Grrrrrrrrrr!!!

Somehow, I’m just not reaching people. Today in my first class, I had 4 students come up and tell me that their assignment shouldn’t count as plagiarized because they hadn’t copied the sentences. Instead, they had simply memorized them. You see, if you memorize something, then it is in your head, and you didn’t copy.

I tried to explain that the purpose of the assignment was to get practice writing in English, but I’m really not sure any of that got through. I just don’t know where the communication broke down. They would respond with things like, “this was a very good sentence, that’s why I wrote it,” and I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. I said something to the effect of, “I don’t care if it is a good sentence or not. It is more important to me that you write your own sentences,” but that seemed to leave them confused. I seem to be running counter some kind of current in Chinese education that is so deeply instilled in my students that they are having trouble comprehending the alternative.

What really made me angry was the way the students crept up on me with their scared, puppy-dog eyes trying to say, “please, teacher, I can’t fail this class!” I almost expected them to say, “My mommy will be so mad at me if I fail!” Honestly! These people are at least 24 years old, they are adults, they are responsible for their own lives and their own education and they should act the part!

You know, there are a lot of bad things about the U.S. We have high rates of alcoholism, child abuse, drug abuse, violence, organized crime, not organized crime, a sky-high murder rate and divorce rate, our prisons are packed, guns are easy to get, people get shot by accident, we don’t have universal health care, Medicare and Medicaid suck, social security doesn’t really provide any kind of security, etc. But I’ll see this for the good ol’ U.S. of A., our lifestyle may be violent, disorganized, unsafe, and without any social safety nets, but our adults act like fucking adults!

Sometimes I get the feeling Chinese people remain perma-children their whole lives. They live with their parents until the parents die, and with people popping out children at the age of 26 or younger, and life spans increasing, that means you could spend a solid sixty years under the aegis of your mummy. I’m not sure that’s the kind of environment that fosters independent thought and action – or individual responsibility.