jeremy

jeremy turned 5 this friday. i keep talking about jeremy because he is one of my most difficult students, but outshines the other students due to his redeeming qualities such as his wit, his originality, and the sweet tenderness he will sometimes display. like sometimes jeremy would prefer to lie on the floor than sit on his seat, and instead of walking back to his seat, he will use his feet to push himself around the room, his back on the floor.

jeremy also throws grand hissy fits and will resist and resist to reasonable talk until reasonable talk threatens to send him to the chinese secretaries who believe in corporal punishment. and then he has a pair of pipes that would be the envy of most country singers.

i think jeremy is one of my favorites because you are most grateful for the kind of love that is hard-won.

i think i mentioned before how jeremy has a crush on my favorite student of that class, the sweet and adoreable jessica. jeremy will find any excuse to sit next to jessica when he can, and will frequently check her spelling exersices: giving her a star when she has spelled her three-to-five letter word correctly. i even caught him one time putting his hand on top of hers to help her write the correct letters to a word. during break, jeremy will tear around the room and will make sure that jessica watches by calling out "jessica, you see!" and then occasionally perform a feat of childhood masculine agility, such as jumping over a backpack on the floor.

but friday was the best because before jessica arrived for class, jeremy and his brother benjamin were there, and benjamin decided that he wanted to switch desks with jeremy. of course, there is the continuous sibling rivalry between the two, and jeremy was distraught by benjamin's position as an older brother to swiftly decide that he could just take jeremy's own desk without his consultation. jeremy opened his mouth and started to bellow his familiar canotation "I DON'T WANT--" but abruptly stopped mid-yell when i mentioned casually, "jeremy, if you switch with benjamin, you'll be sitting next to jessica."

he promptly seized his backpack and swiftly completed the switch. the last i saw of jeremy and jessica's romance was on friday morning. jeremy was trying to hold jessica's hand, and i saw their little pinkies intertwine as they lined up at the door, getting ready to leave english class to go have their lunch.

ah, the young love of little people.

this video is of jeremy, in his full jeremy glory, deciding to be witty by writing a sentence on the board in tiny letters. or, in his words, "wittle wittle baby" letters.