The Children Story - Sound The Same, But Not The Same

When a 4 year old pre-schooler slashed her friend twice below the knee with a mini paper-cutter (The New Paper, 23rd September 2008), I can fully understand the teacher's state of mind - an innocent act of a child towards another can sometimes put the teacher in a situation where she can never imagined.

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A 6 year old boy, out of generosity, brought a small box of razor blade to the classroom and distributed  them around - those who have never seen one, were excited with the sharp 'erasers'.

Luckily, a group of panicky girls alerted me: "Teacher, Naim is giving knives to his friends. He has cut his fingers..."

The statement made my breath stopped for a while. The safety of the classroom is in my hand. Should anything happen...

Pulling hard my breath, dragging my trembling feet with mixed emotion, I went up to Naim.

"Teacher, my house has so many 'erasers' not used. I want to give them who don't have ." Naim defended his good action.
He was confused with the situation.

The whole class focused on Naim - he's always the 'good-hearted Naim' who pin-pointed friends right from wrong - may it be at play or during lessons.
Even after being told not to look at anybody's work during spelling, he finds it odd when I did not correct any error on the spot.

"This is a razor blade. Not an eraser." I explained to him as the cut on his little finger was being bandaged.

"But my father said 'eraser'." The similar sound made him more confused.

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After returning the small box of razor blade to his mum, a shock expression was to be expected from her - but to take the responsibility for letting Naim to distribute the blade around, is hard for me while his classmates were doing their work at their own tables.

Luckily, no one was hurt because of the sharp 'erasers', except Naim himself.