"That's a lawsuit waiting to happen!"
This is a phrase I taught my eikaiwa (English conversation class) peeps. An eikaiwa is a small group of unusual people who are dedicated (to varying degrees) to being conversant in the English language. My group, which has about 7 or 8 regular members, is actually really really awesome both in terms of English proficiency and just being friendly and amicable with each other and with me. We meet every Wednesday evenings for two hours and just talk about anything. Periodically I'll write a phrase or word on the board that is useful or somehow relevant to the conversation.
"That's a lawsuit waiting to happen!" was introduced when we were talking about teaching; the teacher's role, the teacher's relationship and conduct with the students, etc. In Canada or the U.S., for a teacher to lay a finger on a student in ANY way is pretty much your job, or a lawsuit, right? In Japan, not so.
One of the men in the group is a retired math and chemistry teacher who now teaches "juku" (after hours cram school - where jr./sr. high schoolers go to relearn what they should've absorbed in regular school except that they were sleeping at the time) from his living room a few nights a week. Anyways, he was saying how if a kid gets out of line and just won't behave, he gives the student a "horse bite". A horse bite is simply grabbing a handful of someone's thigh and PINCHing with your whole hand. ["That's a lawsuit waiting to happen", I wrote on the board].
We got into a discussion then about how teachers no longer have any power to discipline students. "It's because parents are getting stupid. Before, teachers had respect, had authority. Their job was to teach not only lessons, but discipline and good conduct as well. Society ASKED teachers to teach their children. These days, parents ALLOW teachers to teach their children."
Since parents rule the teachers, and students rule the parents, teachers are often left feeling underappreciated, overworked, and without authority in their own classroom.
What a can of worms!
Discuss.
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1 comment:
since i still haven't gotten comments, emails, numbers, or grand gestures from ken's "shout out" to kennel i'm figuring my rugged good looks aren't enough to embolden any of the sophisticated and totally un-superficial people of this wonderful blog to send a hello my way. I suppose i'll have to rely on my less polished interior to interest. Before i do this i'd like to thank Kenny for making this site....it is sooo much better than lavalife. In response to the most recent post I would just like to say that I don't want my baby's formal teachers to be the discipliners and conduct setters. As a child I can remember teachers throwing erasers, smacking yardsticks across desks, and force-filled detainment and I do not want my nine little jks to learn these "lessons". As ken knows i was never the target of these attacks due to my silver spoon but there really is no need for the physical control to be practiced by teachers. I do agree that teachers are not given the respect that they deserve but being able to instill fear in their students is not the solution to this problem... and likely would make students in america-x-latin america but including quebec detest learning even more. blessings
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