September 4th, 2017
In an American family who recently moved to China, we meet the little girl named Mei. Mei is 4 years old, and she is about to start her first day of Kindergarten in modern day China. She lives with her mother, father, and her brother Neeley who is 2 years older than her. Lucky for her, she mostly blends in with the other Chinese kids with her brown eyes and dark brown hair. Foreigners usually have a harder time adjusting in such an environment, since a foreign child's appearance and behavior stands out so much as compared to his/her classmates.
As Mei, her brother and her mother walk through crowded streets and skyscraper buildings, she feels a pit in her stomach. She doesn't want to leave her family for 10 hours almost every day, and she doesn't have any idea what's coming next. Once you get into the Chinese education system, it's an endless competition about who can stay at the top, and who can survive.
The three of them approach the school gates and greet the security guard. As they make their way through the halls of the school, Mei's nervousness gets even more extreme, she feels like she is on the verge of tears. Neeley on the other hand is very excited, and as soon as he sees his homeroom teacher, he grins and speeds down the hall. When Mei sees her own homeroom teacher, she begins to burst into tears.
"Mommy I don't want you to leave me here! I wanna be with you!" she wines, as she grabs onto her mother's leg. She gently tries to loosen her distressed daughter's grip, but she won't budge. Mei’s mother realizes that the two of them are barricading the door, and the other parents do not look amused. The other parents have given their children toys and sweets, especially sugar cookies, to distract them from causing a scene. After a few more tugs, Teacher Liu finally gets annoyed and takes Mei by the arm, forcing her into the classroom.
"I'll take her from here, don't worry, we know what we're doing," Liu says to Mei's mother. Her mother thanks her, and sprints down the hall, embarrassed about her misbehaving daughter.
In Mei's class, small class 3, kids were running around and climbing on desks, playing with their toys, screaming, and eating sweets. She sees that there is another teacher named Teacher Zhou, too. In modern Chinese classrooms there are usually 2 teachers, one is called an Assistant Teacher. As soon as both teachers walk in, the scene starts to change. Through all the children yelling, Teacher Liu's voice booms across the classroom.
"SIT DOWN! SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET OR ELSE YOUR MOMMIES WON'T PICK YOU UP TODAY!" she screams at little kids playing with their toys. Teacher Zhou joins her yelling, and both teachers run around the classroom picking up children and putting them in their seats. Mei is standing hugging her toy still sobbing from her mother leaving her at school, and Teacher Zhou races over, picks her up and puts her into her chair.
As Mei, her brother and her mother walk through crowded streets and skyscraper buildings, she feels a pit in her stomach. She doesn't want to leave her family for 10 hours almost every day, and she doesn't have any idea what's coming next. Once you get into the Chinese education system, it's an endless competition about who can stay at the top, and who can survive.
The three of them approach the school gates and greet the security guard. As they make their way through the halls of the school, Mei's nervousness gets even more extreme, she feels like she is on the verge of tears. Neeley on the other hand is very excited, and as soon as he sees his homeroom teacher, he grins and speeds down the hall. When Mei sees her own homeroom teacher, she begins to burst into tears.
"I'll take her from here, don't worry, we know what we're doing," Liu says to Mei's mother. Her mother thanks her, and sprints down the hall, embarrassed about her misbehaving daughter.
In Mei's class, small class 3, kids were running around and climbing on desks, playing with their toys, screaming, and eating sweets. She sees that there is another teacher named Teacher Zhou, too. In modern Chinese classrooms there are usually 2 teachers, one is called an Assistant Teacher. As soon as both teachers walk in, the scene starts to change. Through all the children yelling, Teacher Liu's voice booms across the classroom.
"SIT DOWN! SIT DOWN AND BE QUIET OR ELSE YOUR MOMMIES WON'T PICK YOU UP TODAY!" she screams at little kids playing with their toys. Teacher Zhou joins her yelling, and both teachers run around the classroom picking up children and putting them in their seats. Mei is standing hugging her toy still sobbing from her mother leaving her at school, and Teacher Zhou races over, picks her up and puts her into her chair.
"STOP CRYING AND SIT DOWN OR ELSE YOUR MOMMY WON'T PICK YOU UP!" Zhou screeches in her ear. She sees her blue stuffed bear on a shelf in the classroom, along with some of the other kid's toys. She stands up and starts walking to retrieve her favorite toy, but Zhou whips her head around just in time to stop her.
"SIT BACK DOWN OR ELSE YOUR MOMMY WON'T COME BACK TODAY!" she says, again and again. Tears stream down Mei's face as she thinks about her mom abandoning her. Her tiny ears start to ring as the teachers yell at her fellow classmates, again and again.
