This past Sunday a woman threw her daughter over the seventh floor rail at a shopping mall and then climbed the rail and jumped to her own death while her husband and other shoppers watched in horror. Luckily or perhaps unluckily the little girl landed on safety netting and was physically unhurt. I would not want to have to deal with the emotional damage this incident caused the child.
The SCMP, assuming it can be believed, says today that the reason for this was that the child had failed to get into an ESF (The English Schools Foundation) school after completing the ESF kindergarten. The Standard has an article up about how the rails and balustrades at malls need to be higher, which while probably true misses the point.
Many schools in Hong Kong have Kindergartens that accept more students than they can enroll into the 1st Grade. The one I work for is that way, so are most of the International Schools. ESF is evidently no different, though you could make a good case that it should be. ESF is the English speaking public school system in Hong Kong. They get huge government subsidies but still charge through the roof tuition. They were setup by the colonial aristocracy to provide a school environment similar to the one that existed in the formerly Great Britain which is now the UK. That way a civil servant from “Merry Old England” could come to deepest darkest Hong Kong, and not have to worry about putting their simpering, monolingual brats in schools where they would have excessive contact with the children of the benighted, slant-eyed, tofu eating locals. Separate but unequal, the true spirit of Britain! At least Americans tried to maintain an illusion of separate but equal back in their more overtly racist education policy days. The result is that unlike the, supposedly more exclusive private, international schools which cater to the wealthy or more overtly religious ESF does not, or should not need the money spinner that Kindergartens are to supplement finances. They should be a through system, just like the Chinese speaking schools. That is not the view that the ESF teachers and administration have of themselves but it is effectively what they are.
But, I digress; or maybe not.
The real issue is that the local population sees that the Chinese speaking schools are underfunded, understaffed and to this observer basically uncared about by the EDB boot-lickers, Shoe-Shine Boys and Running Dogs for the now departed colonial regime. I cannot blame the local parents for wanting to get their kids out of a classroom that has a 44 to 1 teacher student ratio. The Chinese language schools curriculum consists of mainly memorizing and repeating it back and seems to be designed to create graduates who are marginally literate, follow the rules and don't ask questions of their betters. Sort of an intellectual vomitoria rather than a school.
It does not take a genius to realize that if you want your child to have a chance of a better life than living in cramped, noisey and unattractive government housing and working as a sales clerk or waitress they might need a little better education. I cannot blame parents for not wanting to place their child in a local school. That does not excuse what this mother did but does make it understandable. There are fates worse than death and spending the rest of your life working 18 hours a day in a menial job may be one of them.
Granted, the parents here many times push their kids too hard. Granted, the parents here have expectations for their children's education and abilities that are far above what could called rational or reasonable. Granted, the purpose of an education is not simply to get a better job. But, the real blame for this tragedy falls at the feet of the EDU who have consistently refused to reduce class size in the Chinese schools or improve the curriculum.
The over funded ESF and a few of the so called “Elite English Schools” which are also government funded soak massive amounts of money while the majority of local schools are ignored. The EdB simply, and obvioulsy if you look at the budget does not care about the educational needs of the poor and less fortunate in Hong Kong. They have refused to install anything approaching a child centered curriculum. The government has also aided and abetted the unscrupulous tycoons who have created a working environment here that is so oppressive that parents regularly work 80 or 90 hour a week to make enough to not starve. Can you blame a parent wanting better than that for their child? Can you blame them for thinking that perhaps if my child works harder now they won't have to slave away in a restaurant kitchen for 18 hours a day?
Parents realize how bad the Chinese schools are. Even the teachers in the local schools realize how bad the schools are. That is a shame because unlike say the US or UK most of the problems in HK schools are not related to a decaying social structure. The problem here is simply one of curriculum and access to a quality education. The Hong Kong Government could fix the problems in the Chinese schools but simply doesn’t. Instead it builds a useless high speed rail link that will allow the THBT and his cronies to have lunch with members of the Shoe-Polish brigade in Guangzhou every other day.
So, Mr Michael M Y Suen, Secretary for Education, how hard is it to wash that blood off your hands? Do you even notice it is there?
Until Next Time
Fai mao
The Blogger who thinks all Hong Kong children, not just the British ones deserve a decent education
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Education. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Hope and Education
(A staff Devotion I presented in September of this year)
As I thought about this devotion today I was struggling. I just couldn’t seem to find a way to express what I wanted to say. I couldn’t even articulate it to myself. Then, yesterday a book order arrived for the professional development room and this book “Hope and Education” was right there near the top of the box. And as I read this book yesterday I knew what I was supposed to say.
I don’t know if the guy who wrote this is a Christian or not but the first three people he quotes are Saint Paul, Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant so I have my suspicions that he is. At any rate, this book is about hope. But not giving students hope but on becoming an educator who lives in hope. What I find so striking about this is that David Halpin applies Biblical principals and then Christian theology to a secular school. He even says that the virtues of hope, faith and love are essentially supernatural in nature and not something that exist in the temporal world! So teachers according to him, in secular schools, should practice Christian virtues. Let me rephrase that; his argument is that the spiritual virtues of faith, love and hope are supernatural virtues that must be applied in a secular setting and that teachers should diligently cultivate these in their lives regardless of their religious affiliation.
He then takes it a step farther and talks about hopefulness as not being merely the belief that things will improve but of hopefulness being a way of using the past, in the present to influence the future. Being hopeful is not a passive attitude but a lifestyle. It is a worldview, one that we should pass to our students. Part of this is to defeat the enemies of a hopeful lifestyle?
1. Cynicism; by cynicism we do not mean simply a person who questioning. We mean the person who is never satisfied with any answer. These are the people who tell you not to start because the odds of success are so small as to make it not worth the effort to try.
2. Fatalism or those who do not believe they can succeed is the second big enemy. These are the teachers who believe they are doomed to fail no matter how hard they try. Not that we sometime mustn’t try when we know we can’t succeed but that no enterprise will ever succeed
3. Relativism assumes there is nothing to look forward too. It just doesn’t matter because it doesn’t make any difference. I found this one particularly interesting in that he provides a damning critique of the current curriculum ideas promoted by many Post Modern educational writers. If all cultures and outcomes should be equal then who cares?
4. Fundamentalism and Tradition. These are not impediments to hope in the sense that all tradition and fundamental beliefs are to be abandoned but rather when they put excessive limits on what we can hope for they become evil things. I think that this is a particularly prevalent one in Hong Kong because we have all heard people here say “I can’t do that because nobody ever has.”
Talk about a Wow moment! This was one for me.
But he stops there and he shouldn’t
While, in some respects what we call a school can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, I think we give the Greeks more credit than they deserve. What we call a school is a Christian invention. In fact, all of the major movements in education were begun by Christians. Public schools as we know them, they first appeared in the Byzantine Empire, Special Education it was started by Christians. What about kindergarten and early childhood education? Oh, you bet Christians started that. Pedagogical reforms that brought about the modern classroom, Horace Mann, a Christian was the first to introduce them. Teaching girls as well as boys? Yep, education regardless of gender got started by Christians. When you look around the world you see schools in every land and nation. They are a testament to Christianity’s influence. Yet, poll after poll shows teachers are hopeless and depressed about their profession. How can this be? How have we lost our hope as educators? Why is it that when teachers’ around the world are surveyed they generally are the profession with the lowest moral?
We can argue some of the reasons but I feel it is because they have lost that hope that education is founded upon. We have lost the hope that our students are part of God’s plan. We have, or so it seems to me substituted tolerance for love, expediency for justice, curriculum for education and knowledge for wisdom. Are we satisfied with providing more facts with less meaning?
So, I’d like to encourage you today to be hopeful, to live in hope. I’d like to encourage you to let your hope allow your past, to influence your future and to salt your present with praise. Allow your students to know that you believe that God does have it under control; that all good and precious gifts come from above. That while we are yet desperate sinners we are all the more saved by grace. Don’t impart simply facts, knowledge or data to your classes today. Impart hope. Live in hope.
Stop. If hope is that important then consider a moment that Paul says of faith, hope and love that the greatest is love.
Maybe we can look at the place love plays in education another time.
If you’d like to read the book “Hope and Education; The role of the utopian imagination” by David Halpin it is in our Pro-D library (370 HAL)
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who sometime does other things
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
But now faith, hope, love, abide in these three; but the greatest of these is love
1 Corinthians 13; 11-13
As I thought about this devotion today I was struggling. I just couldn’t seem to find a way to express what I wanted to say. I couldn’t even articulate it to myself. Then, yesterday a book order arrived for the professional development room and this book “Hope and Education” was right there near the top of the box. And as I read this book yesterday I knew what I was supposed to say.
I don’t know if the guy who wrote this is a Christian or not but the first three people he quotes are Saint Paul, Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant so I have my suspicions that he is. At any rate, this book is about hope. But not giving students hope but on becoming an educator who lives in hope. What I find so striking about this is that David Halpin applies Biblical principals and then Christian theology to a secular school. He even says that the virtues of hope, faith and love are essentially supernatural in nature and not something that exist in the temporal world! So teachers according to him, in secular schools, should practice Christian virtues. Let me rephrase that; his argument is that the spiritual virtues of faith, love and hope are supernatural virtues that must be applied in a secular setting and that teachers should diligently cultivate these in their lives regardless of their religious affiliation.
