City Stumblings
In Mongolia, when the bell rings, the students are supposed to stand up at attention, waiting for a prompt from the teacher. That’s the way it is supposed to be in a perfect Mongolia. However, we don’t live in a perfect Mongolia, so when the bell rings, I have to shout, “Atteeeeention!”, after which my students know that it is time to stand up at attention silently and wait for the next prompt.
Then, the teacher is supposed to say, “Good morning, students,” or “Good afternoon, students,” after which, the students respond, “Good morning, teacher.” Next, the teacher is supposed to say, “How are you today?” to which the students reply, “I’m fine, thank you, and you?” Finally, to conclude the whole greeting ritual, the teacher says, “I’m fine, thank you. You may sit down.”
So, I went through that whole ritual, and as soon as the students sat down, they started talking with each other. As it was time to begin my lesson, I raised my voice to a level that would supersede theirs and asked, “May I have your attention please?” All the students stood up. You know, teaching a foreign language is hard, especially when you don’t know the mother tongue. Administrators think that it’s great to have a native English speaker, who doesn’t speak the mother tongue, in English classes because the theory is that the kids will have to speak English in order to communicate with the teacher. In theory, it sounds good, but in practice, one has many students who lack any desire to communicate with the teacher. To add insult to injury, many of the students lack any desire to learn a foreign language, which has absolutely no immediate practical use for them. You can tell the primary students until you are blue in the face that they will need it for university and in order to get a good job in this increasingly globalized world.
However, since English won’t put food on their table for dinner that evening, and won’t put a computer game in front of them, nor a roof over their heads, why learn English? Seriously! Is the kid going to be deprived of his dinner or sleep in a nice warm bed, in a dry domicile, if he/she doesn’t do his/her English lessons? Heck no! Therefore, I ask you, where is the motivation, to learn a foreign language? Well, the first week of school has come to an end. It was only three days long for us. We had Thursday, Friday, and an all-day field trip on Saturday. Last week, I posed the question: “What will the children be like this year?” “Will they be more mature or cockier?” Well, I have an answer for you……..kind of. I write, “kind of,” because it was only the first week. I imagine that there are many challenges that shall pop up from time to time and get more intensified as the year progresses. However, so far, I haven’t noticed much of a change in the students. In Mongolia, the teacher moves up with the students each year. So, I have all the same students that I had last year. The only change that I’ve noticed so far is that the students are bigger than they were last year. The biggest student in fifth grade is almost as tall as I am. As I alluded above, the most difficult challenge that teachers face these days, is how to motivate the students. Parents, in general, seem to have relinquished their responsibilities to motivate their own children, and have placed the blame on the teachers for their own child’s low marks. Clearly, in a perfect Mongolia, there would be effort from both parties: parents and teachers, in order to motivate the children. When one party fails to do its part, things tend to fall apart. As more and more parents relinquish their part, it is becoming inherent to the teaching profession to tackle the problem unilaterally. Unfortunately, teachers do not get much help from administration in this regard. To be successful in the profession, a teacher must be imaginative, creative, and extremely hard-working in order to provide sufficient motivation for the students to learn. Since the modern practice of a public education was instituted, there have always been “bad apples” in every bunch. In the past, some form of corporeal punishment was implemented in public schools a form of correction for misbehaving students. Gone are those days. Corporeal punishment is not allowed these days, and even parents can get into trouble with the law for disciplining their child with corporeal punishment.