Students in this class and many others will learn through trial and error. They will try to do an activity, and if the teacher criticizes them for it, then they try a different activity until they get praise. This is how the learning process works when going to school in China.
After several minutes of doing this, every kid is finally in a seat. The classroom is large, each desk placed to shape a half circle around the center of the classroom. There are 2 larger desks in the front of the room for Teacher Liu and Zhou, and shelves for backpacks, books, and one specifically for the children's toys.
"Listen up!" Teacher Zhou says, motioning for Liu to speak.
"Each of you will be assigned a number. We will only call you by the number you are given" she said, stirnley. "There are 27 of you in this classroom, and there are 27 numbers. When we give tests, your numbers will be written top to bottom. Top being best, and bottom being worst. These scores will be posted on the board outside the school. We will hang up drawings, activities, photographs, and achievements as well. The board is another way for your parents to see your amazing work! So do well, and you will be rewarded" she gives a slight smile at the end of her monologue.
Chinese classrooms are much larger than American classrooms, sometimes with a hundred kids in one classroom at once. Mei's classroom was listed as a "Small Class" and it still contained 27 students.
The rest of the day consisted of the teachers teaching them the right way to sit, which consisted of feet flat on the ground, in line, hands on thighs, and sitting straight. They taught them how to stand properly, which is very similar to sitting. Like little soldiers. There is no talking during lessons, no talking at lunch, and no talking unless spoken to. Drinking water and using the bathroom is only to take place during water and bathroom breaks. The only small exceptions to this rule are if a student feels ill.
If Mei learned one thing from her first day of school, she learned that it would be a tough ride.
September 7th, 2017
The next few days weren’t very different from the first, although Mei has become more used to the ways Liu and Zhou teach. The one time of day that stands out the most to her as well as other kids, is lunchtime. This is the only time of day that students are allowed to eat, besides breakfast and dinner provided by their family. Once every student got their lunches from the cafeteria and returned to their desks, they could eat. On this particular day another classmate has brought with her a variation of Mei’s favorite toy, her blue bear.
Mei looks at the little girl and says “Hey, we have the same to-” just she is cut off by Teacher Liu, who slams a hand on her desk and screams “NO TALKING DURING LUNCH! I WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR FOOD IF YOU TALK! DO YOU WANT TO STARVE TODAY?”
“N...no… I would like to have lunch today please, Teacher Liu. I-I’m sorry…” Mei stuttered. Liu stood up, making herself look bigger in the process.
“Then do not talk, and eat your food. This school has personal chefs, and they work very hard to make the food for students. If you don’t want their time to go to waste then eat, Student 14” she forced sternly. Mei shyley picks up her chopsticks, and begins eating.
A Chinese student’s lunch usually consists of white rice, stir fried meats and vegetables, greens and mushrooms, dumplings, eggs, and other foods generally found in China. Most kids finish their meals quickly especially since there is a limit to how long you are able to eat during school. School starts at 7:30 and ends at 17:00 (5:00), so students are usually very hungry. Mei’s classmates who wouldn’t eat the entire meal or don’t finish in time get ridiculed, punished, and screamed at by Teachers Liu and Zhou. Today, dumplings are on the menu, and Mei happens to hate, so she eats every little grain of rice, but leaves the dumplings untouched. Teacher Zhou notices.
“Why have you not eaten your whole meal, Student 14?” she stares down at Mei with a displeased expression.
Mei exclaims that “I don’t like dumplings, but I ate everything else!”
“...Student 14, why have you not eaten your whole meal?” Mei doesn’t like her response. Her voice is colder. She sounds more intense than the first time she spoke.
“Eat the rest.”
“I don’t like dumplings!”
“Eat them.”
“But they taste like dry tras-”
“EAT YOUR MEAL STUDENT 14!” In one quick movement, Teacher Zhou takes the dumplings with her chopsticks and starts trying to force Mei’s mouth open with her other hand.
“What are you doin-” She forces the dumpling into her mouth, and forces her to close it. Mei takes one bite, and immediately spits it out.
Zhou’s response is to force her mouth open again, and place the dumpling back in. Mei spits it out again. Zhou places the dumpling. Mei spits.
“I’m not eating it! I hate dumplings! I hate them I hate them I hate them!” she starts to sob.
“If you're going to spit it out over and over, it will be even worse to swallow. We can be here all day.” She places the dumpling back into Mei’s mouth through her sobs, and Mei, finally, decides to swallow it. Teacher Zhou put down the chopsticks.
“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Just eat your food, and this won’t happen again.” She walks away only to watch more kids frantically scavenging down their meals. Mei feels sick. She had never been force feed before, and she could never imagine her mother doing anything like that to her or her brother.
