"You fail... so love me, OK?"
In this one, I'd like to just list some of the inanities about this
higher education institute which pays me a salary to do as
they say.
~1~
Although not really written down anywhere, the policy of the school
is that 30% of the students in your classroom must fail outright.
It does not matter at all about their performance in class--that it
might be possible for you to have a class of exceptionally bright
students. The policy is that you submit your grades to the
administration, and if there aren't enough failing grades to meet the
quota, they send it back to you and tell you to change the grades until
there are enough failures.
Why? Perhaps it's an economic measure. If the students fail, they must pay some
extra money to write a make-up exam. If they fail that, then they can
pay some more money and take a remedial exam. If they fail that, well,
they pay more money and have to do the class all over again.
This seems extremely unfair, and no doubt to you it is. But this is
Japan, after all. It is not uncommon for this irrational decision
making to be acceptable practice. The most important feature being
taught here, as it is in other sectors of life in Japan, is that you
are never really above the system, and if you think you are, you are
going to be slapped down.
Take the driver's license exam. No one, and I mean no one, passes the
exam the first time around. First of all, you have to pay a fortune to
some driving school to take lessons. The driving school then arranges
your test, and then you take the test, only to fail, even if you do
everything right. Everyone knows this. So, it is not really uncommon
for people to accept their failures the first time around. It is just a
little disingenuous to those of us who really have no reason to fail
someone if they do well. But, if you want to keep making this salary,
then you gotta do it.
~2~
The school administers a teacher evaluation which all your students
in each class must complete. In this evaluation, they ask questions
like, "was the textbook any good?", "would you recommend this course to
others?", "did the teacher use all the bells and whistles (OHP, video,
tapes, computers) available?" Hmm. It seems unreasonable to me that I
will be accountable about the choice of textbook and nature of the
course, given that I had no say in this decision, nor did I put a gun
to the students' heads and say they HAD to take this course in the
first place. Further, if I decline to use all the bells and whistles in
the class, why would that be a good or bad thing? For example, if I
teach reading skills, it is clear to me that a couple of good books
might be in order, that I might not need to use a video or audiotape to
teach reading skills. So I question the rationale for being judged
about my use of equipment which is not necessary.
Additionally, but more grave in its importance to my future, is that
the president of the university takes this survey very seriously. That
is, judgments made based on the opinions of students about your
teaching count a great deal here. It means the difference between
getting a raise, or worse, maintaining your current level of income,
and at the worst, getting the sack. It seems rather flimsy that I might
be docked 10% of my pay if the students "feel" the course they signed
up for didn't suit their fancy, or that they didn't fancy me. The
reverse cannot be made known however; that is, I have no recourse to
say that the students are a lazy bunch of deadbeats, with poor study
abilities, little intellectual curiosity, and are basicaly wasting
their and my time for even showing up.
But here's the clincher: let's say the students generally do think the
better of you--that they "like" you (which is worded on the
questionnaire as "is the teacher passionate about teaching", and "did
you communicate with the teacher?"). What happens if they generally
like all the teachers?
Let's say, for example, Tom, Dick, and Harry are teachers and the
students give them all high ratings. The ratings are numerical (5- high
rating, to a 1-low rating) and so can be tallied and a number total is
derived. Tom gets a 96 out of a possible 100; Dick gets a 95, and Harry
a 94. Pretty good--all the students think quite highly of Tom, Dick,
and Harry, giving them a rating in the 90s out a possible 100. In
anyone's eyes, this would be a good thing.
But, alas, what the school does is rank the order of the teachers: Tom
is number 1, Dick number 2, and Harry is number 3. Since Harry is
number 3, or last, he will get 10% of his salary cut.
This is the inanity we have to deal with.
~3~
How this affects teaching is that you must really please the
students in some way: coddle them, cajole them nicely, and heaven
forbid you ever should make them do something where your own ratings
would be in jeopardy.
To this end, the vice-dean, a Ph.D mind you, has taken the tact to
entertain his class by bringing a guitar to every class regardless of
the subject, and singing country and western tunes. He teaches such
classes as Computer Technology, Readings in Language Learning, Seminar
on Business and Foreign Policy; however, in each of these subjects, he
pulls out the 6 string and sings Arlo Guthrie, Bob Dylan, and maybe a
bluesy thing by Elvis Presley (note: it helps in some obtuse way that
he is a direct descendant of that Irish gadfly and writer Lafcadio
Hearn--a beloved honorary Japanese citizen who wrote Japanese fables
and taught at Waseda University at the turn of the century).
This is how he guarantees his position as a "great" teacher that all
the kids adore.
Actually, I took over from a few of his classes, and the first thing
the students said to me was, "we hate country music." I took that as a
hint the vice-dean's ploy to win the hearts of his students with song
no longer worked, and so I was left with the arduous task of actually
having to open the textbook and teach them something--entertaining. I
would say teach them something of value, but that can't be true. There
is not a snowball's chance in hell the students in my "Readings in
Language Learning" class could care less about the topic, because when
I asked them why they took the course they said, "it fit my schedule".
Proof positive that they couldn't care less was that half of them were
sound asleep by the end of the hour and a half I had with them each
week. Now, you may be shocked by this admission. Don't be. It is not
uncommon for these hard studying miracles of modern Japanese education
to sleep in class, out of class, on the job, on the train, just about
anywhere. In fact, when asked what sort of hobby students engage in,
there are always a handful who list "sleeping" as a hobby. Yeah, I
know...in our part of the world, sleeping is not really a hobby. I
suppose I could scold them for engaging in their hobby while they were
supposed to be learning in my class, but I'm up against it: I wouldn't
want my students not to "like" me because it could jeopardize my big,
big salary.
~4~
In summary, you have to be liked by your students because they
determine your value as a teacher. On the other hand, you have to fail
30% of them. This is a precarious balancing act to perform. How do you
be nice, yet be a bastard and fail them for no reason at all at the
same time?
This I am trying to figure out.
Welcome to higher education in Japan.
Gaga | 11:47 PM
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