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Q: Do you ever feel sorry for your students?
My students are great. I really love them, but at the same time I honestly feel so, so sorry for them. They're unknowingly pushed by the educational system into being quite closed-minded and ignorant about so many things we consider essential in life. I know there's very little I can do.
I realize things with the government and censorship in China aren't likely to change anytime soon, but do you feel there's any change possible in the education system? Can politics stay the same in China while allowing kids here to have a better understanding of the outside world?
It kills me to see such young, intelligent kids end up so ignorant, not by any fault of their doing.
14 years 21 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
sorry i was to hang my self the system have bang their mind,potential, creativity. they are moving there GDP and GNP to rocket heights but internal as human being they are not changing....... i feel it like that may be someone agree or disagree no hard feelings....
well, I feel the same sometimes too...but we are their teachers, so we can do a lot to open their mind...whether they improve their English or not 
I like to show em things that make em go 'Wa!'
Why did not many teachers latch on to this question?
I'm with manasyt on this, as a teacher I also try, in my way, to introduce my students to a broader version and view of the world than the educational system in general offers them.
I feel sorry that students spend most of their youth studying but don't know anything. I asked a room full of students yesterday which country the internet came from. No one could tell me. I've met a bunch of students who couldn't find China on the map.
I really feel bad for my students...of all ages!
The youngest ones are 3-4 years old. They start school at 7:30 am, and stay until 5:30 pm at their private kindergarten. Then they go home for an hour or two, (or, in some cases, go to dance or kungfu classes) and then they see me at the private school for another hour-long class, at a time when most kids that age in Canada would be sleeping already. I think they see their parents for maybe three hours a day, tops. Depressing.
The kids in the middle get a bit of a break, but not much--they're still always busy, but they're allowed to have toys.
Then there's my high school students. They leave their house at 6:30, and haul ass at school until 5:30. Then they go to piano lessons/tennis lessons/whatever. Then they have dinner. Then they either go back to school, or they stay up until 2am doing homework, and then repeat it all again the next day. 6 days a week, most weeks. Then, on their single free day each week, they have to come see me. And they're actually happy about it because I tell them about all the things they don't have time to do or see for themselves, while I teach them English. And, while I really like these kids, every one of them is socially inept in one way or another, and has no real interests or goals.
Poor kids.