In America, her mother would say how dumplings are good for health, then trust Mei and Neeley on their own decision. But this isn’t America. This is China. In both countries the dumpling is eaten somehow, but through very different practices.
That night Mei started having a growing anxiety about mealtime. She didn’t want to see her mother force more dumplings into her mouth. She just couldn’t imagine it.
October 17th, 2017
School in China isn’t all constant learning material. Especially at Mei’s age, they would do a few art projects! The class can learn how to play the recorder, how to use computers, and exercise. One of Mei’s many hobbies happens to be drawing and coloring, and today Small Class 3 will try drawing together for the first time.
Teacher Liu has begun teaching the class how to draw a sky and green grass fields.
“You begin by drawing a few clouds with this gray crayon” she instructs.
“Then, you must take a green crayon and draw small upwards motions to make grass. Take a yellow crayon and draw a circle on the top right corner of the page, then finally take a blue crayon and fill in the background,” she held up her drawing for the class to see, “Then you are finished. Does everyone understand?”
“Yes, Teacher Liu!”
“Very good. Now begin.”
Mei’s mind begins to wander. She thinks about all the animals she can draw in the field, and how she can make her work personal to her… Until she sees a classmate 2 seats away from her, Student 16, whose name is Shang.
Shang is an American foreigner. He’s tall, blonde and slim. This would all be fine in an American school, some teachers might even point out how he could have advantages in sports from his height. But this isn’t America. This is China, and in China, standing out above the rest can be a student’s downfall.
He begins taking a purple crayon to draw the clouds and grass, and variations of warm colors to draw the sky. Mei thinks it looks beautiful, like he is drawing a sunset. But Teacher Liu doesn't think so.
“What are you doing?! Student 16, you are using all the wrong colors! Wrong wrong WRONG!” She proceeds to take Shang’s drawing and tear it in half.
The scrawny 5 year old stares at his ripped up drawing with teary eyes, and soon he begins to cry.
“I just wanted to draw a sunset!” he cries, “Why won’t you let me?!” He sat down in his seat, his hands trying to wipe away his own tears.
“Do it the right way next time” Liu continues while walking towards the trash bin.
Suddenly, Shang screams “LET ME DRAW!” in english. He stands up from his seat and runs to go and retrieve his paper.
He grabs onto the teared shreds, repeating the phrase “LET ME DRAW! LET ME DRAW!” in english, again. In China it’s very rude to curse at someone in another language besides cantanise. In school, you’re not allowed to fight the teacher, and not allowed to run unless exercising. Shang was breaking a lot of rules.
He tries to grab the paper scraps, but Teacher Liu puts it above her head away from him. Shang tries to jump up and grab it, but Zhou grabs him and pulls him down.
“STOP IT! NO FIGHTING! WE WILL CALL THE POLICE IF YOU DON'T SIT DOWN!” Liu screams at the top of her lungs, “YOU WILL GO STAND IN THE HALLWAY RIGHT NOW. IF YOU LEAVE YOU WILL STAND LONGER. GO STUDENT 16. NOW!”
Shang sobs as Teacher Zhou grabs his arm and leads him to the hall. Once she comes back, the classroom is silent.
“Let’s see what everyone has drawn!” Teacher Zhou smiles.
* * * * *
At the end of the day, many drawings are posted on the board outside. Mei doesn’t end up drawing the animals she wanted to, she drew it exactly how Teacher Liu had drawn it. Her drawing is on the board, as well as others that look like exact replicas of each other.
As she walks down the hallway with her brother after school, she turns around and sees Student 16, still sitting perfectly in line, waiting for the teachers to let him leave.
February 22nd, 2018
Teachers Liu and Zhou told all the parents that their kids should bring toys to school this morning. Now, Mei walks down the school halls with her favorite blue bear in her arms. It feels relieving when Teacher Zhou greats her without telling her to put the toy away.
The teachers instruct the class that they will roleplay a new story with the toys, and Mei has a wonderful time playing with the other kids and learning. When the teachers instruct the kids to put their toys away she puts Mr. Stuffin’ away in her backpack, but just enough that the bear can still see what’s happening in the classroom. Mei knew she was supposed to put her toy on the toy shelf with the others, but she liked having Mr. Stiffin’ close to her. It’s not like any harm would be done by having the toy in her backpack, right?
After all the toys are away on the toy shelf, the class continues with the students learning how to add and subtract. Normally in Chinese kindergarten classes, students are required to learn how to read, write, and basic math. Chinese schools have their students learn much quicker than students in America.
As Teacher Zhou walks around the classroom, she notices that one toy is out of place.
“Student 14” she says calmly, with a harsh expression, “What are you trying to get away with?” she proceeds to yank the toy out of Mei’s backpack, and puts it on the teacher’s desk at the front of the room.
