Whatever Has Happened To Our 10 Year olds?

My 10 year old boy was promoted to a new class this year. Only 8 of them joined this new class so apart from this 8, he has to get to know the others in his new class.

Recently he was chosen as a group leader for a moral project. They were given 2 weeks to present their project using the power point. There are 11 in his group. They are all from his new class. We gave him some tips on how to work as a team, how to cooperate with the others and how to lead.

We told him to find out the names of his group members so he could type it out on the cover. We also advised him to collect information from everyone so he could put it together.

However, the next day he said that a couple of the team members have started working on the power point project and they did not want to let him do it. We told him that is not the right thing to do. It is not right to work as a team and not contribute anything. So we told him to get a copy of the work so far and include his part. We gave him a pen drive to copy the information.

The next day he came home with a damaged pen drive. It looked like it had been pried apart. However, we weren't sure. It could also mean that the kids who took it did not know how to use it and that's why it was pried and damaged.

We gave him a new pen drive the next day and this time he was able to copy the information. However he was told that there was no need for him to do the work. When he protested saying he had to contribute something, they said "but you are, you are the group leader." To me, that sounded like mocking but we gave it the benefit of doubt.

The next day, he told them again that he should do some work and then they would do some too and he will try to put everyone's contribution together. They finally agreed but they also told him that his power point look "weird" and that he should not present since he "spoke with a bad Chinese slang". However, he maintained that he should contribute, so they said he could but he is to read out only. Explanation will be done by someone else. They also agree to let him put everything together.

However the next day, they refused to lend him the pen drive giving all sorts of excuses, from forgetting to bring it to someone else needs it etc and finally they said if he wanted it, he had to pay 10 cents for it.

Before this, my son who was also unsure of whether they were trying to be funny, finally decided that they were indeed trying to give him a hard time. Not all 11 were like that. I suspect from what he has told me so far, that this came from a couple of them, a girl and a boy. The rest remain silent or were not very much involved in the project.

I've asked him whether he wanted me to step in to help him sort it out by informing teacher but he says to let him try to resolve it on his own. He said he would try to ask for the pen drive once again and if this fails, he may let teacher know.

Since this is just the start of the year in a new class, I think it is important that he stands up for himself.

Sigh. Only 10 year olds and the above sounds like some crazy power struggle in a competitive corporate environment.