Smile to teach

❤

Editor's note:

作者是曾经生活在绍兴的一位老师，所以相识，一直看她做的一些事，也能感受到对教育的热爱，但的确各种在中国的经历让他失望。

文本分享了她在所谓中国最优秀学校之一的"四川双流中学"的面试经历，反映出中国教育对待外教的一些问题，即使是校长也只是把外教当成是一个只需要微笑的门面，而且官僚主义严重，令人忧心。

This is my story. I am a mechanical engineer with a master’s degree in education. I have been teaching English in afterschool outreach programs and volunteer activities for 23 years. In my tenth year as a process engineer, I realized I was always looking forward to these volunteer activities and chose to switch professions to education. Teaching was my passion. I was offered opportunities in the best schools, but I always gravitated toward the high poverty schools, because I thought everyone deserved a chance. I was selected as a Woodrow Wilson Fellow and a Dow Science Teaching Fellow. I was asked to speak with Arne Duncan, United States Secretary of Education under President Obama, and to give my opinions on current and future national policy. I was selected for Ohio Department of Education End of Year Testing committees and traveled to my state capital to serve while other teachers were enjoying summer holidays.I was a awarded first place in the 2014 National Science Teachers’ Association Einstein Stem-a-thon and won grants from LittleBits and other technology companies based on my effort. Based on this commitment and success, I was selected to train teachers for local school districts and at the University of Dayton through seminar classes.

I traveled to China in 2015 to work with local teachers and learn from each other and continue to improve myself. When I arrived, I was extremely disappointed with what I saw as I observed classroom after classroom observing teachers talking incessantly to the black board as though the students in the room had no role in the class.

I came to Shuangliu two years ago. After many experiences of fake education centers and private international high schools pretending to teach English combined with meeting local English teachers who needed to use translation software to have the smallest conversations with me, I thought the people of Shuangliu deserved better. 

I opened a STEAM technology space where people could create things and get excited about scientific phenomenon while I used my 23 years of experience to introduce them to English at the same time. I did this without salary investing 500,000 rmb of my own money and more than 200,000 rmb of visitors’ contributions to provide experiences with motors and robots and simple machines. After six months, I started speaking publicly and suddenly had people from across China following my work from their own STEAM centers. These people were businessmen without experience in Science or Education. They only had heard STEAM was a new fad and sought to copy my work without credit or payment. They demanded my time at all hours of the day never offering compensation for my help. I realized they were taking me away from what my true purpose had been, and I decided to stop my center while I focused on completing two textbooks I had begun earlier in the year.

Suddenly I was offered the opportunity to interview with an extremely prestigious Chengdu international for which I had always had high respect. It was a complete surprise as their teacher had resigned suddenly, and I felt it was fate, but while waiting for the interview and contract, I started to consider it more deeply. I realized maybe I was trading my goals in Shuangliu with the people I love for an international school. I realized that the schedule wouldn’t give me much time to complete the textbooks I was writing and would be required to leave Shuangliu and give up the volunteer activities that meant so much to me. Just as I was considering this, I was offered a position at the local high school. The woman was so excited to find someone with my qualifications that she asked if she video call me immediately for an interview even though the time was 10pm. I told her I thought it was a little late, so she asked to call the next morning. I agreed.

The salary was half the salary of the international school without any of the benefits, but I thought I should take a part time contract with the local high school teaching esl. Through this path, I could form stronger relationships with the local schools, continue to help the people of the Shuangliu community, and complete my textbooks.

I went to the high school for an in-person interview and tour. The head of the international department, Shelley was very nice and impressed. Shelley asked me to consider a full-time job. I thanked her, but I said I was working on a textbook and preferred part time. I did promise to help her write a textbook that she writes annually to sell to students. The following Monday I received a message that the school had completed the contract process, and the intermediary came to meet me to sign my contract and submit my documents.

The first day of school, there should be no classes, but I needed to go get my keys and schedule. I called didi from my home and walked out to the car. When I reached my community gate, a man was running so fast while putting on his shirt that he bumped into me. When I got to the other side of the gate, I see there's a boy dead in front of it. The people were running to take pictures of his body. The security had simply placed a traffic cone next to the body. As the community members asked what had happened, the security guard was mocking his death, reenacting what looked like a seizure and choking. The guard was laughing and making the people laugh. My didi driver started to pull in, so he could see better, so I hurried and got into the car. I immediately used wechat to message the police and tell them what was happening. The officer who I consider a friend replied immediately and promised to help.

