it's not my fault, they asked!!!
i told my student today (not in class, thankfully) that there's no religious freedom in china and people don't really have any rights (at least not the right of assembly), as far as i can see. she sat there like her world was falling apart. i was like, are you ok? and she said "i'm so ashamed." she told me she never understood why the US kept criticizing china for a poor human rights record, and now she does. she looked so sad! i felt really bad...but they DID ask. they said, "what do you think of the cultural revolution?" and i told them what i thought and i was surprised when they said they agreed. and then i cautioned them not to make it a habit of talking about this stuff. my student said, "i'll email you my questions," and i had to tell her that my emails are being monitored. which launched us into the discussion of why that is, which led us to my first sentence in this entry.
i tried to backtrack by saying that really, china shouldn't be a democracy. democracies don't work unless most of the population is educated and living above the poverty line (at least). i do think that the government is making wise decisions about most things, it's just that they do have to exercise control to keep the peace. but the damage had already been done...she looked SO SAD. :(
i love my students. i really don't give them enough credit. unfortunately, they can't express their thoughts very well in english because they're taught pat phrases like "every coin has two sides", "for the internet to be beneficial to us, we must try our best to use it properly", and "friends share happiness and sadness together." i'm beginning to see that there isn't really as much uniformity of thought as i had previously assumed, it just seems that way because that's all they know how to say in english! poor kids. they are being so stifled.
i tried to backtrack by saying that really, china shouldn't be a democracy. democracies don't work unless most of the population is educated and living above the poverty line (at least). i do think that the government is making wise decisions about most things, it's just that they do have to exercise control to keep the peace. but the damage had already been done...she looked SO SAD. :(
i love my students. i really don't give them enough credit. unfortunately, they can't express their thoughts very well in english because they're taught pat phrases like "every coin has two sides", "for the internet to be beneficial to us, we must try our best to use it properly", and "friends share happiness and sadness together." i'm beginning to see that there isn't really as much uniformity of thought as i had previously assumed, it just seems that way because that's all they know how to say in english! poor kids. they are being so stifled.