He then takes it a step farther and talks about hopefulness as not being merely the belief that things will improve but of hopefulness being a way of using the past, in the present to influence the future. Being hopeful is not a passive attitude but a lifestyle. It is a worldview, one that we should pass to our students. Part of this is to defeat the enemies of a hopeful lifestyle?
1. Cynicism; by cynicism we do not mean simply a person who questioning. We mean the person who is never satisfied with any answer. These are the people who tell you not to start because the odds of success are so small as to make it not worth the effort to try.
2. Fatalism or those who do not believe they can succeed is the second big enemy. These are the teachers who believe they are doomed to fail no matter how hard they try. Not that we sometime mustn’t try when we know we can’t succeed but that no enterprise will ever succeed
3. Relativism assumes there is nothing to look forward too. It just doesn’t matter because it doesn’t make any difference. I found this one particularly interesting in that he provides a damning critique of the current curriculum ideas promoted by many Post Modern educational writers. If all cultures and outcomes should be equal then who cares?
4. Fundamentalism and Tradition. These are not impediments to hope in the sense that all tradition and fundamental beliefs are to be abandoned but rather when they put excessive limits on what we can hope for they become evil things. I think that this is a particularly prevalent one in Hong Kong because we have all heard people here say “I can’t do that because nobody ever has.”
Talk about a Wow moment! This was one for me.
But he stops there and he shouldn’t
While, in some respects what we call a school can be traced back to the ancient Greeks, I think we give the Greeks more credit than they deserve. What we call a school is a Christian invention. In fact, all of the major movements in education were begun by Christians. Public schools as we know them, they first appeared in the Byzantine Empire, Special Education it was started by Christians. What about kindergarten and early childhood education? Oh, you bet Christians started that. Pedagogical reforms that brought about the modern classroom, Horace Mann, a Christian was the first to introduce them. Teaching girls as well as boys? Yep, education regardless of gender got started by Christians. When you look around the world you see schools in every land and nation. They are a testament to Christianity’s influence. Yet, poll after poll shows teachers are hopeless and depressed about their profession. How can this be? How have we lost our hope as educators? Why is it that when teachers’ around the world are surveyed they generally are the profession with the lowest moral?
We can argue some of the reasons but I feel it is because they have lost that hope that education is founded upon. We have lost the hope that our students are part of God’s plan. We have, or so it seems to me substituted tolerance for love, expediency for justice, curriculum for education and knowledge for wisdom. Are we satisfied with providing more facts with less meaning?
So, I’d like to encourage you today to be hopeful, to live in hope. I’d like to encourage you to let your hope allow your past, to influence your future and to salt your present with praise. Allow your students to know that you believe that God does have it under control; that all good and precious gifts come from above. That while we are yet desperate sinners we are all the more saved by grace. Don’t impart simply facts, knowledge or data to your classes today. Impart hope. Live in hope.
Stop. If hope is that important then consider a moment that Paul says of faith, hope and love that the greatest is love.
Maybe we can look at the place love plays in education another time.
If you’d like to read the book “Hope and Education; The role of the utopian imagination” by David Halpin it is in our Pro-D library (370 HAL)
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who sometime does other things
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Oh Goody! Is it my turn now?
I am a little bit of a disgruntled employee right now. I was hoping to be promoted to the administrator pay scale when my next contract comes around and found out that is not going to happen because my department is being reorganized in a way that will forestall my argument of being an administrator. The job will not change but I will be struck at the top of the pay scale and not qualify for housing because of my wife's job. I don't really work for the money, we have enough, but I still feel rather like a jilted bride. I've put in 11 years for this school and have done a good job. And honestly, my job is about 80% administration. I deserve the jump in pay. The school I work for is a bit odd in Hong Kong because it does not take government funds and is supported completely by tuition and gifts from wealthy do-gooders who want their name over a door somewhere. (Not that there is anything wrong with do-gooders wanting to do that. Indeed, I wish there were more do-gooders to do that!) But, that means that my salary is actually lower than the equivalent position in a local school. I don't make the 80K or 90K a month like teacher at HKIS or CIS. With the economic downturn the school board are feeling pinched and are in a cost cutting mode. I can understand that but I don't have to like it.
This morning the really-pretty-very-smart-hard-working-loving-looks-25-years-younger-than-she-is Chinese wife and I were talking about the Bozo's (Apologies to real clowns) who make up the District Council and LEGCO in Hong Kong. Near the end of this conversation I said "You know, District Councilors make more than I do and it is considered to be a part time job. I've thought about running in the past. Maybe I should quit (The unnamed international school) and run for a District Council seat. I could work it 1/2 time. I'd have a shorter commute. Nobody would ask if I wanted to coach basketball. Plus, I'd make more money and have more fun all at the same time."
The wife was politely non-committal as to the merits of that plan.
But, if I read this article right then some of the various bumblers are going to quit and effectively call a special election. That means, unless I misread, no-incumbent. Amazingly, I am qualified to run for these district council offices, though not LEGCO unless I give up my US passport.
I may have to think about this. The history of politics is littered with the forgotten names of people who thought they knew better. Causeway Bay is international enough though that an English speaker with broken Cantonese could have a chance to win but would still be at a disadvantage versus the Cantonese speaker with broken English.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who would run if drafted and serve if elected
This morning the really-pretty-very-smart-hard-working-loving-looks-25-years-younger-than-she-is Chinese wife and I were talking about the Bozo's (Apologies to real clowns) who make up the District Council and LEGCO in Hong Kong. Near the end of this conversation I said "You know, District Councilors make more than I do and it is considered to be a part time job. I've thought about running in the past. Maybe I should quit (The unnamed international school) and run for a District Council seat. I could work it 1/2 time. I'd have a shorter commute. Nobody would ask if I wanted to coach basketball. Plus, I'd make more money and have more fun all at the same time."
The wife was politely non-committal as to the merits of that plan.
But, if I read this article right then some of the various bumblers are going to quit and effectively call a special election. That means, unless I misread, no-incumbent. Amazingly, I am qualified to run for these district council offices, though not LEGCO unless I give up my US passport.
I may have to think about this. The history of politics is littered with the forgotten names of people who thought they knew better. Causeway Bay is international enough though that an English speaker with broken Cantonese could have a chance to win but would still be at a disadvantage versus the Cantonese speaker with broken English.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who would run if drafted and serve if elected
Monday, August 31, 2009
Paying the cost to be the boss!
I was relaxing in front of the TV last night watching "Newline" as it was better than sitting there drinking beer in the dark while the wife wrote emails to the kids overseas. I really have to hope that the people who appear on that show are only ones with nothing better to do rather than the brightest and best that Hong Kong has to offer. Geezes Cheeses, what a bunch of dolts!
Last night they were talking about drug testing in schools. They had a Catholic priest who in effect said: "There are better ways to solve this problem" and some guy from Poly-U who is also the head of some sort of citizens concern group that advocates drug testing.
The priest was cogent, well spoken and had his position pretty well thought out. The only problem was, he was wrong. The guy supposedly advocating drug testing was, despite his PHD and head of what ever division at Poli-U a bumbling train wreck. That is a shame because he supports the better position.
The gist of the Catholic argument was essentially two pronged.
First, schools are for education. Education is easier in an environment of trust. Introducing random drug testing reduces trust. If students trust their schools and teachers they will receive a better education and won't be as tempted to use drugs. Therefore, drug testing is a bad idea.
Second, schools are for education. We should not introduce elements into the curriculum that do not further education. Drug testing does not further education. Therefore, drug testing is a bad idea.
The priest also took a couple of swipes at privacy issues but his basic argument was as presented above.
I am not sure what the other guy's argument was except: "We have this HUGE problem that is getting even more huge and so we have to do something."
I would have presented a better argument. Maybe Michael Chugani should have me on as a guest sometimes.
The arguments for random drug test in schools is simple.
1st. Argument
You cannot speed on a public road in a private car because even though you own the car you don't own the road. This is true even if speeding in a car did not endanger other drivers. If it is moral for the state to set and enforce speed limits then it is moral for the state to demand a drug free school and setup the enforcement procedure to ensure it. There is no difference between the two. If you hold that the state can do one then must be able to do the other.
2nd Argument
The state has a vested interest in seeing that school children grow up to become tax payers not welfare receivers and that is why the state funds schools, to create tax payers. This is a win win situation because through education the state gets more tax revenue and the student gets a higher standard of living. But, since drug users are prime candidates for welfare rolls and need more medical and social services than otherwise healthy people then there is a good chance that the state is wasting its money trying to educate them. Since students are taking money for their education from the state then the state has the RIGHT to demand they are drug free to ensure that the money spent on them by the state is not wasted.
3rd Argument
Schools, especially government supported schools are not private places. They are supported with public money which makes them public places. If you want to protect your privacy then stay at home. Don't go to school you are, by definition, not in a private place at school but a public one. If the state can stop motorist randomly and test them for blood alcohol to try and reduce drunks behind the wheel then it can force 15 year-olds to pee into a cup to reduce the number dopers in the algebra class.
