A Slice of China: Classroom Behavior

Classical music drifts down aisles that separate dozens of desks; 13-year-olds rub their closed eyes clockwise, anti-clockwise, up and then down. The classroom is silent except for the mellow tune now outperformed by the loud speaker. Instructions to massage eyes fill the room, an attempt to preserve some form of healthy eye sight among Chinese students. At Foreign Language School, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, this is a daily duty performed with patience and care. After all, in a Chinese classroom students are forever walking up to the board to read. Poor eyesight is endemic across this country. Students are often required to study more than 12 hours a day and within that process, ruin their eyesight from too much reading.  

Five minutes pass, the music stops, students open their eyes from what seems like a kindergarten afternoon nap, I blurt a wake-up HELLO, and the lesson begins. Debate time. Arguments for proposition and opposition are prepared. Should you be able to eat fast food whenever you want? Does TV make you smart? Is the Chinese style of teaching bad? You, the teacher can take a break, relax, just stop students’ from completing homework from other subjects, and appreciate the fact that participation will come almost naturally in the class. Articulation is in abundance in Chinese classrooms, even when expressed through English.

Sitting close by the students who chat, staring into their eyes in an intense silent confrontation, you will see surprise. Really, would a teacher discipline a student with this type of behaviour? If you are from the western world this might sound like a basic form of authority but here in China, teachers deal with their students through strict disciplinary measures. 

One student walks up to me, he has forgotten my name. And he repeats after me: Martin Volz-ah (Chinese pronunciation). A minute later he approaches me again. “Can I ask you a personal question?”

Several silent seconds pass.

“Yes,” I say hesitantly, at the same time hiding my intrigue.

“Have you watched Silence of The Lambs?”

“Yes, many years ago,” my mind can’t focus exactly on the storyline so I lie.

“Who was your favourite character?”

“I can’t remember, it really was some years ago.”

“Oh OK.”

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Yes, I have watched it two times,” the 14-year-old responds.

Towards the end of the lesson, as the debate wrapped up with rebuttals he turns to me across the room and asks a question. I tell him to wait till the end of class. 

“What is best- classical or pop music,” he asks.

“Both have their place with me, classical is good for the soul and focus. Pop brings on some energy and silly fun,” this time I respond truthfully with an involved, mutual answer.

No matter the class or age group you are teaching, it’s insightful to see how humans act. The divide between males and females can be as evident as air pollution. Especially among teenagers, even asking someone from the opposite sex a question can be an energy-sapping experience for the student and teacher, who observes this nervous, unsure interaction with several cringes and frustration. Then, in another class, you have the pre-adolescent male student, who during team games, when girls bend over, will move behind them and pretend to slap their bottom repeatedly. That is of a sexual nature you immediately presume? Not quite. It is just playful, a boy noticing the body, and wanting to be silly with girls. In another year he may perform this funny act with a different interior motive. 

The platform is set in a business class with a role-play discussion about marketing perfume. Adults pull out ammunition: opinion, logic and a naturally competitive desire to be right and win. Talons like those of an eagle might symbolically pass through your mind as these corporate high-flyers get lost in passionate debate about why the company should sell prestigious perfume online, even if its potential customers don’t have access to its smell in a localised boutique perfumery. If your opinion is belittled, what do you do? Find a way to dish out payback: reduce someone else’s effort and most importantly of all, just be heard in the debate. Assert your opinion, even in the classroom. China is Super-Competitive.

It amazes me what activities adult students are absorbed by. One class involved making your own educational health poster. Using crayons I got them to draw posters about what is a health priority for them personally. Issues of body, happiness and eye sight were vocalised. Totally lost in drawing, the students’ effort and interest is riveting. What will the outcome be? Already, as a teacher I feel a sense of fulfilment, but most importantly, the high and likely hope that I too will be satisfied by the upcoming conversation. And I was. 

Students critique one another’s work. Point out the flaws of a first draft. Who is your audience for this poster? Where will it be displayed? All discussions provide such quality insight into how humans educate one another, in and out of the classroom. I, the one who sets the content and activities, sometimes end up walking out of the glass-bowl classroom the bigger student. New ideas swim in my mind. Wow, so much information to process in such a practical situation. And I get paid for it.