Education and Frustration

Dancing! (I'm on the right with the drum)

Dance Crew

I'm dancing again! This time as a traditional Chinese man... I get to wear a cool silk outfit and bang on drums, and then stand on top of one of them for the grand finale! I started going over to the office at night to let MathGuy and JapaneseGuy laugh at my Chinese writing (in addition to my speaking), which has been great fun and a lot of help to me... but Then... one night MathGuy messaged me (in the sentence pattern I'd learned the night before - woo!) and said they wouldn't be at the office because they had to practice dance, and hey, what, dance?? So, I invited myself over, MathGuy started teaching me his part (hence the masculinity) and I got promptly got put in the dance . That was four days ago, and we got judged today - if we pass, we get to perform it at the 5 year anniversary of the school! if they think we weren't so hot, then no performance for us.

Either way is ok though, as most days feel performative on some level... the last few weeks have been recruiting season for the next generation of students here... which means enticing high schoolers to come meet the young white girls who teach there, as well as talking up the school and, if current student reports are accurate, making gifts to teachers or schools for recruiting brighter students. They're making a video which I've been filmed for a few times - walking to lunch, teaching, and during a reconstructed version of English Corner, during which I may have frustratedly said some things about the school's recruitment practices that I may regret if anyone can understand the fast-paced Katie English... we'll see what the video sounds like.

Cheryl and I also went to a high school to talk to a bunch of kids with better English than my students about differences between American and Chinese education... of course, sharing our personal high school experiences. hehehe. Now one Chinese high school and a few select Dahongying staff know that I was homeschooled. :) The high schoolers liked it though and swarmed the stage afterwards to eagerly thrust pens and paper into our hands for signature purposes... we both ended up with some stray pen marks on our hands and arms from their exuberance, but it's all good...

After the students dispersed, we got to talk to the high school's teachers... and what they thought about educational systems in our two countries... turns out they're not any fonder of China's testing system than many of the students. But also that they feel the power for change lies with the government - and is not in their hands. There are those who thwart the system's purpose though... MathGuy proctored a test he wrote yesterday, but instead of watching the students, he left the room to let them cheat... otherwise he said none of them would pass the test, which they must to graduate DHY. In a place where your test score means so much, I'm beginning to understand... and become more knowledgeably frustrated... although I admire the student cooperation this system has produced.

Whoever's in charge of deciding such things has recently decided that students from vocational colleges can't take the test to get into a top college... and the little sister I never wanted (but always enjoy making fun of), Hugo, is frustrated enough that she now plans to go to the US for higher education... go Hugo... and she's probably the one kid in this school who can make that happen. With my life here, and the emails I receive daily about you Stanford kids protesting Bush, the worsening situation in Darfur, the seal hunt going on in Canada, your 3 Peaks 3 Weeks fund-raising efforts for east African NGO's, and Iraq confusions... I am constantly frustrated by the hate, violence, and inequality in the world... and am constantly amazed at the perseverance and courage people have to mobilize for what they believe in. And sometimes I wonder where I fit in in all of this. A part and apart.

Dancing and Condoms

My Students!

Kitchen Experiments

A few of my students just left to go back to their dorms from a
rollicking Friday night of cooking the usual Chinese food (eggs and
tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, fish, and rice) and picture viewing..
and I've begun my semi-nightly session of QQ... the Chinese version of
AIM or MSN. I get to practice my written Chinese with selected
individuals (friends whose English is already great), and make my
students speak English to me. Except that I currently have about 600
students from this semester and 600 from last semester... so usually
I'm hidden on QQ and only Cheryl and the other popular teachers who
are also hiding find me... But then, after their evening study hall,
for the lucky 9-10 hour, I appear and get swamped with "how are you"'s
until they're all forced to turn off their computers... it's a good
life. Today is Friday, so all the kids are out on the town in
internet cafes and there are no lights out hours if you don't come
home... but so far, most of my students don't really know that I
speak Chinese... and thus I trick them into practicing english while
they're out trying to enjoy their Friday nights playing computer
games... mwa ha ha.

I've begun to try to make my classes more interesting to me... which
may or may not be a good idea. Because it means talking about things
that I like to talk about... or that I feel are important. This week
we've been talking about rules, and whether or not they feel like it's
ok to break rules, and why... this is mostly coming from us talking
about why they don't like DHY and making a list on the blackboard of
all the rules there are... including no hair coloring, no wearing
jewelery, no smoking, and no leaving school on weekdays... and then
Katie looks around the class at all the kids wearing necklaces,
earrings, bracelets, blond streaks in their hair... and the ones I
know smoke, and the ones I've seen jump the wall and run away from the
school gate... and we talk about breaking the rules. And I feel lucky
to not have the responsibility or authority to discipline them.

I've also begun teaching the ACCIS kids sex ed. I lock the door
first... I'm not sure how the administration would feel about me
talking about sex... I guess I'll find out sooner or later. The kids
have been remarkably interested, and I'm learning new Chinese words
all the time. I had told them that I used to teach HIV/AIDS
Prevention and things kinda went from there... the boys are totally
into it - which is awesome, because most of my ACCIS students are
boys, and they're not sleeping in class anymore. Cheryl and I are
going to combine our classes on Wednesday and she'll take the girls
and I'll take the boys and do a condom demo (Cheryl gets a condom too,
but the girls so far are vehemently opposed to seeing one). Cheryl
also got the pleasure of laughing at me while I bought condoms at the
supermarket... oh well. It'll be even more ridiculous if I start
giving them to folks... the foreigner with the 40 condom a week
habit... hehe.

Shanghai!

Hey, That's My Hair...

I'm also plotting the devious swing-overthrow of the Software College
5th floor office... In a fortunate turn of events, all our Monday and
Tuesday classes this week were moved to Saturday and Sunday, and swing
dance in Shanghai is on Sunday evenings... So, I invited Cheryl, and
after much deliberation about the appropriateness of inviting two male
co-workers to hang out with us for a weekend, Cheryl and I decided
Mathguy and Japaneseguy were silly enough to warrant it. Turns out,
neither of them had ever gone to Shanghai, and were a little tough to
convince... but eventually they agreed, on the condition that they
would not, and could not, dance. Mwa ha ha. Dance they did, and
enjoy it they did... and now our badminton office games have been
replaced by office swing dancing. Awesome. Cheryl and I had also
decided to foot the bill for the guys through whatever means necessary
(their tenacity in paying for us is remarkable)... until the boys
vetoed our choice of hostels and opted for the nice hotel. We split
the check.

After this semester, I'm still deliberating as to what to do with my
life... or at least, my life in near-future terms... I'm currently in
the throes of creating a website on Global Networked Community for the
Global Studies in Education Master's program... although I'm still not
officially enrolled in the program. My friends here say stay for
various reasons... but I'm not sure what I feel excited about doing at
this point. I enjoy teaching sex ed, and talking about rules and
Japan, and teaching swing dance in the office, but those aren't
actually in my job description... I think I'm hired to entice the
students to talk to a foreigner who doesn't speak good Chinese. And I
think it works. I'm still restless though, and am attempting to apply
to a Mandarin Chinese studies scholarship... and a Master in Peace
Studies scholarship... and being a dance teacher... and teaching
community health... and I can't wait to find out what it is I'll be
doing next year! oh the adventure of it all...