As to someone getting a hold of the record 30 years later and trying to use a failed drug test in high school to keep Wolfgang Wong from becoming the Assistant-Permanent-Secretary-to-the-Second-Temporary-Vice-Secretary-of-the-Public-Hand-Sanitation-department-who-is-Seconded-to-the-Greater-Over-administrative-Secretary-for-Development-in-the-West-Kowloon-Cultural-District (Which still will not have been built),well, if smoking one reefer in high school ruins a civil servant career in Hong Kong then I'm all for it. But, I think that most people would be more tolerant than I on this issue and realize that youth sometimes do stupid things. That's what youth is for to some extent. I can't see that it would have that deleterious of an effect.
However, if that one failed drug test was the warning that allowed his school to do some caring intervention on little Wolfgang and start him on the path to an illustrious career as a nameless, faceless, but obscenely over paid civil servant then he should be grateful it happened.
Now to the refute the Catholic father's position.
Schools are for education. But a large part of that educational process is actually learning what the rules are for living in society. One of the rules of society is trust. But trust is earned. Does this priest advocate that schools stop having teachers check for students cheating on test? Doesn't looking for cheaters reduce trust? As Ronald Regan so famously said: "Trust but verify" Actual trust between students and teachers is not reduced by a drug testing program provided that testing is truly random, fair and honest. Most youth benefit from having parameters in place that help them know the limits of proper behavior in society. Drug use is, I believe one of those areas.
His second objection is refuted simply by asking if he knows that most schools in Hong Kong require uniforms? Are uniforms part of the curriculum? How exactly do they further the curriculum? Schools do lots of things that do not directly relate to the curriculum. They do these things to make the administration of the school easier. Yet many of these things are not directly related to education or curriculum. Why should drug testing be a special case?
So come on kiddies, line up and here is your cup. Fill it at least 1/2 way up.
Please note. I am not advocating either position Merely knocking holes in both
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is smarter than the guest on Newsline
Last night they were talking about drug testing in schools. They had a Catholic priest who in effect said: "There are better ways to solve this problem" and some guy from Poly-U who is also the head of some sort of citizens concern group that advocates drug testing.
The priest was cogent, well spoken and had his position pretty well thought out. The only problem was, he was wrong. The guy supposedly advocating drug testing was, despite his PHD and head of what ever division at Poli-U a bumbling train wreck. That is a shame because he supports the better position.
The gist of the Catholic argument was essentially two pronged.
First, schools are for education. Education is easier in an environment of trust. Introducing random drug testing reduces trust. If students trust their schools and teachers they will receive a better education and won't be as tempted to use drugs. Therefore, drug testing is a bad idea.
Second, schools are for education. We should not introduce elements into the curriculum that do not further education. Drug testing does not further education. Therefore, drug testing is a bad idea.
The priest also took a couple of swipes at privacy issues but his basic argument was as presented above.
I am not sure what the other guy's argument was except: "We have this HUGE problem that is getting even more huge and so we have to do something."
I would have presented a better argument. Maybe Michael Chugani should have me on as a guest sometimes.
The arguments for random drug test in schools is simple.
1st. Argument
You cannot speed on a public road in a private car because even though you own the car you don't own the road. This is true even if speeding in a car did not endanger other drivers. If it is moral for the state to set and enforce speed limits then it is moral for the state to demand a drug free school and setup the enforcement procedure to ensure it. There is no difference between the two. If you hold that the state can do one then must be able to do the other.
2nd Argument
The state has a vested interest in seeing that school children grow up to become tax payers not welfare receivers and that is why the state funds schools, to create tax payers. This is a win win situation because through education the state gets more tax revenue and the student gets a higher standard of living. But, since drug users are prime candidates for welfare rolls and need more medical and social services than otherwise healthy people then there is a good chance that the state is wasting its money trying to educate them. Since students are taking money for their education from the state then the state has the RIGHT to demand they are drug free to ensure that the money spent on them by the state is not wasted.
3rd Argument
Schools, especially government supported schools are not private places. They are supported with public money which makes them public places. If you want to protect your privacy then stay at home. Don't go to school you are, by definition, not in a private place at school but a public one. If the state can stop motorist randomly and test them for blood alcohol to try and reduce drunks behind the wheel then it can force 15 year-olds to pee into a cup to reduce the number dopers in the algebra class.
As to someone getting a hold of the record 30 years later and trying to use a failed drug test in high school to keep Wolfgang Wong from becoming the Assistant-Permanent-Secretary-to-the-Second-Temporary-Vice-Secretary-of-the-Public-Hand-Sanitation-department-who-is-Seconded-to-the-Greater-Over-administrative-Secretary-for-Development-in-the-West-Kowloon-Cultural-District (Which still will not have been built),well, if smoking one reefer in high school ruins a civil servant career in Hong Kong then I'm all for it. But, I think that most people would be more tolerant than I on this issue and realize that youth sometimes do stupid things. That's what youth is for to some extent. I can't see that it would have that deleterious of an effect.
However, if that one failed drug test was the warning that allowed his school to do some caring intervention on little Wolfgang and start him on the path to an illustrious career as a nameless, faceless, but obscenely over paid civil servant then he should be grateful it happened.
Now to the refute the Catholic father's position.
Schools are for education. But a large part of that educational process is actually learning what the rules are for living in society. One of the rules of society is trust. But trust is earned. Does this priest advocate that schools stop having teachers check for students cheating on test? Doesn't looking for cheaters reduce trust? As Ronald Regan so famously said: "Trust but verify" Actual trust between students and teachers is not reduced by a drug testing program provided that testing is truly random, fair and honest. Most youth benefit from having parameters in place that help them know the limits of proper behavior in society. Drug use is, I believe one of those areas.
His second objection is refuted simply by asking if he knows that most schools in Hong Kong require uniforms? Are uniforms part of the curriculum? How exactly do they further the curriculum? Schools do lots of things that do not directly relate to the curriculum. They do these things to make the administration of the school easier. Yet many of these things are not directly related to education or curriculum. Why should drug testing be a special case?
So come on kiddies, line up and here is your cup. Fill it at least 1/2 way up.
Please note. I am not advocating either position Merely knocking holes in both
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is smarter than the guest on Newsline
Saturday, August 08, 2009
That's So Retarded
The past couple of weeks have been real back breakers.
We renovated our flat in Causeway Bay but only paid “professionals” to do part of it. We had a non-weight bearing wall removed and the floor in that area redone and the area rewired. We would have had the professionals do the whole thing but they kept finding additional charges beyond the contracted price.
So, in the back of the flat rather than paying a painter and then paying him some more I did it all myself. I must admit that I still have the noble-savage bug and believe that every real man should know how to, and enjoy painting walls, building fences, sawing lumber, swinging a hammer and making furniture. Real men, or so my somewhat addled librarians’ mind thinks' know how to sweat and enjoy physical labor. But, painting in Hong Kong is just so frustrating because the painters are not only dishonest but stupid. They thin the paint thinking that it allows them to save a few dollars and then apply three or four coats of colored water rather than one or two coats of thicker paint.
That may, in fact save a tiny bit of cash except for three things that both relate to time.
First, it takes a lot more time to apply four coats than does one or two. If they didn’t thin the paint then they could finish faster and have more time for other jobs. They’d also spend a lot less time cleaning up because thicker paint drips less and makes less of a mess.
Second, thicker paint sticks to the wall better. But, because the painters here excessively thin their paint, every time you paint an interior wall you must remove the old paint. If you don't then the new paint softens the old paint and the whole mess pulls the old paint off the wall and you end up having to paint the same wall twice after scraping the weak old and your new paint off the wall. So, in addition to having to apply four coats of thin paint, local painters have to also remove the old paint which also adds to the time and mess.
Third, the thinned paint does not stay on the wall as long so you must repaint more often. This might make the painters feel they will have more work and thus a higher income but it is frustrating for residents to have to repaint their walls every three years.
So in a rather stupid attempt to save a few dollars of paint that is, most of the time paid for by the person who owns the flat anyway, painters spend more time to provide a lower quality job.
I'm not even going to get into the fact that they use small, cheap brushes, only 100mm rather 250mm rollers and I've never seen one use a heavy bodied paint sprayer to save time.
I’ve painted more than my fair share of interior walls. I worked as a house painter in college. We’d go into a duplex rented to students and have 12 hours to repaint all the walls and ceiling and then clean up so that it could be rented out again in 72 hours. We NEVER had to remove any old paint. Even if the tenants had painted walls a dark color like black or purple we’d just use a an undercoat like “Kilz” and then apply a white or beige or other neutral rental property color on top. Two guys, two rollers, two roller trays, and various types of rollers to cover the highly textured ceilings and less textured walls, plastic drop cloths, several brushes, scrapers for bad spots, a tube of spackling and caulk for cracks, some towels, goggles to keep paint out our eyes when painting ceilings and a boom box or radio. We generally had a Coleman cooler with some soda, water and lunch stuff as well. Most of the apartments and duplexes we painted were about 1000 square feet of living space not counting closets which would be a 1800 square foot flat in Hong Kong. We'd paint these flats in one day for $800.00 and we provided the paint which cost about $75.00 to $100.00. Not a bad job if we could do two a week and a good job if we did three.
