Doamna profesoara, va rog!

My partner teacher was out all week last week due to illness and I think it is a nice break sometimes when I get to teach bymyself....but sometimes it can be difficult. So on Wednesday last week, I was sitting at my desk getting stuff ready for class during the 10 minute break in between classes and one of my 11th form students comes up to me asking me for my permission to miss class. It's my experience here that if a student asks a teacher to miss class, for whatever reason and gets approval, they will not be marked as absent. No "a" will be written in the catalog for that day, they just won't receive a grade for that day....and here in Moldova, not every student recieves a grade everday. So she asks me if she can be absent and I ask her why. Sometimes if students say they are feeling sick or need to go home for whatever reason, my partner teacher will let them go.....so I figured I would give this a try. I would still put an "a" in the catalog but I wanted to hear her excuse/reason.

She then told me her reason was because she needed to go to the piaţa (outdoor market) to buy some shoes. I was kind of in shock, talk about being truthful...I mean, she could have said she was feeling sick and I would have never known she went to buy shoes so I will give her props for her honesty. I then ask her why she cannot buy the shoes on the weekend and she said that she goes to another village on the weekends to be with her mom and they do not have a piaţa. I tell her no, that she cannot miss class but then she puts her hands together like she is praying and begs me, saying, "Doamna profesoara, va rog!!" (Please teacher!) She continues to beg and I finally say to her in Romanian, "if buying shoes is more important to you than your education, go!" She left the classroom. A few minutes later the bell rang and she returned. I was really proud ....because maybe my words meant something or made an impression on her. I totally expected it to backfire and for her to skip class...but she didn't.

I later heard her talking to her friend saying that she could just go during geography class....so my victory was short lived....but at least she stayed for English. :)