“But I wasn’t trying to get away with anything-”
“You will get it back when you learn to behave.” she says to Mei before turning back to the rest of the class.
“Student 25, can you tell me what 6+10 wou…” Teacher Zhou’s words fade into the background of Mei’s thoughts, as she stares at her favorite toy. Mr. Stuffin’ stares back at her.
* * * * *
A few hours after lunchtime, Mei realizes she had eaten too much. She needs to go to the bathroom. She thought that she could hold it till the next break, but it is still an hour away, and she can’t hold it any longer. So she raises her hand.
“Yes, Student 14?” she answers patiently.
“May I use the restroom? I really need to go…” she says, squeezing her legs together.
“Students may only use the bathroom during break. But if you need to go that bad, you may use the chamber pot.” She points to one corner of the classroom. Mei turns and starts to walk towards a small bucket against the wall filled with… urine…
She decides she would rather pee in her pants than pee in front of her classmates in an awful-smelling bucket.
* * * * *
It’s the end of the day, and Mr. Stuffin’ has been tempting her. Once everyone is dismissed, Mei walks up to Teacher Zhou.
“Teacher Zhou, may I have my toy back from today?”
“No. Go find your mommy, have a good rest of your day, I will see you tomorrow.” That was the end of the conversation? She’s confused why she could not have her toy back. Zhou walked outside with Liu to talk to other parents, and Mei followed them to the courtyard.
“What’s the matter?” Mei’s mother asks her, she bends down to Mei’s height and puts her hand on her back. Mei feels her eyes start to become watery.
“Teacher Zhou took Mr. Stuffin’ and she said I can’t have him back…” she said, whipping away her tears.
“Well, what did you do?”
“I put him in my backpack, and they got angry and said I was trying to get away with having him…” Now Mei’s mom looked concerned.
“Common, we’re gonna get him back,” she says to her daughter.
“But we’re gonna get in trouble!” Mei says, starting to panic.
“Your teachers aren’t always right! But… don’t repeat that, ok?” her mom tells her. Mei smirks.
“Ok!” They run into the classroom, grab Mr. Stuffin, and put it in her backpack like nothing ever happened. Mei is worried that they will notice that they took her toy back, and make her stand out in the hall all day like Shang.
"SIT BACK DOWN OR ELSE YOUR MOMMY WON'T COME BACK TODAY!" she says, again and again. Tears stream down Mei's face as she thinks about her mom abandoning her. Her tiny ears start to ring as the teachers yell at her fellow classmates, again and again.
Students in this class and many others will learn through trial and error. They will try to do an activity, and if the teacher criticizes them for it, then they try a different activity until they get praise. This is how the learning process works when going to school in China.
After several minutes of doing this, every kid is finally in a seat. The classroom is large, each desk placed to shape a half circle around the center of the classroom. There are 2 larger desks in the front of the room for Teacher Liu and Zhou, and shelves for backpacks, books, and one specifically for the children's toys.
"Listen up!" Teacher Zhou says, motioning for Liu to speak.
"Each of you will be assigned a number. We will only call you by the number you are given" she said, stirnley. "There are 27 of you in this classroom, and there are 27 numbers. When we give tests, your numbers will be written top to bottom. Top being best, and bottom being worst. These scores will be posted on the board outside the school. We will hang up drawings, activities, photographs, and achievements as well. The board is another way for your parents to see your amazing work! So do well, and you will be rewarded" she gives a slight smile at the end of her monologue.
Chinese classrooms are much larger than American classrooms, sometimes with a hundred kids in one classroom at once. Mei's classroom was listed as a "Small Class" and it still contained 27 students.
The rest of the day consisted of the teachers teaching them the right way to sit, which consisted of feet flat on the ground, in line, hands on thighs, and sitting straight. They taught them how to stand properly, which is very similar to sitting. Like little soldiers. There is no talking during lessons, no talking at lunch, and no talking unless spoken to. Drinking water and using the bathroom is only to take place during water and bathroom breaks. The only small exceptions to this rule are if a student feels ill.
If Mei learned one thing from her first day of school, she learned that it would be a tough ride.
September 7th, 2017
The next few days weren’t very different from the first, although Mei has become more used to the ways Liu and Zhou teach. The one time of day that stands out the most to her as well as other kids, is lunchtime. This is the only time of day that students are allowed to eat, besides breakfast and dinner provided by their family. Once every student got their lunches from the cafeteria and returned to their desks, they could eat. On this particular day another classmate has brought with her a variation of Mei’s favorite toy, her blue bear.
