In the seventh grade I moved to Savage, Minnesota. I had moved around quite a bit up to this point in my life, so starting over as the new kid was second nature to me. The difference was, at this school there was no one that looked or thought like me. I was one of the only ones in my social studies class that thought it shouldn't be illegal for immigrants to come to the US without first learning English. I remember hating this one student teacher, Ms. Steber (sp?). I don't remember if she was married or not, but I have no clue why anyone would want to marry her. She was large and had long curly blonde hair. She would stand in the hallway and say hi to me with all of the fake-ness she could conjure up. I saw her once in a late night kick boxing infomercial and that made me smile. She would always tell me not to do things and what I should and shouldn't wear to school; I wished she would just leave me alone. Who was she to tell me how to dress and behave? I did nothing wrong and none of the teachers had a problem with me, most were delighted to have me in class. One day I was called down to the nurses office, I was confused, but delighted to get out of class. The nurse sat me down and told me that someone (Ms. Steber) requested for her to speak with me about personal hygiene. Are you SERIOUS!!!?? I took a shower every morning before I left the house and did my laundry weekly, so I know that I don't smell. The nurse went on to ask me questions...
N:Being that you are Asian, does your mom cook Asian food or American food at home?
M:My mom cooks both, but mostly Asian dishes I guess
N:Well, Asian food is a lot more greasy than American food and that may have contributed to some bad odor
M:...????
My face grew blank, but my mind raged. Imbecile! First of all get your Asians straight. Japanese, Indian, Filipino, and Cambodian people are not the same and we eat different dishes. I am Khmer and Chinese and our dishes are not all fried. What we eat at home is not the fake commercial garbage that you scarf down when you go to the mall on the weekends. My patience grew thin, but I was was out of my element. She went on to ask me more bogus questions...
N:How many pairs of shoes do you own?
M:...Two (Is this a real question?)
N:You might want to try alternating them daily
N:I nod while trying to avoid eye contact
I had some red and white Nike Cortez that I wore everyday and a pair of black Sketchers that I never wore. I never knew people owned more than one pair of shoes at a time. All I could think about is how much I hated Ms. Steber, I knew it was her that made the request. I wanted her to know how much I hated her and I wanted her to understand that her ignorance was another person's pain and my anger. The nurse ended our meeting and decided to take one last blow to my gut... you're not going to walk out of here and start balling are you? I gave no reply and walked out of the room.
Educators should be educated.
