Thou shalt not, they shall not

There will be some notting.

We had a staff meeting during morning exercise time, which is far more sensible than having meetings at lunchtime. It was a repeat screening of yesterday’s departmental meeting.

Students shouldn’t be allowed to sleep in class. True. I think it’s rude of them to do so, but Chinese students are so stupid that telling them not to sleep is only effective for the brief period of time it takes them to forget that they were told not to do so. Then they must be told again.

“This class is boring,” they’d like to say. Perhaps if they participated actively and displayed some degree of self-motivation instead of cabbage-like idiocy, they’d find it less boring. By the same token, not every class is going to be screamingly interesting. Most never are, but are pedestrian steps on the way to some end.

We should give them homework once a week. I have given them some homework over the past couple of weeks, but have only been gradually clearing it away because other, more important things have been getting in the way. Yesterday’s tests, for example, last week’s observation, the reality that I don’t have time to do marking at home because by the time I’ve finished being a normal person after school, I don’t have time for much else (and don’t give a shit). (I can’t immediately think how to avoid saying “time” three times [damn!] in that sentence.) My week, as I’ve said in previous posts, is not conducive to dealing with everything effectively. My pay is also not sufficient for me to feel that my free time should be vacuumed up by dealing with swathes of intellectual mediocrity.

Besides, not so long ago I’m sure the Beeb had some article about a study of homework which concluded it was pointless. I think that should’ve been obvious because of the Peter Principle. In fact, I knew years ago that studying interminably was never going to improve my chances. The problem in China is that people think that success comes from studying incessantly. Well, no it doesn’t. There’s a lot to be said for innate ability.

And here’s a question: can anyone truly improve in a particular field by studying it for hours on end, or does aptitude make a complete mockery of someone’s efforts? My answer would be “no” because I know of students who really did try hard, but lacking any aptitude for English, failed miserably.