I love my students. I really do.
This is the mantra I say to myself almost everyday now, which is usually followed by a long, deep breath. It reminds me a little of the saying my mother used to give us boys every once in a while: "I love you. I just don't always love the decisions you make." True story. And just as my mom was disappointed in our often irresponsible behavior, I too have found myself becoming more and more disheartened by the things my students do. Perhaps I'm getting older. Perhaps I'm becoming more jaded. Alas, saddest of all, perhaps teaching is not for me after all.
Though my kids are unfailingly cute, they seem to have developed a taste for rebellion recently. Maybe it's the summer heat, the fact that they're out of Chinese school for the next 2 months, or maybe this is all an elaborate set-up and I'm actually a contestant on that hidden-camera MTV show Boiling Points. Whatever it is, it's started to wear on me.
There is one exception to this trend though. My D1 Step Ahead Level 9 class, which I usually have on Saturday morning, has failed to disappoint me so far. A class that started out shy and quiet has slowly warmed up over the past 9 months and is now the highlight of my teaching week. Because my Chinese teacher for that class is my manager, who's rarely ever there, I feel a certain responsibility for these kids that I don't necessarily have for the others. I've also taught them levels 6-9 of the Step Ahead series, the "formative levels" if you will. We started out struggling with long vowel sounds; now they are mastering the past continuous tense. Indeed, they make me a proud teacher.
Because of another engagement, my manager asked me to cover this class for her on Wednesday night. All too eager to avoid my normal Wednesday night class, which has driven me to tears and/or the bottle from time to time, I gladly accepted.
The only down-side to this class is that it's on the third floor of a poorly ventilated building. And with it being late June and everything, it was rather hot and stuffy. As I stood there sweating like Patrick Ewing at the free throw line, I decided to crank down the A/C to 23 Centigrade (about 73 Fahrenheit for us stubborn, anti-metric Americans). Of course my students, accustomed to the severity of Taiwan's summer heat, found this unbearably cold. They pleaded with me to turn it up, but I refused.
But then two students did something I couldn't believe. You see, the level 9 reading book is Who's Taking Out the Trash?—yeah, that same book that goofed me up with the ice cream and garbage trucks. Well, the theme of the book is recycling and making the world a safer and cleaner place .On a few of the pages, there are pictures with subtitles that show ways we can help protect the environment. As a result, I've spent countless minutes lecturing to my kids on the importance of these things that I'm sure even Al Gore would find excessively cheesy and preachy.
Literally minutes after I had firmly refused to bump up the A/C, these girls call me over, looking concerned. Wanting to help, I take the bait. As soon as I do, they lift their reading book and simply point to the picture of the air conditioner and the subtitle which reads: "Set A/C to 25".
They ambushed me with the guilt trip! I was so blown away at their clever genius and embarrassed at my own hypocritical behavior that I was forced to concede. I had no rebuttal. I had lost.
D1: 1 Teacher Andrew: 0
