out on the book itself. and apparently he jumped several steps. and i asked him why he jumped steps and i continued to say that "you jump steps le, how you going to gain marks. how you going to revise?" and he jumped and dashed to the toilet to cry and he got a big scolding from his mom. and during the last lesson, he made some mistakes in the chinese spelling, so naturally corrections have to be done. and as he was writing out his corrections, he was crying. i was like huh? apparently he said that his teacher though taught him that topic le, but the school spelling would only be given one week later. (actually i couldnt understand what he was trying to say, this was what the mom said la) but the thing is, i gave him xi zi to write also. the spelling i gave was based on my xi zi! inside me, i was really hurling all kinds of words at his attitude. for 9 lessons, i din manage to see his WHOLE EXACT profile. i always see his side view. when i talk to him or when i ask him question, he would always mutter and i really couldnt hear him and all i do is to watch the time ticking away, willing it to go faster. i am already being very tolerant. from the start of lesson 1, i already wanted to terminate him but it was till lesson 9 that i execute my action. never mind that my last lesson went unpaid, i would rather forgo a new pair of shoes or a bag or a top than to have another wrinkle. thats opportunity cost~