I’m not a big proponent of corporeal punishment, and I think that its eradication is a good thing; however, it has not been replaced with another form of punishment. That is the problem! You can’t totally take away one form of punishment and leave a void! Kids aren’t stupid! They know that if they misbehave, nothing will happen, except perhaps a scolding. Oh, ouch! A scolding! Who cares? The kids think, “I still will get my dinner, my computer games, and my nice warm bed to sleep in. So, who cares if I have to endure five minutes of scolding?” From time immemorial, it has been common knowledge that punishment is needed for bad behavior, and rewards are needed for good behavior. Even adults are not beyond that fact of life. If a company does not reward its employees with adequate fiscal rewards, the employees will not perform their duties well. If the government does not punish bad behavior, like running a stop light, more and more people will run stop lights, putting more and more people in danger. Why do educational systems, such as schools think that children are any different. If anything, children need more correction than their adult counterparts, because they are still learning the rules of society and pushing the limits. I never blame the children for not doing their school work. I have a reward system in my class, and I try very hard to make my lessons motivational considering the materials that I’m given to teach with, so naturally, I don’t blame myself. I blame the parents. I am required to give monthly reports to the parents, and it is a lot of work considering I have 150 students.
Sometimes, Mongolian parents come to me after 3 or 4 months of no class work and no homework from their child and have the audacity to say that they didn’t know about the problem. Things that make me go, “Hmmmmm.” Can a parent really be so uncaring about his/her child’s education, so as to completely not take any interest in it? I work at the most expensive, Mongolian owned school in Ulaanbaatar, perhaps all of Mongolia. You’d think that the parents who pay such high tuition would want to make sure that their child is getting a quality education. Over and over I’m told by my colleagues that most Mongolian parents have the inane belief that because they pay money, they don’t have to take any responsibility for their child’s education. I’m sorry, but I do not understand this mentality at all. In America, parents who pay a lot of money to send their children to private schools, make sure that their child does ALL their class work and ALL their homework. Otherwise, with “Ds” and/or “Fs” on the report card, their money has been wasted.
NEVER is a teacher blamed for a student’s lack of performance in American private schools. In fact, low achievers are kicked out of the school. In conclusion, I have some questions for any Mongolian parents out there who disagree with me: “How can I go home with each and every one of my 150 students and make sure that they do their homework?” “How can I take the hands of each and every child in my class and make them write down their homework assignment from the board?” “How can I physically go around and hold each child’s mouth closed while I am talking?” “How can I possibly jump into the brain of each and every child and make sure that they are paying attention?” Tell me how I can do all those things, and I will take full responsibility for your child’s low scores.
Then, the teacher is supposed to say, “Good morning, students,” or “Good afternoon, students,” after which, the students respond, “Good morning, teacher.” Next, the teacher is supposed to say, “How are you today?” to which the students reply, “I’m fine, thank you, and you?” Finally, to conclude the whole greeting ritual, the teacher says, “I’m fine, thank you. You may sit down.”
So, I went through that whole ritual, and as soon as the students sat down, they started talking with each other. As it was time to begin my lesson, I raised my voice to a level that would supersede theirs and asked, “May I have your attention please?” All the students stood up. You know, teaching a foreign language is hard, especially when you don’t know the mother tongue. Administrators think that it’s great to have a native English speaker, who doesn’t speak the mother tongue, in English classes because the theory is that the kids will have to speak English in order to communicate with the teacher. In theory, it sounds good, but in practice, one has many students who lack any desire to communicate with the teacher. To add insult to injury, many of the students lack any desire to learn a foreign language, which has absolutely no immediate practical use for them. You can tell the primary students until you are blue in the face that they will need it for university and in order to get a good job in this increasingly globalized world.
