Buckland Weekly #15

I've been neglecting this recently but I intend to get back to it soon.

As a little interim post let me repost something from my Facebook timeline and remind you all of why we do this.

You've probably seen – because I know I've seen – things on the internet that hint, suggest or say outright that if you teach public school in China then you aren't a teacher, you are a dancing monkey. The school, so they say, doesn't care if you teach or not and you have no impact on your students' education; you are simply there so that the school can say to parents, “Hey look, we have a dancing monkey.”

Well yesterday was thanksgiving and I received these two text messages from students who were in my class two years ago when I taught in Baiyin.

“Hello Bob. Do you remember me? I am Mark and I was in your class in school number eight. It is thanksgiving and I want to say thank you for being my teacher. I learned so much from you and now I am going to go to University in Australia. Thank you so much. I hope that one day I will see you again. Without your lessons I think I would not be confident enough to leave China. Thank you.”

and

“Today is Thanksgiving Day and, apart from my family, the person I guess I should be grateful to is you. Without your encouragement I could not have made so much progress in English. So, thank you Bob.”

The first of those students has been accepted at an Australian University and the second is studying English at University in China where he has recently represented his University in a provincial speaking competition.

If I have had such a positive impact on just two students then, dancing monkey or not, I'll take the win.

Yesterday was thanksgiving and you know what? I'm saying thanks that I have had such good, positive students.

I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving.

Bob