Mei looks at the little girl and says “Hey, we have the same to-” just she is cut off by Teacher Liu, who slams a hand on her desk and screams “NO TALKING DURING LUNCH! I WILL TAKE AWAY YOUR FOOD IF YOU TALK! DO YOU WANT TO STARVE TODAY?”
“N...no… I would like to have lunch today please, Teacher Liu. I-I’m sorry…” Mei stuttered. Liu stood up, making herself look bigger in the process.
“Then do not talk, and eat your food. This school has personal chefs, and they work very hard to make the food for students. If you don’t want their time to go to waste then eat, Student 14” she forced sternly. Mei shyley picks up her chopsticks, and begins eating.
A Chinese student’s lunch usually consists of white rice, stir fried meats and vegetables, greens and mushrooms, dumplings, eggs, and other foods generally found in China. Most kids finish their meals quickly especially since there is a limit to how long you are able to eat during school. School starts at 7:30 and ends at 17:00 (5:00), so students are usually very hungry. Mei’s classmates who wouldn’t eat the entire meal or don’t finish in time get ridiculed, punished, and screamed at by Teachers Liu and Zhou. Today, dumplings are on the menu, and Mei happens to hate, so she eats every little grain of rice, but leaves the dumplings untouched. Teacher Zhou notices.
“Why have you not eaten your whole meal, Student 14?” she stares down at Mei with a displeased expression.
Mei exclaims that “I don’t like dumplings, but I ate everything else!”
“...Student 14, why have you not eaten your whole meal?” Mei doesn’t like her response. Her voice is colder. She sounds more intense than the first time she spoke.
“Eat the rest.”
“I don’t like dumplings!”
“Eat them.”
“But they taste like dry tras-”
“EAT YOUR MEAL STUDENT 14!” In one quick movement, Teacher Zhou takes the dumplings with her chopsticks and starts trying to force Mei’s mouth open with her other hand.
“What are you doin-” She forces the dumpling into her mouth, and forces her to close it. Mei takes one bite, and immediately spits it out.
Zhou’s response is to force her mouth open again, and place the dumpling back in. Mei spits it out again. Zhou places the dumpling. Mei spits.
“I’m not eating it! I hate dumplings! I hate them I hate them I hate them!” she starts to sob.
“If you're going to spit it out over and over, it will be even worse to swallow. We can be here all day.” She places the dumpling back into Mei’s mouth through her sobs, and Mei, finally, decides to swallow it. Teacher Zhou put down the chopsticks.
“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it? Just eat your food, and this won’t happen again.” She walks away only to watch more kids frantically scavenging down their meals. Mei feels sick. She had never been force feed before, and she could never imagine her mother doing anything like that to her or her brother.
In America, her mother would say how dumplings are good for health, then trust Mei and Neeley on their own decision. But this isn’t America. This is China. In both countries the dumpling is eaten somehow, but through very different practices.
That night Mei started having a growing anxiety about mealtime. She didn’t want to see her mother force more dumplings into her mouth. She just couldn’t imagine it.
October 17th, 2017
School in China isn’t all constant learning material. Especially at Mei’s age, they would do a few art projects! The class can learn how to play the recorder, how to use computers, and exercise. One of Mei’s many hobbies happens to be drawing and coloring, and today Small Class 3 will try drawing together for the first time.Teacher Liu has begun teaching the class how to draw a sky and green grass fields.
“You begin by drawing a few clouds with this gray crayon” she instructs.
“Then, you must take a green crayon and draw small upwards motions to make grass. Take a yellow crayon and draw a circle on the top right corner of the page, then finally take a blue crayon and fill in the background,” she held up her drawing for the class to see, “Then you are finished. Does everyone understand?”
“Yes, Teacher Liu!”
“Very good. Now begin.”
Mei’s mind begins to wander. She thinks about all the animals she can draw in the field, and how she can make her work personal to her… Until she sees a classmate 2 seats away from her, Student 16, whose name is Shang.
Shang is an American foreigner. He’s tall, blonde and slim. This would all be fine in an American school, some teachers might even point out how he could have advantages in sports from his height. But this isn’t America. This is China, and in China, standing out above the rest can be a student’s downfall.
He begins taking a purple crayon to draw the clouds and grass, and variations of warm colors to draw the sky. Mei thinks it looks beautiful, like he is drawing a sunset. But Teacher Liu doesn't think so.
“What are you doing?! Student 16, you are using all the wrong colors! Wrong wrong WRONG!” She proceeds to take Shang’s drawing and tear it in half.
The scrawny 5 year old stares at his ripped up drawing with teary eyes, and soon he begins to cry.
“I just wanted to draw a sunset!” he cries, “Why won’t you let me?!” He sat down in his seat, his hands trying to wipe away his own tears.