In Hong Kong we’d have starved. We’d have first had to use a product called “Standard Retarder” to remove the old paint. You apply this like paint with either a roller or brush. Unlike modern water based interior paints this stuff stinks to high heaven and is the real reason that your neighbors complain when you repaint a Hong Kong flat. After the Standard Retarder sits on the wall a few minutes it softens the old paint which must be scrapped off. You then have to let the wall dry or else the new paint will not stick properly.
An additional problem is created because the painters here do not use drywall board or sheetrock to cover the concrete or brick. Once again the painters are being penny wise and dollar foolish. Instead they use gypsum powder and mix it with a gelatin to make plaster that is then spread over the wall. The plaster is then sanded and the multiple coats of overly thin paint applied. But the Standard Retarder also takes this off. So, you have to reapply the plaster before you can repaint. If the builders here would seal and apply a fungicide to the underlying concrete wall then cover that wall with sheetrock, tape and bed the sheetrock to cover the joints and the texture and paint with non-thinned paint, renovations in Hong Kong would be a lot easier. Subsequent repainting could just simply be applying new paint over old. But no, they work so that every time you paint you have to remove everything down to the bare concrete. This adds not only time and money but a significant amount of waste and trouble. As paint is considered to be a hazardous waste; removing it from the walls to throw into a land fill is also not an environmentally sound practice when it wouldn’t hurt anything to simply leave the old paint on the wall under the new. The net result is that a flat which Howard and I could have painted in 6 hours winds up taking 3 days for at least three guys working 12 hours a day. But, they spend less on paint.
Doing stupid things that waste money and time appears to be endemic to many levels of Hong Kong. Especially if someone in the government can find any type of short sighted savings. There must be something in the curriculum at HKU because all the civil servant types have a real problem seeing that short term saving often translate into long term expenses. For example; The EdB is going to stop allowing disabled students stay in the school system past the age of 18 despite the fact that non-disabled students who fail a year or two can be in government schools until they are at least 20.
That is as stupid as thinning paint.
These students could really benefit from a little longer time in school. An additional two or three years would allow many of them to gain enough skills and education to become productive members of society with jobs instead a lifetime of being supported by families or on the Hong Kong welfare rolls.
EdB says “They’ve already received more funding than non-disabled students so they are not entitled to more.” So not only are the knuckle-draggers in the EdB stupid dip-shits'; they are cold hearted bastards as well. I wonder how long it will be before someone in the hospital authority says: “Hey, all you people who have had a heart attack or all you losers with diabetes, you’ve already received more than you fair share of health services. No more doctors visits for you.” Since the Civil Servants are moved from department to department probably not very long. Since the civil-servants have their own hospitals and medical system they would be exempt from such decrees.
As a sidelight to this, you gentle reader might be interested to know that the EdB just gave out 4 land grants for new International schools. One of the ones approved was for a British boarding school for the wealthy brats of the upper class whose undisciplined hellions have to be locked away so they won't die of their cocaine addition before they complete secondary school. Many of the students in that school will not even be from Hong Kong or stay in Hong Kong after graduation. They also have other educational options. One land grant that was turned down was the proposal from the Hong Kong based International Christian School (ICS) for a new school expressly for students with moderate to severe disabilities that cannot be placed in an inclusive classroom. ICS wanted to create an affordable option for disabled students. EdB didn’t think that was as important as allowing spoiled trust-fund babies an opportunity to live in a dorm with other societal parasites.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who thinks the entire EdB is really retarded
We renovated our flat in Causeway Bay but only paid “professionals” to do part of it. We had a non-weight bearing wall removed and the floor in that area redone and the area rewired. We would have had the professionals do the whole thing but they kept finding additional charges beyond the contracted price.
So, in the back of the flat rather than paying a painter and then paying him some more I did it all myself. I must admit that I still have the noble-savage bug and believe that every real man should know how to, and enjoy painting walls, building fences, sawing lumber, swinging a hammer and making furniture. Real men, or so my somewhat addled librarians’ mind thinks' know how to sweat and enjoy physical labor. But, painting in Hong Kong is just so frustrating because the painters are not only dishonest but stupid. They thin the paint thinking that it allows them to save a few dollars and then apply three or four coats of colored water rather than one or two coats of thicker paint.
That may, in fact save a tiny bit of cash except for three things that both relate to time.
First, it takes a lot more time to apply four coats than does one or two. If they didn’t thin the paint then they could finish faster and have more time for other jobs. They’d also spend a lot less time cleaning up because thicker paint drips less and makes less of a mess.
Second, thicker paint sticks to the wall better. But, because the painters here excessively thin their paint, every time you paint an interior wall you must remove the old paint. If you don't then the new paint softens the old paint and the whole mess pulls the old paint off the wall and you end up having to paint the same wall twice after scraping the weak old and your new paint off the wall. So, in addition to having to apply four coats of thin paint, local painters have to also remove the old paint which also adds to the time and mess.
Third, the thinned paint does not stay on the wall as long so you must repaint more often. This might make the painters feel they will have more work and thus a higher income but it is frustrating for residents to have to repaint their walls every three years.
So in a rather stupid attempt to save a few dollars of paint that is, most of the time paid for by the person who owns the flat anyway, painters spend more time to provide a lower quality job.
I'm not even going to get into the fact that they use small, cheap brushes, only 100mm rather 250mm rollers and I've never seen one use a heavy bodied paint sprayer to save time.
I’ve painted more than my fair share of interior walls. I worked as a house painter in college. We’d go into a duplex rented to students and have 12 hours to repaint all the walls and ceiling and then clean up so that it could be rented out again in 72 hours. We NEVER had to remove any old paint. Even if the tenants had painted walls a dark color like black or purple we’d just use a an undercoat like “Kilz” and then apply a white or beige or other neutral rental property color on top. Two guys, two rollers, two roller trays, and various types of rollers to cover the highly textured ceilings and less textured walls, plastic drop cloths, several brushes, scrapers for bad spots, a tube of spackling and caulk for cracks, some towels, goggles to keep paint out our eyes when painting ceilings and a boom box or radio. We generally had a Coleman cooler with some soda, water and lunch stuff as well. Most of the apartments and duplexes we painted were about 1000 square feet of living space not counting closets which would be a 1800 square foot flat in Hong Kong. We'd paint these flats in one day for $800.00 and we provided the paint which cost about $75.00 to $100.00. Not a bad job if we could do two a week and a good job if we did three.
In Hong Kong we’d have starved. We’d have first had to use a product called “Standard Retarder” to remove the old paint. You apply this like paint with either a roller or brush. Unlike modern water based interior paints this stuff stinks to high heaven and is the real reason that your neighbors complain when you repaint a Hong Kong flat. After the Standard Retarder sits on the wall a few minutes it softens the old paint which must be scrapped off. You then have to let the wall dry or else the new paint will not stick properly.
An additional problem is created because the painters here do not use drywall board or sheetrock to cover the concrete or brick. Once again the painters are being penny wise and dollar foolish. Instead they use gypsum powder and mix it with a gelatin to make plaster that is then spread over the wall. The plaster is then sanded and the multiple coats of overly thin paint applied. But the Standard Retarder also takes this off. So, you have to reapply the plaster before you can repaint. If the builders here would seal and apply a fungicide to the underlying concrete wall then cover that wall with sheetrock, tape and bed the sheetrock to cover the joints and the texture and paint with non-thinned paint, renovations in Hong Kong would be a lot easier. Subsequent repainting could just simply be applying new paint over old. But no, they work so that every time you paint you have to remove everything down to the bare concrete. This adds not only time and money but a significant amount of waste and trouble. As paint is considered to be a hazardous waste; removing it from the walls to throw into a land fill is also not an environmentally sound practice when it wouldn’t hurt anything to simply leave the old paint on the wall under the new. The net result is that a flat which Howard and I could have painted in 6 hours winds up taking 3 days for at least three guys working 12 hours a day. But, they spend less on paint.
Doing stupid things that waste money and time appears to be endemic to many levels of Hong Kong. Especially if someone in the government can find any type of short sighted savings. There must be something in the curriculum at HKU because all the civil servant types have a real problem seeing that short term saving often translate into long term expenses. For example; The EdB is going to stop allowing disabled students stay in the school system past the age of 18 despite the fact that non-disabled students who fail a year or two can be in government schools until they are at least 20.
That is as stupid as thinning paint.
These students could really benefit from a little longer time in school. An additional two or three years would allow many of them to gain enough skills and education to become productive members of society with jobs instead a lifetime of being supported by families or on the Hong Kong welfare rolls.
EdB says “They’ve already received more funding than non-disabled students so they are not entitled to more.” So not only are the knuckle-draggers in the EdB stupid dip-shits'; they are cold hearted bastards as well. I wonder how long it will be before someone in the hospital authority says: “Hey, all you people who have had a heart attack or all you losers with diabetes, you’ve already received more than you fair share of health services. No more doctors visits for you.” Since the Civil Servants are moved from department to department probably not very long. Since the civil-servants have their own hospitals and medical system they would be exempt from such decrees.