However, since English won’t put food on their table for dinner that evening, and won’t put a computer game in front of them, nor a roof over their heads, why learn English? Seriously! Is the kid going to be deprived of his dinner or sleep in a nice warm bed, in a dry domicile, if he/she doesn’t do his/her English lessons? Heck no! Therefore, I ask you, where is the motivation, to learn a foreign language? Well, the first week of school has come to an end. It was only three days long for us. We had Thursday, Friday, and an all-day field trip on Saturday. Last week, I posed the question: “What will the children be like this year?” “Will they be more mature or cockier?” Well, I have an answer for you……..kind of. I write, “kind of,” because it was only the first week. I imagine that there are many challenges that shall pop up from time to time and get more intensified as the year progresses. However, so far, I haven’t noticed much of a change in the students. In Mongolia, the teacher moves up with the students each year. So, I have all the same students that I had last year. The only change that I’ve noticed so far is that the students are bigger than they were last year. The biggest student in fifth grade is almost as tall as I am. As I alluded above, the most difficult challenge that teachers face these days, is how to motivate the students. Parents, in general, seem to have relinquished their responsibilities to motivate their own children, and have placed the blame on the teachers for their own child’s low marks. Clearly, in a perfect Mongolia, there would be effort from both parties: parents and teachers, in order to motivate the children. When one party fails to do its part, things tend to fall apart. As more and more parents relinquish their part, it is becoming inherent to the teaching profession to tackle the problem unilaterally. Unfortunately, teachers do not get much help from administration in this regard. To be successful in the profession, a teacher must be imaginative, creative, and extremely hard-working in order to provide sufficient motivation for the students to learn. Since the modern practice of a public education was instituted, there have always been “bad apples” in every bunch. In the past, some form of corporeal punishment was implemented in public schools a form of correction for misbehaving students. Gone are those days. Corporeal punishment is not allowed these days, and even parents can get into trouble with the law for disciplining their child with corporeal punishment.
I’m not a big proponent of corporeal punishment, and I think that its eradication is a good thing; however, it has not been replaced with another form of punishment. That is the problem! You can’t totally take away one form of punishment and leave a void! Kids aren’t stupid! They know that if they misbehave, nothing will happen, except perhaps a scolding. Oh, ouch! A scolding! Who cares? The kids think, “I still will get my dinner, my computer games, and my nice warm bed to sleep in. So, who cares if I have to endure five minutes of scolding?” From time immemorial, it has been common knowledge that punishment is needed for bad behavior, and rewards are needed for good behavior. Even adults are not beyond that fact of life. If a company does not reward its employees with adequate fiscal rewards, the employees will not perform their duties well. If the government does not punish bad behavior, like running a stop light, more and more people will run stop lights, putting more and more people in danger. Why do educational systems, such as schools think that children are any different. If anything, children need more correction than their adult counterparts, because they are still learning the rules of society and pushing the limits. I never blame the children for not doing their school work. I have a reward system in my class, and I try very hard to make my lessons motivational considering the materials that I’m given to teach with, so naturally, I don’t blame myself. I blame the parents. I am required to give monthly reports to the parents, and it is a lot of work considering I have 150 students.
Sometimes, Mongolian parents come to me after 3 or 4 months of no class work and no homework from their child and have the audacity to say that they didn’t know about the problem. Things that make me go, “Hmmmmm.” Can a parent really be so uncaring about his/her child’s education, so as to completely not take any interest in it? I work at the most expensive, Mongolian owned school in Ulaanbaatar, perhaps all of Mongolia. You’d think that the parents who pay such high tuition would want to make sure that their child is getting a quality education. Over and over I’m told by my colleagues that most Mongolian parents have the inane belief that because they pay money, they don’t have to take any responsibility for their child’s education. I’m sorry, but I do not understand this mentality at all. In America, parents who pay a lot of money to send their children to private schools, make sure that their child does ALL their class work and ALL their homework. Otherwise, with “Ds” and/or “Fs” on the report card, their money has been wasted.
NEVER is a teacher blamed for a student’s lack of performance in American private schools. In fact, low achievers are kicked out of the school. In conclusion, I have some questions for any Mongolian parents out there who disagree with me: “How can I go home with each and every one of my 150 students and make sure that they do their homework?” “How can I take the hands of each and every child in my class and make them write down their homework assignment from the board?” “How can I physically go around and hold each child’s mouth closed while I am talking?” “How can I possibly jump into the brain of each and every child and make sure that they are paying attention?” Tell me how I can do all those things, and I will take full responsibility for your child’s low scores.
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