“Do it the right way next time” Liu continues while walking towards the trash bin.
Suddenly, Shang screams “LET ME DRAW!” in english. He stands up from his seat and runs to go and retrieve his paper.
He grabs onto the teared shreds, repeating the phrase “LET ME DRAW! LET ME DRAW!” in english, again. In China it’s very rude to curse at someone in another language besides cantanise. In school, you’re not allowed to fight the teacher, and not allowed to run unless exercising. Shang was breaking a lot of rules.
He tries to grab the paper scraps, but Teacher Liu puts it above her head away from him. Shang tries to jump up and grab it, but Zhou grabs him and pulls him down.
“STOP IT! NO FIGHTING! WE WILL CALL THE POLICE IF YOU DON'T SIT DOWN!” Liu screams at the top of her lungs, “YOU WILL GO STAND IN THE HALLWAY RIGHT NOW. IF YOU LEAVE YOU WILL STAND LONGER. GO STUDENT 16. NOW!”
Shang sobs as Teacher Zhou grabs his arm and leads him to the hall. Once she comes back, the classroom is silent.
“Let’s see what everyone has drawn!” Teacher Zhou smiles.
* * * * *
At the end of the day, many drawings are posted on the board outside. Mei doesn’t end up drawing the animals she wanted to, she drew it exactly how Teacher Liu had drawn it. Her drawing is on the board, as well as others that look like exact replicas of each other.
As she walks down the hallway with her brother after school, she turns around and sees Student 16, still sitting perfectly in line, waiting for the teachers to let him leave.
February 22nd, 2018
Teachers Liu and Zhou told all the parents that their kids should bring toys to school this morning. Now, Mei walks down the school halls with her favorite blue bear in her arms. It feels relieving when Teacher Zhou greats her without telling her to put the toy away.The teachers instruct the class that they will roleplay a new story with the toys, and Mei has a wonderful time playing with the other kids and learning. When the teachers instruct the kids to put their toys away she puts Mr. Stuffin’ away in her backpack, but just enough that the bear can still see what’s happening in the classroom. Mei knew she was supposed to put her toy on the toy shelf with the others, but she liked having Mr. Stiffin’ close to her. It’s not like any harm would be done by having the toy in her backpack, right?
After all the toys are away on the toy shelf, the class continues with the students learning how to add and subtract. Normally in Chinese kindergarten classes, students are required to learn how to read, write, and basic math. Chinese schools have their students learn much quicker than students in America.
As Teacher Zhou walks around the classroom, she notices that one toy is out of place.
“Student 14” she says calmly, with a harsh expression, “What are you trying to get away with?” she proceeds to yank the toy out of Mei’s backpack, and puts it on the teacher’s desk at the front of the room.
“But I wasn’t trying to get away with anything-”
“You will get it back when you learn to behave.” she says to Mei before turning back to the rest of the class.
“Student 25, can you tell me what 6+10 wou…” Teacher Zhou’s words fade into the background of Mei’s thoughts, as she stares at her favorite toy. Mr. Stuffin’ stares back at her.
* * * * *
A few hours after lunchtime, Mei realizes she had eaten too much. She needs to go to the bathroom. She thought that she could hold it till the next break, but it is still an hour away, and she can’t hold it any longer. So she raises her hand.
“Yes, Student 14?” she answers patiently.
“May I use the restroom? I really need to go…” she says, squeezing her legs together.
“Students may only use the bathroom during break. But if you need to go that bad, you may use the chamber pot.” She points to one corner of the classroom. Mei turns and starts to walk towards a small bucket against the wall filled with… urine…
She decides she would rather pee in her pants than pee in front of her classmates in an awful-smelling bucket.
* * * * *
It’s the end of the day, and Mr. Stuffin’ has been tempting her. Once everyone is dismissed, Mei walks up to Teacher Zhou.
“Teacher Zhou, may I have my toy back from today?”
“No. Go find your mommy, have a good rest of your day, I will see you tomorrow.” That was the end of the conversation? She’s confused why she could not have her toy back. Zhou walked outside with Liu to talk to other parents, and Mei followed them to the courtyard.
“What’s the matter?” Mei’s mother asks her, she bends down to Mei’s height and puts her hand on her back. Mei feels her eyes start to become watery.
“Teacher Zhou took Mr. Stuffin’ and she said I can’t have him back…” she said, whipping away her tears.
“Well, what did you do?”
“I put him in my backpack, and they got angry and said I was trying to get away with having him…” Now Mei’s mom looked concerned.
“Common, we’re gonna get him back,” she says to her daughter.
“But we’re gonna get in trouble!” Mei says, starting to panic.
“Your teachers aren’t always right! But… don’t repeat that, ok?” her mom tells her. Mei smirks.
