Click Here to Subsribe to the 'The Vance Report' Feed Tis’ the season to be jolly, falalala. It is also the season when students that I have never laid eyes on before start showing up to class and acting as I am their best friend. Here are just a few of the excuses that I have heard recently for why students did not show up to class until the last day.
“Teacher, I was learning how to drive.”
“Teacher, I was learning Japanese.”
“Teacher, I had a part time job.”
“Teacher, I hurt my eye.” Later it was his leg.
“Teacher…” That from a student who could not seem to remember why he had not shown up to class.
I am a compassionate guy. Really. It is just that I vainly called these students’ names week-after-week wondering where they were. I never received a phone call; not even a note. I have no way to verify whether or not their stories of disease, famine, tragedy, etc, are really true or not.
In America, students would have dropped the class weeks ago. They certainly would not have the bravery (or shamelessness) to show their faces on the last day of class and expect to receive a grade.
Why is it different in China? Unfortunately, too many students are allowed to get away with skipping out on class until the last day so they assume that I will allow it as well. Not a chance. I am different than their Chinese teachers. I teach an oral English class. I do not give out homework or tests. The main requirement to pass my class is that students attend and participate. If you were not ere that means that I do not know you. If I do not know you, that means you fail.
I hope that by failing these absent students, I am actually doing them a favor. If they ever have a chance to study abroad they need to learn now that such shennanigans are not tolerated in Western universities. Hopefully, the big fat ‘F’ on their report cards will send that message to them loud and clear.
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Yeah, I tried that, but the school just changed all the grades to passing.
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I hate it when schools do that. Mine has done that before, but I work in an elementary school where I was trying to give a C to a student who in all fairness deserved worse. There’s just nothing you can do about it and I understand if an elementary school doesn’t want to give a “bad” grade to a kid who has attended all their classes.
But in college? I would hope that as a teacher you would have the right to fail a student, otherwise they’re stripping you of all your power.
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Shut up, weiguoren, and dance.
If they wanted to learn English, they’d hire a Filipino for about 1/5 of what they pay you.
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@cousinavi,
That’s just it. I’m not going to dance. But like Nicki said, the school will probably just pass them. At least I tried…
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Yes, the same happens where I am. I just give them the lowest mark possible – I’m told that the students can’t fail anyway. What’s the point????
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I seen and heard it all in China. I’ve watched bribes being taken and told, “But, this is China.” One of my students this past term slept, in class, for two months and when asked about her behavior she said, “I must close my eyes in order to better concentrate.” At least the was the interpretation given to me.
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Chinese student I have are spoiled and unruly, something I didn’t expect coming here. Now that I think about it, if I didn’t get additional benefits from China I would leave. They don’t care, so why should you? Just give them the bad mark and let the others to handle it. I have no problem looking the other way.
I am a little pissed at the Philipphino comment because I added more value to my human capital in college then they can accumulate in a score.
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http://www.usingenglish.com/esl-in-china/grades.pdf
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yeah we are wasting our brain and energy here.i m very strict to them ,if u r not in class or if u r in class and doing nothing you automatically have to fail.during exams u have more headaches than u can imagine ..i had a situation where the students told me pls .dont bother urself they will pay our teachers to change it. i said never will that happened, so i always had in my results late and those teachers were always angry with me i told my school dean , he gave me all the rights and powers and warned that nobody should ever change any result from the foreign teacher, i was supported by my students .so and it worked very well, but now the chinese teachers were working against me , doing everything to destroy my good work , so for 3 years i did this but when we had a new dean who didnt know anything about me, she believed all the stories fabricated about me and she wanted me to leave .but again i was defended by the students who gave a report to the president who made investigations and some teachers were warned and almost lose their jobs if i didnt take easy, so it also depends on circumstances and the people in charge.but thats it in china, cheating and buying of certificates is common,70%graduating students in china are just a bunch of rubbish , nothing in their heads, and thats how the system works few intellectuals to control and tell the others what to do.u can find this in banks and public places. some dont know their duties or job she often need the boss to tell her what to do…..lets forget about it and make money. if we teach them to speak and speak very well ,may be after 2 years we wont have jobs,a friend once said ……
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First of all Espero, if you are going to comment and put yourself out there as an English teacher, then perhaps you had best learn to write the language correctly prior to teaching it orally.
We have the same situation here in Chongqing at the University that I am teaching at. Students with attitudes, Chinese teachers harboring resentments against Foreign teachers, administrators whose only job is to insure the University looks good to the government. I recently attended a dinner here, and the university president read his entire speech from a piece of paper and never looked up once. What does that tell you, he was appointed to this position by the government and has the barest of degrees.
Many of these students are deluded into thinking they can pass English courses here and following that attend American or Canadain Universities and compete with western students. It cant be done. However, when i taught at Acadia University in Canada, many of the visiting Chinese students would simply recored lectures and then memorize them just as they did in China. My step duaghter, is in her final year of high school and attends her classes seven days a week 15 hours per day to learn only “The National Exams” they learn nothing else..
what a pity.
Laurence J. MacDonald PhD
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