We don't care about seniors

I wrote something about my school, I decided to delete it, but then Loretta wrote an excellent response.
Essentially I was told not to care about my senior drama students as the school doesn’t care about them.
Which I think is an awful attitude to permeate.

Dude, you know perfectly well that the school wants to do well in competitions in order to enhance its reputation - ultimately to attract more students.

The long-term goal is to for the kids to get a good job, which means going to a good university. To do that they have to have attended a ‘good’ senior high school, because the ‘best’ students are all selected to go to the ‘top’ government schools. Talk to the students who took part in the debate on the star school system last year if you’re unclear about that.

Your seniors are no-hopers, kids who didn’t get into a good senior high school. It doesn’t matter how well you prepare them for their future, they’re not going to go to a good university because they’re already in the B stream. So their achievements don’t really count for anything.

Your junior school excels at getting kids into ‘good’ senior high schools. That’s why it’s well-known and respected. Everything that the juniors do reflects on the reputation of the school. A good result in a national competition makes your principal look good and attracts more students.

I would have thought that by now you would understand the way the system works. The juniors always have been, and always will be, the priority. Anything you do with or for the seniors is just icing on the cake.

For what it’s worth, I subbed a class for the ‘English Club’ at Taipei First Girls School last year. Leaving aside confidence issues, the level of vocabulary and grammatical accuracy was no better than you’re getting from your seniors now at your ‘second-rate’ school where no-one but you cares.

It is your lot to be a lone voice in the wilderness trying to do good. Embrace it and enjoy it. Just do what seems right to you, and screw the rest. What are they going to do? Fire you?

Prince Charles is a dissident too, and he hasn’t even got a silly haircut.

Sweet Loretta Marvin…

[quote=“Loretta”]
It is your lot to be a lone voice in the wilderness trying to do good. Embrace it and enjoy it. Just do what seems right to you, and screw the rest. What are they going to do? Fire you?[/quote]

I don’t like the attitude that a persons life is already mapped out at 16. I don’t want to hear that kids are already labelled as failures. Most of my best friends are ‘failures’ by educational standards, but they have done well with their lives and are decent people. I don’t think I should look down on anyone.

The truest fact I can tell you is that I cannot work in the business sector. I hate work for profit, I hate choice for profit, I hate screwing people over for money. Especially when it comes to children. It makes me loose sleep, and does terrible things to my insides. Maybe I am a classic product of a strict Methodist upbringing.
Go ahead and call me a sucker, but I wish to goodness that I could find a place in Taiwan where people were teaching just for the simple fact that education is important. I don’t imagine it is going to happen, so I think more and more that I will go back to England in July and resume my career in Special Needs teaching. Those people are only there becuase they want to help others to get a better life.

Tom Hill do ont give up.

So go and work in the public sector schools, which are even worse. Or go back to blighty and ‘do good’ there. Does Mrs Hill want to do that?

Have you ever considered the impact that you may be having on your no-hope kids if you open their eyes to alternatives? Why not stay where you are and offer ‘careers’ as next year’s club class. You could happily spend a few hours a week teaching people who need to be taught about what other options they have if they don’t fit the system they were born into.

So go and work in the public sector schools, which are even worse. Or go back to blighty and ‘do good’ there. Does Mrs Hill want to do that?

Have you ever considered the impact that you may be having on your no-hope kids if you open their eyes to alternatives? Why not stay where you are and offer ‘careers’ as next year’s club class. You could happily spend a few hours a week teaching people who need to be taught about what other options they have if they don’t fit the system they were born into.[/quote]

Mrs Hill wants to go. But she also wants her career. That is a knotty problem. How to respect her wishes…

I could stay here and do more eye opening, but I, like you, do not like this country. And I need to put my wishes first at some point. I enjoy teaching special needs. I don’t particularly enjoy the 7-11’s anymore. Junior High is great, and I don’t want to go back to the lower age range.
I don’t know how to say it without offending the lifers, but this country just isn’t the right place for Tom.

Not offended! You said that just fine. :wink: