I want to become a teacher in the future. This idea perhaps came to me when I was 13, but it was vague. At that time, my Chinese teacher was so strict that all my classmates feared her. The Chinese class seemed a dreadful disaster for me, to be exact, for everyone in class. Unfortunately, this disaster lasted for four years, my whole junior high school life. Each student would feel stressed if the next class was Chinese. My Chinese teacher always asked us to recite texts or answer her questions one by one, and we were not allowed to sit down if we could not give her a “satisfactory answer”. The satisfactory answer meant you could not omit any word when reciting or the answer to the question must match her model answer. There were always students, more or less, standing in class. I thought it was a real shame standing before all the classmates, so I tried my best to preview before class to avoid being punished. I clearly remember my feeling of being punished to stand in class for the first time. I felt there were many eyes staring at me, which really made me feel embarrassed and my palms got sweaty. I also remember that not a few shy girls have ever cried in those Chinese class under the severe criticism. How can you imagine those who smiled that brightly and laughed out that loud after class would become nervous and silent in class due to the fear of their teacher? “Is that the right way of teaching? Is that the good relationship between teachers and students? If I were a teacher, I would make all students feel relaxed and happy during class, and I would never let them fear me.” These thoughts sprang up to me. 
Last year, I was the second-year graduate student studying International and Comparative Education at Northeast Normal University in China. There was an opportunity to visit some urban and rural elementary and junior high schools in Jilin Province and do the classroom observation under my supervisor’s arrangement. I was deeply impressed by an English class in a rural junior high school. At the beginning, I wondered why the students were silent in class and almost no one raised the hand to answer the question. When the teacher asked the students to answer her questions one by one, I found the reason. The second student did not know the answer and did not say a word, however, the teacher just stared at that boy, without any hint or even a word. The air stood still for about 30 seconds, which for me was like a long century. I saw the boy blushed with embarrassment. That scene just reminded me of my Chinese classes in junior high school. The oppressive classroom atmosphere made me feel uncomfortable. Then I knew that most students in that rural school were from single parent families. I thought they might be vulnerable and lack of confidence. The teacher should have encouraged them to be confident during teaching instead of embarrassing them in front of others. From that day on, the idea of building a happy and comfortable classroom atmosphere for students became clear in my mind.
Teachers should know their students and spend time understanding their character and thoughts, and respect them, but not only focus on teaching knowledge. They do not have the privilege of criticizing and disrespecting their students, but helping them grow. The wish of helping adolescents learn and grow happily brings me to teaching.
Your story about having a teacher make students cry disheartens me. This kind of relationship should not exist. Teachers should be able to make their students excited to learn and not instill fear. I think this is a big part of my motivation to teach as well. Although I never had an experience of that intensity, I did have negative experiences with teachers who did not make me want to learn. This is problematic and as teachers, we should work to address this.
ReplyDeleteI think your story really just reflects how important it is to have a classroom atmosphere that facilitates learning. If students are in a classroom where they feel they'll be criticized by just asking a question, or if the teacher teaches oppressively as the teacher in your example did, students won't learn. I remember on the first day of high school asking my Computer Info and Technology Teacher a question about a topic, and instead of giving me an answer to the question, she said, "this is why it is important to listen in my classroom." I was listening in her classroom, I just didn't grasp the concept. Her classroom was very oppressive, and I never asked her a question again. I feel that these are things we need to keep in mind as we become teachers; many of us having gone through this ourselves, we can use these bad experiences to avoid making these mistakes to our students as future teachers.
ReplyDeleteYutong,
ReplyDeleteYou touched on a very important thing--the importance of teacher-student relationships. As you explain in your text these students who came from single family homes should had not being afraid of participating. The teacher, should have been there to create a safe environment for them. After all how do we want students to learn if it instruction is one-sided.
Thank you for sharing. I found your story to be rare, for many education major students I’ve spoken to share that they aspire to be teachers because they were inspired by an amazing former teacher of theirs. Your story is different, you shared you had a rigid teacher that made school miserable for you as well as your classmates. This is saddening, but I am happy you were able to distinguish how wrong she was and that this is pushing you to become a better teacher to your future students.
ReplyDeleteThat's the typical Chinese classes. As my experience, most of the Chinese teachers required a quiet teaching environment so they could finished their lesson plans on the limit time. Plus, most of the classes had over 50 students, which was challenging the teachers' classroom managerial skills. Some of my teachers didn't even allow us to ask questions when they were lecturing. They encouraged students to discuss with them after classes. But I think now it has been changed a lot since different generations in both sides and foreign culture is accepted.
ReplyDeleteAs tempting as it may be for me to focus on the negative aspects of the schools in China that you describe, we must also remember that everything is grounded in a socio-cultural context. I am always careful not to impose Western sensibilities on Eastern realties. With that said, I'm happy that you have this opportunity to examine how classrooms are negotiated in the States. Perhaps this is a reason why schools in the US are seen as a destination, a place where free thinking is not only encouraged but expected.
ReplyDeleteYour post provides some really valuable insights into the educational system of another country. When I was young, I went to Catholic school, and the nun would use a ruler on students who answered incorrectly or who were caught misbehaving. Needless to say, I was scared into obedience. Perhaps this is why I have made such an effort to establish a classroom community that promotes agency and respect. It seems to me that bad examples inspire young teachers to do things differently. Thank you for sharing.