“Ok!” They run into the classroom, grab Mr. Stuffin, and put it in her backpack like nothing ever happened. Mei is worried that they will notice that they took her toy back, and make her stand out in the hall all day like Shang.
But the next day was just the same, and they never even noticed. Maybe they just forgot about the incident altogether.
September 4th, 2018
Once 1st grade starts, Mei feels much more comfortable with the school curriculum and the way her teachers teach. The beginning is rough, but once Mei got the hang of it she became one of Small Class 3’s best students.
“At the end of your 1st grade year, you will all be given a test on Chinese characters. Each student will need to memorize at least 800, and you must recognize 1,600. We recommend that you all study every night for a few hours, and if you fail then you will not pass into the next grade level.” Teacher Liu says.
The teachers had told the class that they will be focused on teaching them ways of society and being less focused on memorization… So why is the end of year test so large, even in the 1st grade?
In the middle of Teacher Liu giving instructions Student 16, Shang, stands up in the middle of class. Mei thought everyone had learned by now that disobeying in class is strictly forbidden.
“STUDENT 16, SIT BACK DOWN! THIS IS THE FIRST DAY BACK IN SCHOOL AND I AM GIVING INSTRUCTIONS!” Liu roars. Teacher Zhou rushes to his seat and sits him back down. But just like Mei with her dumplings, Zhou stands up again. So Zhou sits him back down. He stands up once more. Zhou starts to lose her temper.
“IF YOU WON’T SIT THEN YOU WILL STAND!” she screams in his ear, and smacks his chair a few feet away from him. The chair falls to the ground. Shang begins to cry.
“No! I wanna sit! I wanna sit!” he cries, arms outstretched in front of him as he tries to grab the chair. Zhou moves his chair farther away.
“Will you stay in your seat if I give it back to you?”
“Yes! I want to sit! I want to sit!” Shang pleaded. Slowly, Teacher Zhou stood the chair back up in his designated seat.
“If you stand up again without permission, you will stand for the rest of the day.”
* * * * *
“You only need to memorize 800?! I need to memorize 2,500!” Mei’s brother said.
“Mommy, why do we need to know so much? We already have 4 extra classes and the teachers want us to study for hours and hours every day! I’m tired!” Mei is worried. If she needs to do this much when she’s only in 1st grade, then what’s it gonna be like when she’s in high school?
“Well…” her mother crouches down so she is eye level with her two kids, “It’s good that you two are learning about how important school and studying is at such a young age because it will make you more used to it in the future. I know school is tough especially when adjusting to this culture so fast, but it will make it so much easier to live in society. Plus, the better you two do in school, then the better you can be to get into good colleges, and good colleges mean good jobs! Me and your father just want you both to have good lives and trust me, this will all be worth it in the future.”
Mei hopes her mother is right, that it will all be worth it in the end, but for now, they will study.
FUN FACTS:
- Parents spend more money getting their children to do multiple classes outside of school than they do for high school students!
- Some students are forced to study for end-of-year exams (especially China’s equivalent of the PSAT and SAT, and the gaokao: the college entrance exam) till 12AM every night for up to 3 years!
December 7th, 2018
Today Teacher Liu asked every grandparent to come to school with their grandkids, but Mei’s family doesn’t have any grandparents.
A modern Chinese family usually consists of a mother, father, one or two grandparents, and one child. In china there’s a one child policy, but this family is an exception since the children were born outside of China.
Mei’s mother asked Teacher Zhou what she should do, since their grandparents live in America, and the teacher said that her mother should dress up as a grandparent then.
“Why are you dressed up like an old person?” Mei asks.
“Grandma and Grandpa live very far away, and they can’t come- so I need to take their place for today.”
“I should just treat you like grandma..?”
“I guess so,” her mother responded. She feels embarrassed about the whole situation, why did grandparents need to come to school so badly anyway?
When they get to the school, every student and parent was waiting outside the classroom in the hall. There’s chatting amongst individuals wondering what was going on, but after 10 minutes or so a few strangers walked outside the classroom, and they were let in. As they walk into the classroom, Mei takes her seat as usual, and her mother sits in the back, along with the other grandparents.
“There is something we must address before we begin any activities. You may be wondering why everyone had to wait outside for a few extra minutes. On later news, some teachers have been caught drugging kids to try and make them behave. The reason why you waited longer is because we are doing a district check, and they were questioning Teacher Zhou and I. Our classroom is safe, so there’s no longer a need to worry.”
Mei’s mother remembered reading a headline in Manderin which said “Drug em’ and keep em’ Healthy” At that moment, she worried about the fact that teachers would get that extreme… and apparently it’s more common than she thought!
