Mouthing Off
Before I came to Japan, I often heard stories about how polite, studious, and kind the Japanese students are and I believed them. On a whole, I still believe that fact but is a grade of students who has me questioning my beliefs on the polite and kind students are.
Today I walked into class with one of the English teachers and the black board was not erased. The students know that they are required to erase the board before class starts but sometimes they do forget and will erase it when a student reminds them.
The English teacher looked at the students and asked them to erase the board. One of the students told her no and then stated if the teacher needed to write on the board that she could use the board in the back of the classroom because the front board was not going to be erased. The English teacher looked at me and told me that we were done with class and we walked out. We often have problems with this student and the English teacher refused to get into a fight about the blackboard so the teacher decided just to cancel class.
I do not think that the students were aware that we were not coming back because after about twenty minutes or so three female students came into apologize. Well, two said they were sorry and that the rest of the class did not agree with the student who mouthed. The third student was the student who mouthed off and from what I got out of her attitude and body language was that she was not sorry for what she did and that she was going to continue to act out in class.
I know that students cannot act perfectly all of the time (I admit to falling asleep once or twice, passing notes, and talking in class) but I always respected my teacher. To hear a student talk back to a teacher on more than one occasion and then to listen to that student apologize and to have the knowledge that the student doesn’t mean it and will continue to act out, it just makes me mad. Nevertheless, I guess that is part of the world of teaching. There will always be bothersome students but the good students make up for what the bad students do.
Today I walked into class with one of the English teachers and the black board was not erased. The students know that they are required to erase the board before class starts but sometimes they do forget and will erase it when a student reminds them.
The English teacher looked at the students and asked them to erase the board. One of the students told her no and then stated if the teacher needed to write on the board that she could use the board in the back of the classroom because the front board was not going to be erased. The English teacher looked at me and told me that we were done with class and we walked out. We often have problems with this student and the English teacher refused to get into a fight about the blackboard so the teacher decided just to cancel class.
I do not think that the students were aware that we were not coming back because after about twenty minutes or so three female students came into apologize. Well, two said they were sorry and that the rest of the class did not agree with the student who mouthed. The third student was the student who mouthed off and from what I got out of her attitude and body language was that she was not sorry for what she did and that she was going to continue to act out in class.
I know that students cannot act perfectly all of the time (I admit to falling asleep once or twice, passing notes, and talking in class) but I always respected my teacher. To hear a student talk back to a teacher on more than one occasion and then to listen to that student apologize and to have the knowledge that the student doesn’t mean it and will continue to act out, it just makes me mad. Nevertheless, I guess that is part of the world of teaching. There will always be bothersome students but the good students make up for what the bad students do.