As a sidelight to this, you gentle reader might be interested to know that the EdB just gave out 4 land grants for new International schools. One of the ones approved was for a British boarding school for the wealthy brats of the upper class whose undisciplined hellions have to be locked away so they won't die of their cocaine addition before they complete secondary school. Many of the students in that school will not even be from Hong Kong or stay in Hong Kong after graduation. They also have other educational options. One land grant that was turned down was the proposal from the Hong Kong based International Christian School (ICS) for a new school expressly for students with moderate to severe disabilities that cannot be placed in an inclusive classroom. ICS wanted to create an affordable option for disabled students. EdB didn’t think that was as important as allowing spoiled trust-fund babies an opportunity to live in a dorm with other societal parasites.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who thinks the entire EdB is really retarded
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Another Week Another Year
My summer vacation started today. I still have to go back to the library salt mine for another week to finish up loose ends and to prep stuff for next year; however, that last week is always a relaxing time because I get a lot of planning done which is always fun. More than that, the end of each school year gives me an opportunity to look at what I do and how I can do it better next year. This year I had an odd thought about that.
Part of my professional development this year was to read more juvenile literature. I've been re-reading "The Count of Monte Christo" simply because I really enjoyed the book as a kid. I am constantly interested to see which books continue to be popular and which sort of fade away. This is one that I would have thought would fade away. It hasn't, students still read it despite its length and complexity if not as often as Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket.
Something struck me and made me think about my role as an educator while reading this book. That something was the prison education of Edmund Dantes. Sure, there are problems with a man living on gruel training himself into a top flight swordsman in a dungeon with only a stick to use as a sword but the other part of the education of Edmond Dantes is entirely believable. The priest had a few books that he used to teach Dantes to read and write. He also gave him a broad understanding of history, philosophy, science, rhetoric, aesthetics and mathematics. This is something that any educated person, with a few basic text should be able to do with a willing pupil and unlimited time. Despite the huge advances in technology since Napoleonic times the knowledge needed for living hasn't really changed that much. I don't need to know exactly how my computer works to use it. I really don't need any more knowledge of mathematics, science, biology or any other subject in my daily life than the average educated person in the 18th century. And, the things that separated a gentleman from a boor in the 18th century still separate polite from boorish company today. I'm not talking about wealth or power but manners, ethics and morality.
That thought made me ask, "What does it mean to be educated?" In a very real sense that is the theme of The Count of Monte Christo. After his escape Dantes has to learn the limits of vengeance, the cost of hatred, the necessity of justice, the power of forgiveness and the strength of love. This moral education was mainly theoretical instruction while he was in prison because to learn these lessons requires interaction with society and he didn't have that in prison. They are a set of lessons that Dantes could not complete until he escaped and almost didn't learn until it was too late.
Yet it was this moral theory taught to him by an imprisoned priest that allowed Dantes to return as more than a pirate and to overcome his lust for vengeance if only just barely.
This made me wonder. Is the essence of education basically intellectual or moral? I'm not sure I have an answer for that question. It is the question that will fill my summer as I prepare for the coming academic year. The answer will help to inform my selection of materials and how I interact with students in the coming years.
Am I a saint or merely a priest? Am I a Count or am I a priest? Do I believe because I know that I am believed in?
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is a librarian not a priest.
Part of my professional development this year was to read more juvenile literature. I've been re-reading "The Count of Monte Christo" simply because I really enjoyed the book as a kid. I am constantly interested to see which books continue to be popular and which sort of fade away. This is one that I would have thought would fade away. It hasn't, students still read it despite its length and complexity if not as often as Harry Potter or Lemony Snicket.
Something struck me and made me think about my role as an educator while reading this book. That something was the prison education of Edmund Dantes. Sure, there are problems with a man living on gruel training himself into a top flight swordsman in a dungeon with only a stick to use as a sword but the other part of the education of Edmond Dantes is entirely believable. The priest had a few books that he used to teach Dantes to read and write. He also gave him a broad understanding of history, philosophy, science, rhetoric, aesthetics and mathematics. This is something that any educated person, with a few basic text should be able to do with a willing pupil and unlimited time. Despite the huge advances in technology since Napoleonic times the knowledge needed for living hasn't really changed that much. I don't need to know exactly how my computer works to use it. I really don't need any more knowledge of mathematics, science, biology or any other subject in my daily life than the average educated person in the 18th century. And, the things that separated a gentleman from a boor in the 18th century still separate polite from boorish company today. I'm not talking about wealth or power but manners, ethics and morality.
That thought made me ask, "What does it mean to be educated?" In a very real sense that is the theme of The Count of Monte Christo. After his escape Dantes has to learn the limits of vengeance, the cost of hatred, the necessity of justice, the power of forgiveness and the strength of love. This moral education was mainly theoretical instruction while he was in prison because to learn these lessons requires interaction with society and he didn't have that in prison. They are a set of lessons that Dantes could not complete until he escaped and almost didn't learn until it was too late.
Yet it was this moral theory taught to him by an imprisoned priest that allowed Dantes to return as more than a pirate and to overcome his lust for vengeance if only just barely.
This made me wonder. Is the essence of education basically intellectual or moral? I'm not sure I have an answer for that question. It is the question that will fill my summer as I prepare for the coming academic year. The answer will help to inform my selection of materials and how I interact with students in the coming years.
Am I a saint or merely a priest? Am I a Count or am I a priest? Do I believe because I know that I am believed in?
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who is a librarian not a priest.
Friday, February 13, 2009
Banning Books for Environmental Health
You can't make this stuff up.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who owns lots of old books
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who owns lots of old books
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Beating the Unbeatable Foe - An educationally (For Hong Kong) incorrect post
The past two week have been as the last two weeks of any school year always are, the busiest of my year. One of my hats at the school is that I am responsible for end of year textbook return for all secondary students. I have the textbooks cataloged into the library system and assign them by checking them out to students in the fall. This is a big job that makes me both mentally and physically tired. However, getting all the books back, assessing fines for damage and getting everything closed down and ready for next year is just part of the job and in a certain way I enjoy the hectic pace and the feeling of accomplishment that comes with completing so many task. The past two weeks are filled with heavy lifting as I stack and move the books into the summer storage area and assessing the condition and recording the return of the books. It is also fun to see the high school seniors, who were in grade 2 when I became the librarian happy about their graduation even if I know most of them are far to naive and immature to really be considered adults. But they are at least old enough to begin that real education that comes from actually living and I can be happy for them and appreciate how hard they have worked to graduate. I can also look forward to a vacation, and a general period of relaxation, and refreshment so that I can rest up for the coming year that begins in August. So this is in many ways my favorite time of the school year.
All is not bliss because there is something that pops up at the end of the academic year that as an educator in Hong Kong I do not like. I always have a number of parents approach me for textbooks. They want their child to have every book for every class in the coming year so that they can have the summer to "get ahead" for the fall. The school has a rule that we will only do this if the child has been recommended by the Special Needs teacher or if it is an AP class. That does not stop parents from asking.
Do not misunderstand. I am all for academic excellence. Kids need to know facts, there is a place for hard academic work. Subjects should be challenging and academically rigorous. But there is a place where academic enrichment becomes child abuse and many parents in Hong Kong have passed that point about 5 extra tutorial sessions ago. One of the parents asking for textbooks this week told me that she had already enrolled her child in a math camp in Illinois and still wanted him to go completely through the Algebra 2 book that takes all year in the 9th or 10th grade. Luckily for her son the teacher did not agree to this. She expects her son to make an absolute 100 on any math test he takes, nothing less is acceptable. If she were ever in a movie Dorothy would probably drop a house on her.
I believe that this type of excessive expectation being forced upon children is, at least in part, a result of the EVIL corporate environment here. Most of the parents have to work what amounts to two jobs here to get one pay check. 70 or 80 hours a week seems to be about the norm for a lot of jobs. Thus there is a very real belief by parents that this is not only what it takes to not get ahead but to simply stay economically afloat in Hong Kong. As a result kids here are often raised by maids who get them up, send them to school, and then drag them from tutor to tutor until midnight when they come home to do their homework and then put them to bed at 3:00AM for 3.5 to 4 hours sleep. It is amazing to me how sleepy the middle-school and high-school students are in Hong Kong.
You can make an argument, perhaps a good one that this is just Chinese culture. Not being a cultural relativist I still say it is EVIL. Children need time to be children. I could, if I wanted list reasons for this but it probably wouldn't do any good. The parents are doing this out of fear that they mistake for love. They are afraid their children will have to work as hard as they do and see the accumulation of academic trivia as the hedge against the kid next door who might know just one more fact. It doesn't matter that the child can only play the piano pieces required for the test. It doesn't matter that they can memorize mathematical formulas but have no understanding of how they relate to the real world. It doesn't matter if they have no social skills. I doesn't matter if they exhibit signs of mental illness caused by stress. It doesn't matter that after a certain point higher grades on standardized test cease to be predictive of success. Nothing matters except being able to get good grades so that they can one day work 70 to 80 hours a week in a prestigious job. My God! I think Prestige is over rated!
