Hecatonchire Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 Hello, FDR community, I'm an American working as an English teacher a French high school. I started listening to FDR podcasts last year and for a long time have had problems with the public school system but after listening to a lot of various podcasts around here (I just recently found schoolsucks, and have to run through their content now too). Being a foreigner, I have an extremely privileged position in the educational community here. My job is to work with students' speaking and listening skills. We practice to make our English more "authentic" and to improve casual fluency. A lot of what I do everyday is conversation in small groups, We talk a lot about current events or discussing what they're doing in their other classes/practicing things from other teachers' lessons. When I don't have to practice specific topics, I've taken to asking them what they want to do. I'm trying to get my classes of students to take the reigns and steer the class to where they want it to be. I'm just a tiny blip in their lives of people that isn't trying to force them to do things, but I want to believe that I'm not wasting my time. I'm certainly getting current value out of this job, at least for the moment. I don't intend to be here forever (I can't even if I wanted to), but while I am here, I want to try and to the best I can. All of that said, I'll now list some problems I've encountered that I'd like advice with. First of all, I'm living in the heart of the socialist France. The country's politics are slowly changing (VERY SLOWLY), but I live in one of the few regions where the socialist party is the only game in town and nobody even thinks about voting for anything different. I'm not trying to make this about politics, and I haven't had the opportunity to talk about philosophy in regards to socialism. I'm only mentioning this to describe the environment I'm currently in, and what my kids have grown up in. It has influenced their thinking. Because of the above issue, I have some students that to me seem completely broken. They don't know what they want anymore. They just want to be led around, and they freeze when given the chance to have a little blip of freedom in what they want to do with their time with me. I always tell them that we can do anything at all as long as we talk in English. I've been asking some classes since the year started in September to tell me what they want to do and I still haven't gotten clear ideas. When I do get topics, it's often that they want to talk about entertainment and sports. I let them do it because it's what they want, but it does tend to get stale, and I can see that often they just bring up these kinds of topics because they don't know any better. I have one class that I've fallen in love with. They're in an advanced program and they came to me and complained that my classes didn't have enough structure and that they wanted to learn about american government. I lament that I can't have them more than once a week. That said, we've gotten to discuss lots of meaningful topics like small government and gun control, which is another topic that fascinates them. You know, when I began typing all of this out it seemed like I had more problems than students having their passion circumcised. It's a huge problem, but at least it's only one. What can I do to help my dispassionate students? Is the system actively sabotaging my efforts and is the situation hopeless? I don't expect to change their lives or be revolutionary, but if I can demonstrate some good ideas, maybe I can make a tiny difference to them. 2
ManDudely Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 Understand that these students are there by force. As you noted, they have probably spent many years in a socialist dominated public education system by now and are used to turning up to classes and then being told precisely what to do, what to think and what to say. Being given a sliver of freedom in your class is probably an uncomfortable and disorientating experience. Don't be surprised that you get dispassionate students talking about simple matters to get through the class, for two reasons; either they're picking the low hanging fruit of simple topics because they just want their allotted period of English before being thrown into their next class... or two, that you've hit the bell curve of intelligence and simple things are just what they are interested in anyway.It's a difficult situation; you're hired to help these students develop English language skills, nothing more. I don't imagine you'll last too long as a public teacher if you start seriously challenging the students notions of capitalism, anarchy, atheism or the manner of their upbringing. I guess it comes down to this; does your desire to 'do right by your students' outweigh your desire to stay employed as a recipient of money stolen from the French people by force? I'm going to assume you want to stay employed and feel like you're helping these students at the same time. You can't. Either get comfortable as the mouthpiece through which the French Government propagandizes its youth, or get out.
