I was leaving my classroom, planner in hand, on the way to the “staff meeting” that was rumored to be just a staff birthday party. My doorway filled with Chinese adults, men and women in business suits and collared shirts. I waved them in, as I always do, welcoming them (in gesture, of course) to take a look around. Sometimes they shake their hands in front of their bodies, heads shaking down, no, no, before they walk away. This crowd came in as if they had been instructed.
In fact, they had been. Two Chinese interpreters/Admissions staff came in with the crowd. I couldn’t help but staring as more and more people poured into my room, until every chair and morning meeting seat was filled, with standing room only for the last few adults.
“Can you please explain progressive education?” I was asked after being introduced as the second grade teacher.
To anyone who knows education right now, this is like being asked, “So what is America?” or maybe “Can you explain what it means to be Chinese?” There are a lot of answers, and none that can be given on the spot in front of no less than 40 strangers, especially when you have to pause every two or three sentences for translation.
I did my best to talk about what it looks like in my classroom, about community building and collaboration, and about the Farmer’s Market study.
Then the Vice Principal came in and did a Q and A while I waited by my desk, constantly picking up my planner when it looked like he was leaving, and then putting back down when he was asked another question. He mentioned at the beginning of his talk that he had a staff meeting to go to, and I figured it was my best bet to sneak out when he did.
Fifteen minutes later, he made off and I was stopped two feet before the door. “Could you please talk?”
“Sure…about progressive education? Or the second grade curriculum?”
“They want to know how you teach.”
How am I supposed to explain to a crowd of Chinese adults, exactly how I teach? I did my best explanation of the teacher as “facilitator of discovery” rather than an all-knowing fact provider. Then they asked if I could do a lesson, pretending that they were students.
Sure! Let me just whip out the demo lesson I’ve prepared which is to stand for all westerners and all progressive education.
Luckily, I did have a lesson I’d done earlier in the week that I hadn’t taken out of finished work yet. The lesson was the first in a study about shelter. I showed the pseudo-class of adults how I grouped the students and had them each examine a Chinese house and a house from another culture, talking and asking questions before they explained which was the Chinese house and why. The point for them to realize what they already know about houses comes with a framework of being in China, and that if they were somewhere else in the world, they would think about houses in a different way.
A few more questions and answers, and the group was sent out of the room. I tried to leave again and was told, “Please stay for conference notes.” It turns out that “conference notes” was just this woman telling me that someone asked why we don’t teach our kids to respect their parents, which is very important in Chinese schools.
I told her that we teach them to respect others, which they should transfer to their parents if they have truly learned it. She looked at me like I hadn’t finished talking.
It’s been a hell of a year.
No comments:
Post a Comment