Teaching Experiences

You may be truly "blogged out" with me but since this is also my journal I want to write about some of my teaching experiences. The week before Thanksgiving I wrote a letter to the parents of all of my students telling them about Thanksgiving and my thankfulness for being able to teach their child. I left the bottom half blank and asked the students to write a thank you note to their parents.

I gave them to the first class on Friday the 20th because it was the last time that I would see them before Thanksgiving. That Sunday, on the way home from Church I got onto the bus and heard, "Mrs. Ellington". It was one of my students. She offered me her seat and then talked with me. She was going shopping with her mother who was up front in the bus. I asked her if she had given the letter to her mother and she very excitedly told me that she had and that her mother had liked it so much. I said that I would like to meet her mother and so she called to her and had her come back. As she interpreted we met. Her mother thanked me so much for the letter.

Another student told me that she thought her parents would want to hang it on the wall even though they wouldn't know what it said.

Yesterday after class a student came up to me and said, "I need to tell you something personal." (Sometimes I forget that they are very private people and don't like to share to the whole group.) She said, "I gave the letter to may parents and my mother was so grateful and told me thank you and told me to tell you thank you. My father told me that he was proud of me. He is a very shy man and that is the first time that he has ever told me that.

I'm hoping to hear more stories as they have a chance to get home and give their letters to their parents.

I also have been reading some very interesting papers. I have had some frustration with my poetry class of juniors. Many of them really just don't seem to care. There are some who are very interested and attentive but there are a group of others who just stay home or come and do work for other classes or read the paper. Because we are in a huge auditorium I have just chosen to teach those who want to learn. I don't know enough about policy to deal and really don't want to at this point of the semester.

A week ago I gave a different assignment and asked for them to read, "Myself" by Edgar A Guest and write me a two page paper. I gave a few guidelines but left it pretty open. In some ways it has been a pretty traditional set of papers. Huge type, starting half-way down the page, rambling about nothing, but in other papers I have learned things about China and the Chinese culture that have given me a different vision and have made me appreciate the world that my family and friends are able to enjoy. The following paragraph is from one of the boys who seldom comes to class.

"There must be some culture differences here. Maybe in America, you have and you can be yourself. At least you have God, you have someone to say the truth. But in China, there is little relief, that means that for most Chinese people, they do not have to face themselves. Every morning they see themselves in the mirror, they just see their appearance, not the inner corn in their hearts."

Of course I wrote back to him about being honorable, honest, etc. but he has painted the picture from a lens that I haven't looked through before. There is no hope there. Why attend class, why not cheat, why not do whatever if there isn't some punishment involved? What is in the "doing the right thing" for me? Many students are passed even if the international teachers fail them. They know that. They were assigned to their majors. Many of them don't want to be English teachers but they want to attend University so they can get better jobs and have this period of "freedom" in their lives.

I always ask a question at the beginning of my Oral English classes and yesterday's was, "What do you enjoy about University life?" The answers came in different packages but the message was always "freedom", Freedom to sleep in (most of them lived in dorms in high school and started school at 6 or 7 AM and studied until 10 at night). Freedom to choose what to do, how to spend their money, who to do things with. Their lives have been in the total control of teachers and parents and this is the first time that they have been independent and responsible for themselves.

Last night we got our first Ensign although we transferred it before we left. It came from the Hong Kong Distribution Center in brown wrapping. It was like a gift from heaven.

I see the world in a different light. I am so grateful for hope, freedom, the gospel and YOU.


Dear Mr. and Mrs. ,
I am in China teaching English for this year from America. It is my opportunity to teach your child. I feel that it is a great privilege to get to know more about China and the wonderful people here.
In America we celebrate a holiday called Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. It will be on November 26th this year. Thanksgiving is a special day to give thanks for our blessings. It is a day when families gather and enjoy a meal and visiting with each other.
Although I will not be with my family this year I will be giving thanks for many things. One thing that I am thankful for is the opportunity to teach your child.
I have invited him/her to use the rest of this page to give thanks to you.

Sincerely,

Merlene B. Ellington, Teacher
BYU China Teachers Program

Myself
by Edgar Guest
I have to live with myself, and so,
I want to be fit for myself to know;
I want to be able as days go by,
Always to look myself straight in the eye;
I don't want to stand with the setting sun
And hate myself for the things I've done.
I don't want to keep on a closet shelf
A lot of secrets about myself,
And fool myself as I come and go
Into thinking that nobody else will know
The kind of man I really am;
I don't want to dress myself up in sham.
I want to deserve all men's respect;
But here in this struggle for fame and pelf,
I want to be able to like myself.
I don't want to think as I come and go
That I'm for bluster and bluff and empty show.
I never can hide myself from me,
I see what others may never see,
I know what others may never know,
I never can fool myself -- and so,
Whatever happens, I want to be
Self-respecting and conscience free.