A ninth grader asked me today which I preferred, American students or Indian students. I'd just dealt with (the right words) a roomful of forty eighth graders, during which time I slammed my water bottle on the desk loudly to get their attention (which worked, even though it was the only thing I had around to slam), dismissed several students for talking, hitting, etc, and explained the nuances of the orange line T (don't ask). My answer: that it was really hard to say; classes in the US are so much smaller. So, it's just different. I encouraged him to visit the US and see for himself.
I don't know if he knew the extent to which I was dodging his question. What I wanted to say is that yeah, American public school students, at least my students, are a lot better at being students. They cheat/copy each others' work, but not by default (In one class here I confiscated 15 or 20 notebooks of blatantly cheating students). My students do work for other classes in English class, but not all the time, not after I've asked them to stop. Repeatedly.
American students don't always say 'good morning, ma'am', or even address their teachers by name (or the correct name), but they listen to us. Most of the time. Sometimes they listen really carefully.
And, they may not always be warm, welcoming, or even take notice of a visiting teacher, but they probably won't lock her in a classroom and mob her for her autograph, either.
Maybe most importantly, when students in the US *do* make poor choices, they don't always say they're sorry, but they do deal with the real consequences of such a choice: a zero on a forged assignment, a detention for rowdy behavior. Here, the consequence is only a scolding. Or, if they're unlucky, a beating of some kind (again, I haven't seen this, but I know it happens). Students aren't held accountable in a way that helps them learn how to negotiate *real* difficult choices. So while the students at my KV school might test well and gain admission to universities, they aren't leaving well prepared for the more complex, difficult, and less kind world which awaits them.
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I wonder if some of it has to do with what one's expectations of "consquences" actually are. Thinking about this in conjunction with you last post, where you say that the principle has the power to deliver a public dressing down, and to recommend post shifts, but not to actually fire anyone. If the point is to pass the test, and you can still do that even if you cheat on your homework, then why not cheat? Objectively, of course, it has to do with the quality of learning, work ethic, etc, but if the system doesn't reward those things, what motivation do students have to work harder than the system requires them to work?
ReplyDeleteI don't know, but I do think your last two posts, when taken together, offer interesting questions.
Right. I always feel like I'm on unsteady ground whenever I make comparisons, because the realities here and in the US are so very different. See next post. :-)
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