The day we went to teach class in a primary school

We had all finished our lessons for the day. This is a video of my friend's 6th grade class. She said "just walk into that room with a camera and watch what happens". Now you can watch too.

I had an 8th grade class (the oldest group we could have), and I chose to talk about emotions. As silly as that sounds, it's a concept that they don't really deal with like we do in America. And it's a complicated one, at that. Like I've mentioned before, with the suicide rates going through the roof here and teenage years being an emotional rollercoaster, this seemed like an appropriate time to talk about emotions.

I said to the class "Fanoanoa. Fanoanoa means sad. Can anyone tell me something that makes them sad?" Dead silence. So I moved on. "Fiafia. Fiafia means happy. Can any one tell me something that makes you happy?" Still, dead silence. Frustrated, I moved on and said "ITA. ITA means ANGRY. Can ANYONE tell me ANYTHING that makes you ANGRY??" I waited a little longer this time, and as soon as I saw a girl even flinch, as though we were at an auction, I called on her...

...and she said "I'm angry when my mother beats me". At this point, I realized that the kids definitely understand emotions, and they understand them to a very deep and real level... but they don't use them out loud... or at least they don't use them for petty situations like getting bitten by mosquitos or dogs. I tried to use those things as examples, and the kids just didn't understand. I never witnessed any of the children in my house getting severely beaten, but several of the SIT students said that it happened a lot in their house, and that it was troubling to watch or to hear. All this is going through my head immediately after the girl's response, so finally I snap back into reality and say, "welp, who wants to sing if you're happy and you know it?"