child_of not displaying right

The description for child_of
“child_of
(integer) Displays the sub-pages of a single Page only; uses the ID for a Page as the value. Note that the child_of parameter will also fetch “grandchildren” of the given ID, not just direct descendants. Defaults to 0 (displays all Pages).”

I need it to do that.

<?php
if (is_front_page()) {
wp_list_pages(‘title_li=&depth=1&exclude=8’);
}
else {
$output = wp_list_pages(‘echo=0&depth=1&title_li=&exclude=8’);
if (is_page()) {
$page = $post->ID;
if ($post->post_parent) {
$page = $post->post_parent;
}
$children = wp_list_pages(‘echo=0&child_of=’.$page .’&title_li=&exclude=8′);
if ($children) {
$output = wp_list_pages(‘echo=0&child_of’.$page.’&title_li=&exclude=8′);
}
}
echo $output;
}
?>

I used the code from the examples and it should only display the children of the current page?

I am displaying all of the children which looks horrible… also how do insert tags for the children so I can style them?

website: http://www.northeastern.edu/aalearningcommunity/