n1d0 Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 I have some students that to me seem completely broken. They don't know what they want anymore. They just want to be led around, and they freeze when given the chance to have a little blip of freedom in what they want to do with their time with me. I always tell them that we can do anything at all as long as we talk in English. I've been asking some classes since the year started in September to tell me what they want to do and I still haven't gotten clear ideas. When I do get topics, it's often that they want to talk about entertainment and sports. I let them do it because it's what they want, but it does tend to get stale, and I can see that often they just bring up these kinds of topics because they don't know any better. What can I do to help my dispassionate students? When reading this I see my former classmates flashing before my eyes... My guess to improve this situation and get them to talk about more important topics is the why-question. For example, throw into the group: why do you find talking about politics or society not interesting. I can imagine the reasons: boring, not interesting,... But if you get just one or two person(s) to eventually open up to the subjects, chance is the group will start talking with you about it on a more professional level. Teachers like you can mean a huge difference in somebody's life, sometimes a teacher like you is the only one that can open their eyes to reality for just a moment. Some take that moment with them in their lives and develop it further... You are not to be judged for working in a public school system (previous poster...), we need people like you inside that system, it can save people from an apathetic life. Just as a teacher was able to diversify my interests in life... From nihilistic to interested and critical. 1
Hecatonchire Posted January 17, 2016 Author Posted January 17, 2016 Hello, thank you for your reply. First of all, I'd like to say that I'm a visiting teacher. I wasn't hired with the intention of keeping me here forever. Usually this job (at each school) turns over someone new every year, or every other year, which is my case. I got to stay an extra year. Secondly, I'm not trying to challenge or debate my students on capitalism, anarchy, etc. I'm trying to give them a small bit of time where they can be free to express themselves. If the topic moved on its own towards morality, government, etc., I would be pleased and let the discussion evolve in that direction, but if you come across a starving man, you can't take him to eat a huge feast. It'll hurt him. I'm starting small and just trying to give them a little freedom and the opportunity to sort of steer the car even if the gas pedal is on full-throttle. Last week I got questions about Star Wars which ended up evolving into a discussion about Americans and our optimistic culture. They see lots of American movies here and French culture is so pessimistic they honestly can't understand why we want to always win. This was a really fun class. I shared my own optimism and dreams for my future with them, asked them about theirs, and we talked about the future. They were almost stunned by my optimism and how I never accept that I can't do something. You said that I'm hired to develop language skills, nothing more, but I have also explicitly been told that the school wants me to share my culture with the kids here. The "French" English teachers are responsible for their formal linguistic classes, and I'm here to sort of be a "fun guy". It's another reason why the program I'm in doesn't hire for more than a couple of years at most. Maybe bureaucrats at the Ministry of Education wouldn't be happy with me talking about capitalism but I share detailed reports of my activities with the teachers here, and while nothing has hit deep philosophy (I can't go too deep in this setting, but I can leave breadcrumbs), nothing I've done has caused any problems. I'm leaving at the end of this school year but I still want to do the best I can for these kids while I still can. Understand that these students are there by force. As you noted, they have probably spent many years in a socialist dominated public education system by now and are used to turning up to classes and then being told precisely what to do, what to think and what to say. Being given a sliver of freedom in your class is probably an uncomfortable and disorientating experience. Don't be surprised that you get dispassionate students talking about simple matters to get through the class, for two reasons; either they're picking the low hanging fruit of simple topics because they just want their allotted period of English before being thrown into their next class... or two, that you've hit the bell curve of intelligence and simple things are just what they are interested in anyway.It's a difficult situation; you're hired to help these students develop English language skills, nothing more. I don't imagine you'll last too long as a public teacher if you start seriously challenging the students notions of capitalism, anarchy, atheism or the manner of their upbringing. I guess it comes down to this; does your desire to 'do right by your students' outweigh your desire to stay employed as a recipient of money stolen from the French people by force? I'm going to assume you want to stay employed and feel like you're helping these students at the same time. You can't. Either get comfortable as the mouthpiece through which the French Government propagandizes its youth, or get out. @n1d0, thank you for your advice. I will remember to ask them more "why" questions and see how far I can push things.
n1d0 Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 Can I ask, how many students do you have in such a class (average)? Interesting topic to chat about with my girlfriend, as she is an aspiring teacher. If I can get some valuable ideas out of our conversations about this, I'll be sure to mention them in this thread. Good luck.
AccuTron Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 Hecatonshire (really curious about your name derivation), you seem to have a very solid understanding of the situation, and the WHY advice seems spot on. I first reacted by recalling my long ago experiences with religious deprogramming (talkin' major cults, scary stuff). The solution was to remove the person from the toxic environment (not possible in this case) and letting their beat up brains simply be exposed to lots of full information, not strongly edited, and lots of sleep and food. Sounds like, given the huge constraints of the State here, that you're on the right path.
Hecatonchire Posted January 17, 2016 Author Posted January 17, 2016 I have small groups. Usually about 10 students, but often they ask me to take one for 10 minutes, which isn't long enough to do anything meaningful. But sometimes with the individual ones I can talk about their plans for the future. I always enjoy that. So when I have group discussions it's 5-10 students.
LovePrevails Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 you have to shine the light in dark places
n1d0 Posted January 17, 2016 Posted January 17, 2016 Hmmm, some concrete thoughts... Bring a short article/text to class. News article? A history text? Could be good to jump-start a meaningful conversation. Asking: What's the first (English) word that comes to mind if you hear.... terrorism? Quantitative Easing? (that's a tough one ) This is an interesting thought experiment, as we come up with ideas, some of them can maybe be applied in our everyday conversations.
Recommended Posts