Know Your Audience

Seiei is a third grader. His name is pronounced like "Say-Yay". He is from Korea and he has this innocence that comes across as immaturity--but his classmates love him and don't make fun of him at all. Even if they were to make fun of him, I don't think he would even know they were doing it.

Yesterday, we were creating scenes in Drama where kids were playing baseball and they break an old man’s window. In Seiei's group, he was playing the part of the "old man". They came to the part where his window got broken and he comes running out saying, "Whoever broke my window--I'm gonna hug and kiss you!"

At first I thought I misunderstood or something. Then he says, "If you break my window again, I’m gonna hug and kiss you!" Then he starts chasing the kids around the room like he is gonna do it! The kids were rolling with laughter.

When the scene finished, I decided to ask Seiei about what he said. I thought the other kids must have put him up to it. I said, "Seiei, why did you say that if they did it again, you were gonna hug and kiss them?" Seiei said, "It's because I wanted the scene to be funny."

He was right, it was funny.