I have learned that I cannot argue with the parent's mindset. Illogical people actually have their own internal logic.That means that most of the time you cannot reason with irrationality. Historically the best way you oppose irrationality is not through reason but though force and I do not have the authority or desire dissuade them that way. What am I going to do; beat some sense into them? Unless you can show them that they are wrong which is very difficult they cannot be reasoned with. Thus, if I refuse they complain about me to the administration and threaten to take their child to another school. If I give into them I am aiding and abetting the abuse of their child. So the question is, do I want to lose my job or help them abuse their child? I am beaten either way. I've kind of defaulted in the past to giving the textbook if a teacher or principal will agree to it but some of those can be leaned on will give books out regardless of any actual academic need.
This is a question I've thought about at this time of year for several years. How can I get parents to see that often times their kids grades would improve, or at least not fall if they were allowed to take some time off and be kids in the summer? I've tried lots of approaches. I am ashamed to say that maladaptive ones have been the easiest and the most successful. "I'm sorry, that textbook is being replaced and the new one isn't in yet." will work in some cases. "Come back next week when everything is returned" is another ploy because sometimes they do not come back; and even if they do I've bought the child a week off from extra math. I've also had polite conversations about the limitations of standardized test and the need for developing the whole person not just math skills. Nothing has been very successful.
For some reason the parents here tend to focus on math and science and generally ask for math books. This is frustrating to me because most of our students need extra help in language not math. So I just absolutely fume at the inappropriateness of this. Not only are they working their children like dogs when they need a mental break they are giving them practice in skills they do not need at the expense of the skills they do need.
Next year I am going to ask the principals if I can try something different. I am going to play to the parents fears but in a different way. I am going to purchase three or four copies of various books, written at different levels that deal math topics. These could be titles like The Physics of Baseball, Flatland, The Mr. Tompkins books, Galileo's Daughter, Fermat's last Theorem, just to name a few but I'll have to find some at a lower reading level as well. Then before parents start pestering me for algebra books I make an announcement for an "Advanced Summer Math Program" that will prepare the students for next years math courses with an explanation that we are broadening the thinking process so that the students are able to understand the concepts easier.
I am going to suggest to parents that their psychotic little brats (That is after all what abused children become) read one of these instead of doing endless extra math problems and write a short reflective paper on what they learned. This is sound in a number of ways but the most important one is that it shows kids that the math we do in a book exist in the real world. Geometry, trigonometry, algebra and calculus all describe REAL things, events or situations and being able to see those in life makes math easier to learn because kids see it as a practical skill to know. Knowing why a curve ball curves and showing the mental calculations a striker makes when he kicks a soccer ball or the relationship between musical notes and fractions give children useful clues about not only math but life. More than that it gives the kids practice reading technical materials and in dealing with abstract concepts and in writing and thinking which is what they need help in. I believe that this will be more beneficial to the students as well as less onerous. Who knows, maybe reading about baseball will encourage them to actually grab a glove and bat and go outside and play some baseball. Stranger things have happened.
We will see if the parents buy the plan.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The proponent of a sneaky curriculum
All is not bliss because there is something that pops up at the end of the academic year that as an educator in Hong Kong I do not like. I always have a number of parents approach me for textbooks. They want their child to have every book for every class in the coming year so that they can have the summer to "get ahead" for the fall. The school has a rule that we will only do this if the child has been recommended by the Special Needs teacher or if it is an AP class. That does not stop parents from asking.
Do not misunderstand. I am all for academic excellence. Kids need to know facts, there is a place for hard academic work. Subjects should be challenging and academically rigorous. But there is a place where academic enrichment becomes child abuse and many parents in Hong Kong have passed that point about 5 extra tutorial sessions ago. One of the parents asking for textbooks this week told me that she had already enrolled her child in a math camp in Illinois and still wanted him to go completely through the Algebra 2 book that takes all year in the 9th or 10th grade. Luckily for her son the teacher did not agree to this. She expects her son to make an absolute 100 on any math test he takes, nothing less is acceptable. If she were ever in a movie Dorothy would probably drop a house on her.
I believe that this type of excessive expectation being forced upon children is, at least in part, a result of the EVIL corporate environment here. Most of the parents have to work what amounts to two jobs here to get one pay check. 70 or 80 hours a week seems to be about the norm for a lot of jobs. Thus there is a very real belief by parents that this is not only what it takes to not get ahead but to simply stay economically afloat in Hong Kong. As a result kids here are often raised by maids who get them up, send them to school, and then drag them from tutor to tutor until midnight when they come home to do their homework and then put them to bed at 3:00AM for 3.5 to 4 hours sleep. It is amazing to me how sleepy the middle-school and high-school students are in Hong Kong.
You can make an argument, perhaps a good one that this is just Chinese culture. Not being a cultural relativist I still say it is EVIL. Children need time to be children. I could, if I wanted list reasons for this but it probably wouldn't do any good. The parents are doing this out of fear that they mistake for love. They are afraid their children will have to work as hard as they do and see the accumulation of academic trivia as the hedge against the kid next door who might know just one more fact. It doesn't matter that the child can only play the piano pieces required for the test. It doesn't matter that they can memorize mathematical formulas but have no understanding of how they relate to the real world. It doesn't matter if they have no social skills. I doesn't matter if they exhibit signs of mental illness caused by stress. It doesn't matter that after a certain point higher grades on standardized test cease to be predictive of success. Nothing matters except being able to get good grades so that they can one day work 70 to 80 hours a week in a prestigious job. My God! I think Prestige is over rated!
I have learned that I cannot argue with the parent's mindset. Illogical people actually have their own internal logic.That means that most of the time you cannot reason with irrationality. Historically the best way you oppose irrationality is not through reason but though force and I do not have the authority or desire dissuade them that way. What am I going to do; beat some sense into them? Unless you can show them that they are wrong which is very difficult they cannot be reasoned with. Thus, if I refuse they complain about me to the administration and threaten to take their child to another school. If I give into them I am aiding and abetting the abuse of their child. So the question is, do I want to lose my job or help them abuse their child? I am beaten either way. I've kind of defaulted in the past to giving the textbook if a teacher or principal will agree to it but some of those can be leaned on will give books out regardless of any actual academic need.
This is a question I've thought about at this time of year for several years. How can I get parents to see that often times their kids grades would improve, or at least not fall if they were allowed to take some time off and be kids in the summer? I've tried lots of approaches. I am ashamed to say that maladaptive ones have been the easiest and the most successful. "I'm sorry, that textbook is being replaced and the new one isn't in yet." will work in some cases. "Come back next week when everything is returned" is another ploy because sometimes they do not come back; and even if they do I've bought the child a week off from extra math. I've also had polite conversations about the limitations of standardized test and the need for developing the whole person not just math skills. Nothing has been very successful.
For some reason the parents here tend to focus on math and science and generally ask for math books. This is frustrating to me because most of our students need extra help in language not math. So I just absolutely fume at the inappropriateness of this. Not only are they working their children like dogs when they need a mental break they are giving them practice in skills they do not need at the expense of the skills they do need.
Next year I am going to ask the principals if I can try something different. I am going to play to the parents fears but in a different way. I am going to purchase three or four copies of various books, written at different levels that deal math topics. These could be titles like The Physics of Baseball, Flatland, The Mr. Tompkins books, Galileo's Daughter, Fermat's last Theorem, just to name a few but I'll have to find some at a lower reading level as well. Then before parents start pestering me for algebra books I make an announcement for an "Advanced Summer Math Program" that will prepare the students for next years math courses with an explanation that we are broadening the thinking process so that the students are able to understand the concepts easier.
I am going to suggest to parents that their psychotic little brats (That is after all what abused children become) read one of these instead of doing endless extra math problems and write a short reflective paper on what they learned. This is sound in a number of ways but the most important one is that it shows kids that the math we do in a book exist in the real world. Geometry, trigonometry, algebra and calculus all describe REAL things, events or situations and being able to see those in life makes math easier to learn because kids see it as a practical skill to know. Knowing why a curve ball curves and showing the mental calculations a striker makes when he kicks a soccer ball or the relationship between musical notes and fractions give children useful clues about not only math but life. More than that it gives the kids practice reading technical materials and in dealing with abstract concepts and in writing and thinking which is what they need help in. I believe that this will be more beneficial to the students as well as less onerous. Who knows, maybe reading about baseball will encourage them to actually grab a glove and bat and go outside and play some baseball. Stranger things have happened.
We will see if the parents buy the plan.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The proponent of a sneaky curriculum
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
A more thought out response
As I said in an earlier post I went to a conference on Saturday. The keynote speaker was Mark Treadwell who helped design the new national curriculum for New Zealand.
Without being unnecessarily rude may I say that I found Mark Treadwell to be one of those "Visionary Leaders" that the other keynote speaker Jamie McKenzie warned us about that we should avoid in another session on Friday. Which is a shame, he seems like a nice guy and on a certain level I really liked him. I leave open the possibility that I completely misunderstood him.
He is I believe both misreading and misinterpreting the concept of child centered education as developed by John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Horace Mann and others.
I think that if Mark Treadwell's ideas were followed then we would have a society that could not maintain the machines that were required to sustain the society that the machines had created. In that sense his ideas are the antithesis of progressive education.
While I disagreed with him on many levels he made one point that was very true; humans are not necessarily logical beings. It is strange to me that he should believe that and then not see that technology will be neither our salvation nor our downfall. After all, how could a logical machine redeem an illogical animal?
