|
I'm starting to think that there's some sort of synchronised cycle of poo poo with Chinese education, because loads of stuff in my school is wobbling as well. Fortunately, as with so many others in this thread, I'm moving somewhere else next year. Anyway, I can set up a quick contrast here, because the place I am currently at (and soon leaving) is actually pretty good. It is the 'American Program' in a mostly private-but-not-international school; an attempt to recreate the 'American High School Experience' in miniature. And, for better or for worse, they have largely succeeded. The kids are innocent, enthusiastic, and genuinely are getting the equivalent of an above-average-but-not-awesome American highschool education. This is pretty easy for me to teach because US academic standards are lower than the UK, so it's fairly relaxing. But yeah, we have an active student association that organises and fundraises for cool events, a student body that will mostly be able to survive in western college environments, and overall it's not too bad. There is a price, however. The school treats out little program (~75 students total, grades 7-12) as a trophy. A way to be able to say that graduates from this school (~1000 students) attend all these amazing colleges in the US &c! That's why we have such freedom to actually teach / discipline / help the students. But, as a trophy program, we aren't a breadwinner. We're clearly profitable, but nowhere near as profitable as we *could* be. So what happens is, over a 3-4 year cycle, things settle in and get really effective; we get a solid core or teaching staff that are comfortable with the students and each other, wages slowly rise to retain everyone... and then the total staffing costs rise above some predetermined point, and The Purge begins. I came in over the still-warm ashes of the last one, and I am checking out (instead of taking an insulting pay-cut) in this current one. The parents flutter and squawk, but given that the average student is here for about 6 years, the parents will only actually see 1-2 purges affect their children, and that can usually be explained away. So yeah, nice places can exist, but they are strictly temporary, and often maintained for non-obvious reasons. Now, some might say that if you kept a solid core of staff, and achieved ever-increasing success over a, 8-year period, you could get the popularity and associated funding to grow the program until it filled the whole school. But that would require thinking beyond a 4-year timescale, which is - as far as I can tell - physically painful for people here. The only reason we manage 3-4 years at a time is because the overall management is from Taiwan, meaning that they are like mainland management in basic nature, just not quite as bad.
|
#
¿
May 7, 2017 05:24
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 28, 2024 13:48 |
|
|
I was informed that the obsession with open windows was based on (viral stories about) formaldehyde outgassing from newly furnished building interiors and doing horrible things to occupants. No idea if that's true, and if so how prevalent it is, but it's definitely the perception among many people. The less scientifically inclined just internalised it as "closed windows bad", though, and kept applying it to ten-year-old buildings that have no gas left to give. Although I guess that's when black mould spore buildup can become an issue, so...
|
|
#
¿
May 8, 2017 01:24
|
|
|
Yeah, at my school we have to do elaborate tricks to allow mainland students to take ACT or SAT without traveling elsewhere. Apparently it's a Chinese government thing. No idea if / how / why that makes sense, but it's the current state of play.
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2017 15:52
|
|
|
JaucheCharly posted:Why did you guys go to asia? Aren't there jobs in Europe or EE? I used to be a science journal editor, but family circumstances left me with 8 spare months of a 12-month sabbatical and some spare cash saved up, so I figured I'd wander around somewhere cheapish for a while. Picked China because why not? After about 4-5 months I got randomly offered an ESL job by a guy I met halfway up a mountain and I figured I'd try it pretty much as a joke, because why not? Was chill and pleasant, and just as I was going to reach the end of my sabbatical, I got offered a job teaching science by a guy I beat in a drinking contest in a bar. Thought for a bit, figured 'why not?', and went with it. Working out p well overall so far.
|
|
#
¿
May 14, 2017 05:48
|
|
|
simplefish posted:Have I met you in Hong Kong, twice? I lost all idea of who was who when I left the China wechat group Late reply because I have been doing Things in Places, but yes. On wechat I am Jake. Because that is who I am.
|
|
#
¿
May 25, 2017 15:53
|
|