When I arrived at 四川双流中学, I was pretty upset and affected by not just the tragic death, but the behavior of all the people watching. I had to wait about 30 minutes for the agent, so I got a coffee and waited in front of the school gate. The head of the international department, Shelley, was extremely busy and running frantically in and out of her office, so we waited for her in her office to find the keys. While we waited for her to return with the key, a man came in who introduced himself as a teacher and told me to smile. I apologized for my mood and explained to him what had happened an hour earlier. The intermediary seemed shocked and expressed condolences. The English teacher just laughed and left as another man walked in. This man introduced himself as Mr. Xu, the vice principal. I tried to repeat his name, and he seemed frustrated that I couldn’t make the proper sound with my English tongue, but I was saved in seconds by Shelley finally returning with the key.

I knew how busy Shelley was, but she opened the door to my office and called people to start cleaning it for me. I felt very valued and appreciated that she took this time for me. Shelley had only one key, so the intermediary and I needed to go for a walk and copy it. As Shelley left she also told me that what had happened didn’t matter and we should forget all the bad things and be happy every day. I was again surprised at what seemed like callous behavior, but she said it as she was leaving, so I felt no need to reply.

The intermediary and I toured the campus, copied the key, and returned. We waited for the schedule to be completed. Then Shelley again went over her expectations for the first week, told me an apartment on campus was being prepared for me and agreed 9am the next day would be a good time to return the next day.

I put my laptop charger in my new desk and locked it, before leaving with the intermediary. The intermediary offered to drive me home, but I really wanted to walk and think, so I went to have lunch alone instead.

After lunch I messaged a friend from the government culture department. I asked him to meet me at his teahouse.

I stopped to see a zhongyi, because since having a car accident a few years ago, stress causes extreme, painful cramping in my leg muscles. Then I went for a bike ride through the park and began planning what I had been considering. I really wanted to contribute something to improve the city, so that the events of the morning wouldn't happen again.

I explained to my friend from the culture departemnt about my experience growing up watching public television shows like Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood. I felt they had introduced me at a young age to things like other cultures, people with disabilities, and appropriate behaviors like not littering and respecting your community and neighbors in a way that was fun and easy for a child to understand.

I thought that if we work together with all the talented people we know here, we could create a free program consisting of puppet shows and cartoons to present at the local kindergartens to improve cultural awareness that the children would enjoy and want to emulate. It was my idea that if you teach the children, the children will remind the adults of the correct behaviors when adults know better, but think they are too busy to do the right thing.

It’s easier to teach a child in early years than to change the heart and mind of an adult who has had years of practice in bad behavior, and the innocence and goodness of children can often bring out the best in us.

At 5pm while finishing our tea and planning a dinner of fish hot pot together to celebrate this new relationship, I received these wechat messages from the intermediary:

I couldn't believe it.  I showed the man from the culture department. He also laughed and couldn't believe it. When I returned home after dinner, I thought maybe a man claiming to be a principal who had been inappropriate with me last year had caused this or maybe the intermediary had lied to trick me into signing such a low salary then switching me to a training school.

I went to the education bureau to find out the truth. The education bureau officials were very kind offering me a wonderful tea and complimenting my resume while we spoke in my poor Chinese about our daughters of the same age. We waited for word from the school. The school sent the same English teacher who had initially told me to smile and to whom I had explained the story. He reiterated the position of Mr, Xu. He explained to me that he is a happy person and often smiles himself, but women should always smile. I was shocked, but then he went on to say that their school is one of the best in China, and the best school must have the best teachers. I was extremely insulted. I couldn’t believe I was hearing this part. I showed him my Chinese resume and recommendation letters. He glanced at them and laughed as he tossed them on the table and repeated that the best teachers would smile.

Mao Ze Dong told us 70 years ago that women hold up half the sky. I don’t remember that he suggested we must do it while smiling, but also my Chinese skills are still developing.

I don’t know who is filling this schedule I was given, but if it were my daughter in the class, I hope the teacher cares even when she isn’t smiling, because sometimes more than an excellent resume, kids need love and empathy.

Amy's Steam Studio

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