Awww! So cute! I get some of that too, because I also work with kids.
The kids are learning English for the first time. In grade one, they learn the word "fat". I no longer teach grade one, but I always know when that lesson occurs, because I get swarmed with kids who are SO EXCITED to use their new word. It's funny, because it's not mean spirited at all. The children run up to me, call me fat, then stand there fully expecting to be praised for speaking English so well.
The fifth graders learn the word chubby. I also know when this word is taught, although I've never taught fifth grade. They are told that "chubby" means fat, but fat is a mean word and makes people sad, and chubby is a nice word that makes people happy. Thus, I get a lot of fifth graders coming up to me to say things like, "Hello teacher. I think you are not fat. You are chubby!"
Very cute -- though I see how this could be a problem should the kids ever encounter a random foreigner on the street and feel like sharing.
While none of them have ever explicitly commented on my weight, I've always gotten "you're so pretty." "Mommy she's beautiful." from little kids, and I always smile because they haven't hit the age yet where they're socialized to hate on fat people.
Not a fat story, but this kinda reminds me of something that happened back in my Obvious Goth Days.
I was doing some grocery shopping at maybe two in the morning, because the store was 24-hour and there was nothing else to do in the small college town where I was living at the time. Anyway, I was getting my weekly stash of college-kid ramen, wearing full eyeliner, black lipstick, striped thigh-highs, and a long beaded burgundy braid I'd worked into my hair while I was bored and stuck in my dorm. (The rest of my hair was bobbed.) This woman with a kid in her cart (at two in the morning?) walked past, and their conversation went like this:
"*kid points at me* That person's cool!" "*whispered* Shut up!"
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The kids are learning English for the first time. In grade one, they learn the word "fat". I no longer teach grade one, but I always know when that lesson occurs, because I get swarmed with kids who are SO EXCITED to use their new word. It's funny, because it's not mean spirited at all. The children run up to me, call me fat, then stand there fully expecting to be praised for speaking English so well.
The fifth graders learn the word chubby. I also know when this word is taught, although I've never taught fifth grade. They are told that "chubby" means fat, but fat is a mean word and makes people sad, and chubby is a nice word that makes people happy. Thus, I get a lot of fifth graders coming up to me to say things like, "Hello teacher. I think you are not fat. You are chubby!"
Very cute -- though I see how this could be a problem should the kids ever encounter a random foreigner on the street and feel like sharing.
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While none of them have ever explicitly commented on my weight, I've always gotten "you're so pretty." "Mommy she's beautiful." from little kids, and I always smile because they haven't hit the age yet where they're socialized to hate on fat people.
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I was doing some grocery shopping at maybe two in the morning, because the store was 24-hour and there was nothing else to do in the small college town where I was living at the time. Anyway, I was getting my weekly stash of college-kid ramen, wearing full eyeliner, black lipstick, striped thigh-highs, and a long beaded burgundy braid I'd worked into my hair while I was bored and stuck in my dorm. (The rest of my hair was bobbed.) This woman with a kid in her cart (at two in the morning?) walked past, and their conversation went like this:
"*kid points at me* That person's cool!"
"*whispered* Shut up!"
It's been 16 years, and I'm STILL proud.
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