a little coffee

So classes.  They’re going well and I still like this teaching gig- aside from the day about a month ago where I actually kicked a couple students out of class.  My greatest triumph, though, was not melting into a pile of tears when I lectured them for being rude, immature and just disgraceful: If you’re competely uninterested in speaking English and want to talk to your friends the whole time, why the hell do you come to class?  (And then I got soapboxy- all that other stuff was just build up) You’re college students! Talking over me and texting and listening to music isn’t how you behave in a college class!  I’ve never seen or been in a class this rude or disrespectful!

When my voice cracked I stopped and just stared at them because my chin wobbled too hard.  One girl, one of the few good students in that class said, “oh, Teacher.  Don’t be sad.”  Ha. Sad. Pissed off is more like it.

Chris- and all the other foreign teachers- also have a class or two like this.  And it’s been the older classes.  I suspect many of them can’t speak English, so instead of trying (English is their major) they stare at you or play with their phones or talk over you.  At least the ones napping are quiet. (They’re not all monsters-the freshman and sophomores are great- eager and talkative and a joy to teach.  But the others… I wish caning was still acceptable.)

I’m trying to figure out why this is.  Maybe it’s selective memory, but I truly don’t remember my college classes being full of assholes.  Yes, some were quiet and students less willing to talk, but no one started blasting rock music in the middle of a teacher’s lecture.  Whoever’s been saying Chinese students are the most respectful and courteous is a Big Fat Liar.

I suspect it’s part of the broken university system.  The big deal in college isn’t the million page thesis you need to write your senior year, but the exams to actually get into college.  The higher the test score, the more prestigious university you can attend (but it seems constructed to keep students in their provinces). You’re most stressed in middle and high school leading up to college but once you actually get there, it’s an easy ride. I’m under the impression that the universities and teachers monkey with student’s grades so they all pass. I’m curious to what happens when I fail the asshole students for not speaking English.  

Chris and I also think that’s why- the broken system, I mean- is why one of his students said to him today in response for THE WHOLE CLASS not turning in an in-class assignment: “The way the system is set up, all work is voluntary so we don’t have to do anything.” What? I didn’t want to write that essay about, well any of the 80 essays I had to write in college but I actually learned stuff.  Sometimes, most of the time, you need something to push you to do something otherwise how are you going to get anything done?  Blarg. So this is why they don’t do anything- they don’t feel like it. And yet again I wonder why they bother showing up to class.  (His student’s excuse was later countered by another teacher (yes, they have to turn in assignments) so I don’t know what she was thinking- maybe what most of these students think- they can get away with anything.)

It’s especially disheartening when, even in the asshole classes, you see students who, for some reason, express interest. But they’re being distracted- and the teacher is being driven insane- by those damn assholes- perhaps it’s the rich students who know they can get a job anywhere because they’re parents are snuggled up close in Mao’s pocket.  Aaaaaaaand that’s other thing…