After a few warm ups for the kids, Teacher Liu turns her attention towards all the grandparents.
“Children, line up behind your grandparents, please.” Each kid stands up and walks in a single-file- line, then stop behind their grandparents. Mei looked visibly uncomfortable.
“We must be grateful for our ancestors. If not for them, we would not be here today. Children, thank your ancestors.”
Each child smiles at their grandparent and says “Grandma/Grandpa, you work too hard!” each child puts their small hands around the rim of each chair.
“Children, massage your elders!” Teacher Liu says, and in unison, each child starts to gently press their tiny fingers into their grandparents shoulders. Mei’s mother thought that they would do some sort of activity together, but she never thought that this would happen! She sees that Mei is still very uncomfortable, and they both wait till the entire scene is over.
In China, many things can be done to show appreciation for your elders. Massaging your ancestors is actually very common, but in America it may be seen as strange or odd.
July 12th, 2019
“Class!” Teacher Liu boomed, “Today is our testing day. You are required to write 800 characters, and recognize 1,600. If you fail, you will not move up to the next grade level. Does everyone understand?”“Yes, Teacher Liu!” the class says in unison. Mei has been studying for hours at a time everyday for the past 100 days, and she knows she will pass. Papers and pencils are passed out in an orderly fashion.
“Teacher Zhou and I will be your instructors, if you are caught cheating or looking at another test, you will immediately fail. Each student has 100 minutes to complete this test,” she pauses, and looks around the classroom at each student.
“Begin.” Heads dropped over desks, Mei and her fellow classmates begin testing.
July 26th, 2019
“The results have been posted on the board outside,” Teacher Zhou said, “Do not compare yourself to other students, but you may look to see your answers.” Mei was anticipating seeing her score for a week now, how could you rest easy when waiting to see if you will pass a full grade level or not?
“The student at the top of the list has gotten the best score, while the student at the bottom has the worst. If you got below 400 points, you have failed the test,” she looked around at the students, “You may go now, no running.” She gave a small smile again. Students started cramming out the door and crowding at the board, eager to see what their score is.
Mei saw she was the sixth student on the top, which was very good! But she can’t help but notice her other classmates’ scores, everyone’s scores were right there on the same page!
One classmate’s score especially stood out to her, Student 16’s.
Once they head back into the classroom, the student who got the best score is rewarded, praised, and even named the student ambassador for the week in Small Class 3. The class is instructed to learn a song together, which the new student ambassador leads. Every student sang together:
I take a wooden gun- bang, bang, bang!
I drive a small gunboat- boom boom boom!
I ride as a cavalryman- go go go!
I am a little soldier, I practice every day.
One-two-one, one-two-one, Let us forward march!
FOR...WARD...MARCH!
The student ambassador pledged how he will be one of the next generation’s young leaders. He would “make China beautiful!” and “fight for the Communist Party!”
* * * * *
When Mei and her brother return home, she tells her family the news about her score.
“Excellent job!” her father says.
“I got placed at third!” her brother shouted enthusiastically.
“Wow! It’s from all that studying we did, I told you it would pay off,” her mother exclaims. The family talks about how the tests went over dinner, and Mei gets the song she learned in school stuck in her head.
She quietly sings, “I take a wooden gun- bang, bang, bang! I drive a small gunboat- boom boom boom!” and soon Neeley joins her.
“I ride as a cavalryman- go go go! I am a little soldier, I practice every day. One-two-one, one-two-one, Let us forward march! FOR...WARD...MARCH!” the kids sing together.
“That was beautiful!” her mother says, “But… where did you kids hear that song?”
“We learned it in school!” Neeley responded.
“You learned a Communist song in school…?” their dad questioned. Both parents look concerned. They have both heard stories about Communist propaganda in schools, but they didn’t think that it would begin as early as Elementary School. Mei’s mother quickly changed the subject.
“Well, with your scores so high, you will both probably get into amazing schools! We’re both so proud of you two!” she smiles and gives each kid a kiss on the forehead.
“Then what happens to the kids who don’t get good scores?” Mei asks.
“Oh… well… they usually end up dropping out of school or not being able to get into another school and get a job that doesn’t require any skill… It’s very hard to get a second chance in Chinese schools, so there’s not really any going back after your first try. Those jobs are usually low paying and high in labor, so not fun to work at,” her mother answers solemnly, “Which is why you two should work hard so you can have great lives!” she says, more cheerful this time.
Mei wasn’t worried about Neeley or herself dropping out of school, but she was worried about her friends. Specifically Student 16, she knows he is a very nice person, and she doesn’t want anyone to have a bad life.
But she saw Shang’s score on the test, and he placed Student 27 with 136 points. The worst grade a student can get.