Call him by his first name

Author: Jolana Gaborova
Location: Brno
One day I went to a school as an assistant teacher.
There was a Romani boy, Lubas, the head teacher warned me. He misbehaved.
"What does he do?” I asked.
“He puts his legs up on the desks. He runs up and down the corridors. He doesn’t behave. I say to him, ‘Listen to me, Lubas: pay attention.’ He answers: ‘You bitch: why should I obey you?’ This is not at all pleasant.”
Some colleagues sided with her, and went into further details.
When I went into the classroom, I immediately saw that they were right. He tried to provoke me. Although it was cold outside, he opened a window and stood there inhaling the fresh air. So I said: “Vashek, what are you doing? Join us. First, shut the window: we’re cold and we could get sick. Vashek, shut the window, climb up on that table and shut it. “
“All right, ma’am. I’ll do that.”
And I kept it up. “Vashek, you should be doing something now, the same the rest of us are doing.”
“OK, OK, I’m listening.”
All I had to do was to call him by his first name. That was the whole story.
Since then I have been his friend, and he’s been behaving much better. He hasn’t been defiant.
I told all the teachers not to call him Lubas, only Vashek. So the trouble is over. Everybody calls him Vashek, even the head teacher. And he’s fine. He fits in well, and doesn’t do any harm. He’s normal.___________
Milan responded in Czech 8/29/01:
Milan DirdaDromaci@Seznam.cz2001=08=29
Teachers call me Milan. It is better than to be called by the family name.
… and Jarka responded as well:
Jarka TrieblovaDromaci@Seznam.cz2001=08=29
It is better for me when they call me by my first name.

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