One thing you learn fast when working with children is that any change shatters their complete understanding of the universe itself. For example, if you move the desks around on them on a Friday afternoon, when they come in on Monday morning, it'll be like they just stepped on to another planet. Thursday evening, I did something more extreme than move the desks around; I shaved my head. I was excited to watch their heads explode the following morning, and man, they did not disappoint.
The initial reaction was pretty much the same across the board; as soon as they walked into class, they stopped and jumped back, like they were jolted by a shock of electricity. Their eyes bulged, and I expected half of them to drop their books. They walked to their desks and sat down without blinking or even dropping their visual lock on my noggin.
One kid put his books down and kept moving towards me without losing stride. His mouth was agape, and he still had yet to blink. As he slowly approached me, he raised a hand, and reached for my head. Somehow, his eyes bulged even bigger and he let out a scream when his hand contacted my head. You'd think he was petting a unicorn or a dinosaur or something.
I just stood there and laughed hysterically the whole time.
When the class finally settled down, I asked them to give a thumbs up or thumbs down to show what they thought of haircut. The responses varied from class to class, but the overall reaction was mostly positive.
There was one kid, though who was straight up pissed off with me. She gave the thumbs down with such an angry look on her face that I thought I saw smoke coming from her nostrils.
Class got underway, and my co-teacher kicked things off. As usual, I roamed around, making sure kids were on the right page and were paying attention. As I walked up one side, I noticed something out of the corner of my left eye. That's when I realized a small group of third graders were pressing their faces against the window to get a look at my shining melon.
It was priceless.
Other favourite reactions from throughout the day:
"Powerful!"
"Handsome!"
"Zombie!"
"Ugly!"
"Army!"
"Monk!" (in Korean)
"OOOOBAAAAMMMAAAAAAA!!!!"
Here's the kicker to all of this: I did the exact same thing just over a month and a half ago, and it's like they have no recollection of it.
I love my job.
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