Summer school
Mar 28th, 2008 by Peter
Yet one of them popular follow-ups on our trip to China the summer of 2007.
My wife’s sister is a private tutor in writing and drawing. She’s very talented at drawing and as I later found out, she also writes beautifully. She works through all vacations and weekends to make an extra buck.
When we visited last summer, we slept in her apartment. Meanwhile she stayed at her parents. The apartment was also the same spot where her pupils were taught, and since it was during vacation, she educated them there every day. This meant waking up to the noise of youngsters shouting and making noise until they were finally seated and put to work.
Her apartment had 2 bigger rooms, so she couldn’t keep an eye on all the students at the same time. At one point I took a quick glance at what one of the students was working on. This particular student was there to learn how draw. A part of this exercise was to draw a box of straight lines without any tools. All you could use, was a special technique, your eyesight and a steady hand.
When C’ sister wasn’t looking the little rascal used a ruler to get the job done fast and straight. Unfortunately for him, I saw his little naughty trick and turned him in to C’s sister. For that he got a slap in the back of the head and lost his ruler.
Afterward the incident he just smiled at me. Not blameful, but just one of those smiles that say: “I tried to cheat, I failed, but it was worth the effort, and I’d probably do it again”. So I grabbed his picture and told C to translate to him, that I would now remember him, and trust he wouldn’t cheat anymore. Not sure I succeeded, but at least I had a good excuse to shoot his picture.
Not sure I was a lazy cheat in school (just lazy), but maybe I just don’t remember anymore. On the other hand I was never sent to school when it was vacation, so go figure.