His, at least implied assertion that written language is being replaced with verbal language is demonstratively false. If for no other reason than people can read faster than they can speak.Reading
His graph about the growth of knowledge and the "New Paradigm" that supposedly emerged in 2002 was, I think misleading in that the amount of knowledge may increase faster as a whole but the slope of change remains the same and the plateaus are shorter You would expect that because humans have the same brain they had 100,000 years ago and can only learn so fast. Knowledge increases in part because there are more people. More than that, most of the new knowledge, especially that on the Internet is not really knowledge at all, but some combination of conjecture, misapplication and bigotry. Thus, it has no education value. Other areas of knowledge are applicable only to specialized fields. Most people do not need to know much more to live their lives today than they did 50 years ago. It does not matter how much more is known in global sense.
In his follow up session in the afternoon he had a chart that showed how he believed that character education had flowed from conformity (discipline by force) to self interest to a moral reasoning. While in one sense there is some truth in this in another way it showed an almost laughable lack of understanding of educational history. It can easily be shown that the primary purpose of education, since at least the time of Plato has been to instill moral virtue. The modern public education movement at least in the United States and Canada was in large part started in the 19th century as a way to increase literacy so that the illiterate working class could develop the skills needed to read the Bible and therefore improve their moral understanding and not to simply have their religion dictated to them. So, his chart was in some important ways backwards.
I would also challenge his assertion that we are entering an age where creativity is more important than the past. Was the caveman making a flint tip for his spear any less creative than someone today? Indeed, it appears to me that people in an agricultural or pre-industrial society had to be rather more creative than the accountant, banker or generic bean-counter professions that we have today. In the past you solved problems or you died; today if you are not good at solving problems you become a middle-manager, politician, fashion designer, entertainer or any of a host of other jobs where creativity is discouraged in favor of recycling old trends or following an existing, somewhat ridged set of directives.
I also found his characterization of the educational process to be skewed. While previous generations did emphasis more route learning and some cultures emphasized it more than others it simply isn't true children were not taught to think or be creative in the past. The entire cannon of literature and the complete body of arts and sciences testify against Mark Treadwell at this point.
I think that in the past, possibly because there was less to distract us, humans engaged more in what I call meditative learning. This is the act of simply pondering a problem as you walk or while sitting down. Just thinking about something. Now with the ubiquity of Internet access almost nobody thinks because we do not have to. Search Google and see what somebody else says. How is that creative? I believe and I believe it strongly that to improve education we may not need more technology but less. (Please note, I do not suffer from technophobia) As our curriculum has become more crowded it is this meditative aspect of education that has most suffered and it is in this aspect of education that libraries used to excel. It is also the aspect of learning that is most obviously absent in Hong Kong Schools. Do you want to see creative, thinking, mature, morally grounded students graduating from you school who can face the terrors of adulthood with the ability to gain and use the skills needed to meet the challenge of the future? Then maybe we don't need to speed up learning but to slow it down.
All of this means that, contrary to what Mark Treadwell appeared to say, I don't think that the way good teachers teach has or is going to change very much. Teachers may use different media for instruction, incorporate new technology into lesson plans, apply concepts to real life situation, make the educational process student centered, encourage thinking and creativity and try to mold character as well as academic skills; but, when have good teachers not done these things?
The more things change the more they stay the same; and that is many times a good thing.
After hearing Mark Treadwell twice on Friday I decided I'd rather not hear what he had to say on Saturday. I stayed home and went out to lunch with the really smart, good looking, looks twenty-five years younger than she is, hard working wife. We enjoyed our meal.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who styles himself as a part time philosopher of education
Without being unnecessarily rude may I say that I found Mark Treadwell to be one of those "Visionary Leaders" that the other keynote speaker Jamie McKenzie warned us about that we should avoid in another session on Friday. Which is a shame, he seems like a nice guy and on a certain level I really liked him. I leave open the possibility that I completely misunderstood him.
He is I believe both misreading and misinterpreting the concept of child centered education as developed by John Dewey, Maria Montessori, Horace Mann and others.
I think that if Mark Treadwell's ideas were followed then we would have a society that could not maintain the machines that were required to sustain the society that the machines had created. In that sense his ideas are the antithesis of progressive education.
While I disagreed with him on many levels he made one point that was very true; humans are not necessarily logical beings. It is strange to me that he should believe that and then not see that technology will be neither our salvation nor our downfall. After all, how could a logical machine redeem an illogical animal?
His, at least implied assertion that written language is being replaced with verbal language is demonstratively false. If for no other reason than people can read faster than they can speak.
His graph about the growth of knowledge and the "New Paradigm" that supposedly emerged in 2002 was, I think misleading in that the amount of knowledge may increase faster as a whole but the slope of change remains the same and the plateaus are shorter You would expect that because humans have the same brain they had 100,000 years ago and can only learn so fast. Knowledge increases in part because there are more people. More than that, most of the new knowledge, especially that on the Internet is not really knowledge at all, but some combination of conjecture, misapplication and bigotry. Thus, it has no education value. Other areas of knowledge are applicable only to specialized fields. Most people do not need to know much more to live their lives today than they did 50 years ago. It does not matter how much more is known in global sense.
In his follow up session in the afternoon he had a chart that showed how he believed that character education had flowed from conformity (discipline by force) to self interest to a moral reasoning. While in one sense there is some truth in this in another way it showed an almost laughable lack of understanding of educational history. It can easily be shown that the primary purpose of education, since at least the time of Plato has been to instill moral virtue. The modern public education movement at least in the United States and Canada was in large part started in the 19th century as a way to increase literacy so that the illiterate working class could develop the skills needed to read the Bible and therefore improve their moral understanding and not to simply have their religion dictated to them. So, his chart was in some important ways backwards.
I would also challenge his assertion that we are entering an age where creativity is more important than the past. Was the caveman making a flint tip for his spear any less creative than someone today? Indeed, it appears to me that people in an agricultural or pre-industrial society had to be rather more creative than the accountant, banker or generic bean-counter professions that we have today. In the past you solved problems or you died; today if you are not good at solving problems you become a middle-manager, politician, fashion designer, entertainer or any of a host of other jobs where creativity is discouraged in favor of recycling old trends or following an existing, somewhat ridged set of directives.
I also found his characterization of the educational process to be skewed. While previous generations did emphasis more route learning and some cultures emphasized it more than others it simply isn't true children were not taught to think or be creative in the past. The entire cannon of literature and the complete body of arts and sciences testify against Mark Treadwell at this point.
I think that in the past, possibly because there was less to distract us, humans engaged more in what I call meditative learning. This is the act of simply pondering a problem as you walk or while sitting down. Just thinking about something. Now with the ubiquity of Internet access almost nobody thinks because we do not have to. Search Google and see what somebody else says. How is that creative? I believe and I believe it strongly that to improve education we may not need more technology but less. (Please note, I do not suffer from technophobia) As our curriculum has become more crowded it is this meditative aspect of education that has most suffered and it is in this aspect of education that libraries used to excel. It is also the aspect of learning that is most obviously absent in Hong Kong Schools. Do you want to see creative, thinking, mature, morally grounded students graduating from you school who can face the terrors of adulthood with the ability to gain and use the skills needed to meet the challenge of the future? Then maybe we don't need to speed up learning but to slow it down.
All of this means that, contrary to what Mark Treadwell appeared to say, I don't think that the way good teachers teach has or is going to change very much. Teachers may use different media for instruction, incorporate new technology into lesson plans, apply concepts to real life situation, make the educational process student centered, encourage thinking and creativity and try to mold character as well as academic skills; but, when have good teachers not done these things?
The more things change the more they stay the same; and that is many times a good thing.
After hearing Mark Treadwell twice on Friday I decided I'd rather not hear what he had to say on Saturday. I stayed home and went out to lunch with the really smart, good looking, looks twenty-five years younger than she is, hard working wife. We enjoyed our meal.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who styles himself as a part time philosopher of education
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
McUniversities
They used to call it Great Britain but it hasn't been great in quite awhile; now it is just the UK. With universities like these no wonder they spell thing funny and drive on the wrong side of the road.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger with a four year US undergraduate degree, a three Year Master's and a PhD from China
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger with a four year US undergraduate degree, a three Year Master's and a PhD from China
Friday, February 01, 2008
Do you find this odd?
I don't find it odd at all that students with poor English skills have a harder time being accepted into a University that teaches in English. Indeed when the HKEdB changed the medium of instruction to Chinese in 1997 this was predicted.
I don't find it odd that the universities, especially HKU want to maintain English as the medium of instruction either. Indeed, given that something like 70 or 80 percent of all printed research is in English a strong case can be made that all tertiary education should be in English. English is, in that regard the new Latin. Please note, that says nothing bad about other languages. However, the arts and sciences are better served by having a "lingua franca" and English is currently that language.
I don't find it odd at all that the HKEdB would suppress a report that criticizes the decision it made to give fewer students an education in English in order to protect a few immorally overpaid running dogs and other assorted bureaucrats.
