Teaching Conditions for Some, But Not All

My students have told me the following: there are no distinct cultures within America, it's all the same. "Just plain Murica" as one put it. So it doesn't matter if you apply to Harvard or Stanford, both places are exactly the same. They're horrified that I make them learn the names of the states, the capitols, and to find each state's location on a map. (It's on the final exam.) They are equally appalled, however, by the number of foreign people who come to China who don't know where Xi'an is, or who can't name the different dynasties. Foreigners, they tell me with a sniff, are STUPID. But since the US is the same all over, there's no need for them to know anything such as the name of the university they're applying to in English, or where it might be located.

The Chinese staff share the same attitude. I sat in anger and horror at a staff meeting this afternoon in which a senior staff member explained in detailed how, after her two-week school-sponsored trip to the US, she revised her opinion that ALL Americans are lazy. This is based on seeing an American principal at work who actually knew the names of the students in his school (student population 440.) The foreign staff sat and seethed while she went on, and on, and ON, telling us in breathless detail, that in America, some of the teachers went to college before they started teaching! (The Ph.d's and Master's among us didn't dare look at each other.) Not only that, but she saw that some teachers in the US even STOOD UP when they taught and did activities, not just "read the book out" to students. She concluded with, "Yes, I think maybe in America are some teacher who are hard working at job." Hmm, just in America? How about here in China?

Let's divvy up the work duties, shall we? Yes, our speaker has to be at her desk from 8 to 5, but she gets a 2 and 1/2 hour lunch break with access to a napping lounge.  Seriously. Her cell phone is firmly shut off during this time. She has an administrative job, but of the 9 hours she's "at her desk" two and a half are spent in slumber. This was a promotion from a teaching job she held last year where she taught exactly six 40-minute classes per week. Yes, six 40-minute classes per week. This was the same lesson, taught to six different groups of kids, using a complete curriculum which included lesson plans.

My schedule? Lazy little me--who busted her ass to pay for graduate school while working full time as a single parent, TWICE--lazy little me has 24 different lesson periods a week with seven different groups of kids. Each lesson, and each group, uses a different curriculum. Four of the groups of kids don't have textbooks at all, due to a snafu at the school. It's March, and I don't think the textbooks will come in this year. This means I not only WRITE the lesson, but design all the materials to accompany it. This comes out of my "free time." In addition to writing lessons, I have to troll through the mish-mash of textbooks appointed to my students, most of which are horrible and have nothing to do with one another, and try to string together a series of lessons that flow together and which reinforce anything I'm trying to teach them. Oh yes, I have 148 different students, and each one gives me several pieces of work, including an essay, and a vocab test, every week. I also do tutorials (mandatory for me to do--another two hours) plus run a club (which can run 20 hours a week or more if I choose to do something stupid like drama or choir or dance) and I also attend two staff meetings per week. For some reason, foreign teachers don't get the sacred two and a half hour rest break, and are often called upon to have a department staff meeting then, or to meet with parents.

There isn't a janitor for my room, so I not only buy my own cleaning supplies using my own money, but I use them too. I spend an average of half an hour every day cleaning the floors in my room. The posters etc on the walls were paid for by me and me alone. The school principal promised me some "decorations" for the room and what they provided was this: two papercuts in red, the type given away for free at Spring Festival. They're not even laminated. Maps? I supplied them (thank you, National Geographic,which I also paid for.)

My Chinese colleagues get benefits such as subsidized housing, retirement, free health care including dental, and free tuition and health care for their child. I get a salary which is higher than my Chinese colleagues, and I don't put in as many "office" hours, but in truth, I put in far more hours and work a hell of a lot harder. (Most of my colleagues in my office just sit at their computer and watch movies.) I have a small amount of health insurance but if I get really sick I'm screwed. No dental. No retirement. And oh yes, I lose 25 percent or more to local taxes. Maternity benefits? They get nine months off. I get nothing. In fact, I have eight sick days a year and if I miss a single class in one day for any reason---such as the tine I evacuated a classroom which had caught on fire---that counts as a day off the total of eight. (They said, "You didn't ask permissions before ending the class early." My response: Uh, hello? FIRE? was discounted.)

Other things I have paid for: all the refreshments, decorations, and costumes for the Halloween, Christmas, and New Year's parties. The coffee I serve at the free before-school tutorial sessions which I conduct because it's the only time of day some of my students can squeeze into their schedules. All of the toilet paper, kleenex and soap in the girl's bathroom for my floor. My friend Suzie Q reports much of the same conditions at her school, with the added indignity of health insurance that hasn't kicked in because their school principal hasn't signed the damn check to the insurance company yet. As for her floor's cleaning supplies, she goes one step further, and puts toilet paper in the boys' room as well. "Self-defense," she explains. "Otherwise, you can't imagine the smell."  Sadly, I can.

I'd go on, but I have to walk to the store now to get some more Dettol so I can give the desks an extra-good scrubbing before the weekend. Trust me, I won't see a single Chinese colleague there. Lazy American, my ass.