I do find it odd that more people don't see that limiting the number of students who can gain entrance to HKU and CUHK to those wealthy enough to get an education at an English school was exactly the plan. The HKEdB and the rest of the bureaucratic sycophants, aging shoe-shiners, running dogs and wealthy tycoons wanted to keep the entrance to the governance of HK in the hands of a few families, the local elite. While they might not say it publicly they believe that only those with the right breeding should lead Hong kong. One of the signs of having that breeding is that you are able to graduate from one of the "elite secondary school" that are on the Peak or in the Mid-Levels.
I have no doubt that the afore mentioned autocrats would heartily deny what I've just said being true. I would counter, look at who gets government jobs, what universities did they attend? What secondary schools did they attend? Did their families have either money or some other connection to the British? Now look at the secondary schools that are currently sending young scholars to HKU and CUHK, do you see a pattern? I thought you would.
The poor yahoos who don't have money or can't get a scholarship should just pipe-down and accept their place in life is to be lead by governed by the cartel.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who didn't come from an elite school
I don't find it odd that the universities, especially HKU want to maintain English as the medium of instruction either. Indeed, given that something like 70 or 80 percent of all printed research is in English a strong case can be made that all tertiary education should be in English. English is, in that regard the new Latin. Please note, that says nothing bad about other languages. However, the arts and sciences are better served by having a "lingua franca" and English is currently that language.
I don't find it odd at all that the HKEdB would suppress a report that criticizes the decision it made to give fewer students an education in English in order to protect a few immorally overpaid running dogs and other assorted bureaucrats.
I do find it odd that more people don't see that limiting the number of students who can gain entrance to HKU and CUHK to those wealthy enough to get an education at an English school was exactly the plan. The HKEdB and the rest of the bureaucratic sycophants, aging shoe-shiners, running dogs and wealthy tycoons wanted to keep the entrance to the governance of HK in the hands of a few families, the local elite. While they might not say it publicly they believe that only those with the right breeding should lead Hong kong. One of the signs of having that breeding is that you are able to graduate from one of the "elite secondary school" that are on the Peak or in the Mid-Levels.
I have no doubt that the afore mentioned autocrats would heartily deny what I've just said being true. I would counter, look at who gets government jobs, what universities did they attend? What secondary schools did they attend? Did their families have either money or some other connection to the British? Now look at the secondary schools that are currently sending young scholars to HKU and CUHK, do you see a pattern? I thought you would.
The poor yahoos who don't have money or can't get a scholarship should just pipe-down and accept their place in life is to be lead by governed by the cartel.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who didn't come from an elite school
Monday, April 23, 2007
Ten Greatest Children's Books
This list is bogus. "The Amazing Adventures of Captain Underpants" didn't make the list. Not that TAoCU is actually great literature but it is at least a fun read which is more than can be said for most of the selections on this list. I actually think it says more about the deficiencies in the selector's psyche than it does about children's literature. This may be the ten most self-loathing books of the 20th century; but, they are are not the best in children's literature by any stretch of the imagination unless you are an ivory tower academic with pretense for brains.
Not to mention the fact that this looks like books for young adults not children
I hear the snobby chorus from the PC pimps saying "OK smart guy what books would you pick?"
Well, off the top of my head in no particular order.
1. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
2. Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
3. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynn Reid-Banks
4. The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
5. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
6. Redwall by Brian Jacques
7. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
8. The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangren
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
10. Any of the four Sherlock Holmes novels by Arthur Conan Doyle
There are many, many others that are better than the ones on the published list that could be included in my opinion. I'd have no argument with any of the following as well:
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Holes by Louis Sachar
Harry Potter by J.K Rowling
Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Old Yeller by Fred Gibson
I heard the Owl Call My Name by Margret Craven
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Rascal by Stirling North
The Phantom Toll Both by Norton Juster
Stwart Little by E.B. White
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Any of these is better than any of the books on the Independents' list They've all helped get many kids reading and generally have up lifting positive story lines even when dealing with sad or scary topics.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who believes kids should enjoy reading without be burdened by a depressed world view
Not to mention the fact that this looks like books for young adults not children
I hear the snobby chorus from the PC pimps saying "OK smart guy what books would you pick?"
Well, off the top of my head in no particular order.
1. The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
2. Johnny Tremain by Ester Forbes
3. The Indian in the Cupboard by Lynn Reid-Banks
4. The Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
5. Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit
6. Redwall by Brian Jacques
7. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle
8. The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangren
9. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
10. Any of the four Sherlock Holmes novels by Arthur Conan Doyle
There are many, many others that are better than the ones on the published list that could be included in my opinion. I'd have no argument with any of the following as well:
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
Holes by Louis Sachar
Harry Potter by J.K Rowling
Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
Old Yeller by Fred Gibson
I heard the Owl Call My Name by Margret Craven
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Rascal by Stirling North
The Phantom Toll Both by Norton Juster
Stwart Little by E.B. White
The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare
Any of these is better than any of the books on the Independents' list They've all helped get many kids reading and generally have up lifting positive story lines even when dealing with sad or scary topics.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who believes kids should enjoy reading without be burdened by a depressed world view
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Back and gone
I'm back from EARCOS but going to China with the beautiful, gracious, lovely and really smart wife and so will be gone for about a week.
Earcos was what teachers' conferences always tend to be. I never enjoy them. If someone really wants to see what is wrong with education go to a teachers' conference
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The educator who stands for educational progress not PC platitudes
Earcos was what teachers' conferences always tend to be. I never enjoy them. If someone really wants to see what is wrong with education go to a teachers' conference
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The educator who stands for educational progress not PC platitudes
Sunday, March 25, 2007
"Hub of the Eastern World"
I'll be in Bangkok next week, through March 30, for the EARCOS teacher's conference.
My lovely and attractive, looks 20 years younger than she is and lots of fun to be around wife cannot go with me. That's a shame because I'm planning to make a pre-conference session and talk to a few individuals and other than that not do much. I hope the hotel has good TV, maybe a treadmill and a pool. Failing those a decent bar with a guest drink free happy hour would work!
Bangkok is probably my least favorite city in Asia. My few regular readers will not be ever able to confuse me with a Christian fundamentalist or even a Pentecostal. However, there is something about Bangkok that repels me at a very deep spiritual or emotional level. I would almost use the word demonic but then I would probably lose my few regular readers. The prostitutes and the pornography and the general tenor of Thai popular culture are just so sad. Thailand seems to be a place that is needy in both the physical and spiritual sense.
If nothing else Bangkok must be the pedophile capital of the world; or at least Asia. Amsterdam(ned) is probably the world capital.
I don't think I could live in Thailand. I'd probably end in prison for murdering a fat pedophile tourist from Germany or Canada to keep them from hiring 12 year-old girls for sex. As noble as killing a few pedophiles with my bare hands might be I'd rather not spend any time in a Thai prison. I guess I'm just not committed enough to my social causes. Maybe I should make my self feel better by calling Tony Blair or George W. Bush a few names. Or I could say"Global Warming" twenty times to absolve myself of my lack of conviction. Better yet. I could give some financial aid to charities and missions that help the victims of rich pedophile liberals. If you know of such a ministry let me know.
Go ahead. Say I'm being judgmental if you want. You can also say I am too narrow and not multi-cultural enough. I still won't like Bangkok any better and will be glad to be back in Hong Kong with my wife on Friday.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who likes Thai food but not much else in Bangkok
My lovely and attractive, looks 20 years younger than she is and lots of fun to be around wife cannot go with me. That's a shame because I'm planning to make a pre-conference session and talk to a few individuals and other than that not do much. I hope the hotel has good TV, maybe a treadmill and a pool. Failing those a decent bar with a guest drink free happy hour would work!
Bangkok is probably my least favorite city in Asia. My few regular readers will not be ever able to confuse me with a Christian fundamentalist or even a Pentecostal. However, there is something about Bangkok that repels me at a very deep spiritual or emotional level. I would almost use the word demonic but then I would probably lose my few regular readers. The prostitutes and the pornography and the general tenor of Thai popular culture are just so sad. Thailand seems to be a place that is needy in both the physical and spiritual sense.
If nothing else Bangkok must be the pedophile capital of the world; or at least Asia. Amsterdam(ned) is probably the world capital.
I don't think I could live in Thailand. I'd probably end in prison for murdering a fat pedophile tourist from Germany or Canada to keep them from hiring 12 year-old girls for sex. As noble as killing a few pedophiles with my bare hands might be I'd rather not spend any time in a Thai prison. I guess I'm just not committed enough to my social causes. Maybe I should make my self feel better by calling Tony Blair or George W. Bush a few names. Or I could say"Global Warming" twenty times to absolve myself of my lack of conviction. Better yet. I could give some financial aid to charities and missions that help the victims of rich pedophile liberals. If you know of such a ministry let me know.
Go ahead. Say I'm being judgmental if you want. You can also say I am too narrow and not multi-cultural enough. I still won't like Bangkok any better and will be glad to be back in Hong Kong with my wife on Friday.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The Blogger who likes Thai food but not much else in Bangkok
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Sex Education
I was never this lucky in grade 6. Not that I would have done this if I was.
This is almost beyond belief. As a teacher I think that the teacher probably didn't stop it because he couldn't believe what what was happening.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The somewhat more prudish Blogger
This is almost beyond belief. As a teacher I think that the teacher probably didn't stop it because he couldn't believe what what was happening.
Until Next Time
Fai Mao
The somewhat more prudish Blogger
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