Raymond Zhou

Rebelliousness needs outlets

By Raymond Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-06-02 07:04

How should students treat their teachers?

This seems to be a no-brainer. Confucius said that we should respect our teachers as the ultimate authority. We can raise questions, but not question their authority. At the other extreme, we had periods of anti-Confucianism in the last century when teachers became a target of attack, even physically.

A week ago, there was a replay of such an ugly moment. A 70-year-old teacher was conducting a geography class in a Beijing vocational school. About 20 teenagers were in class, some dozing off or mugging for a fellow student's video camera - and they were the nice ones.

A boy with an earring repeatedly taunted the teacher, using profanities like a drunken sailor, and snatching the teacher's baseball cap. Another boy threw an empty bottle at the teacher; and the whole class laughed in boisterous fun. The girl who made the video was so proud of their "achievement" she posted the clip online.

What is wrong with these youngsters? Don't they have a modicum of human decency?

To those with memories of the past, this episode is a painful reminder of what happened during the "cultural revolution" (1966-76) when students employed inventive means to humiliate and abuse their teachers, sometimes driving them to death.

The kids in this recent incident explained they were just having some fun. They didn't mean any harm. Least of all did they expect the national outcry, which has scared some of them into hiding.

Surprisingly, I believe they were telling the truth.

Teenagers are naturally rebellious. Left on their own, some of them would do outrageous things they would regret when they mature. Contrary to conventional wisdom, kids are capable of cruelty.

When I was in high school, I witnessed a similar incident. It was winter and lots of snow had fallen outside the classroom. As soon as our math teacher turned around to write on the blackboard, snowballs would be thrown at him - not hitting him direct, but around him, so that there was a movie effect as if someone was dodging gunfire.

One-third of the class joined in the action, the rest just laughed, and the teacher, like the one in the video, remained unfazed. Nobody thought how hurtful it was for him.

Mind you, this did not happen at the height of the chaotic "cultural revolution", but after it ended. And it had nothing to do with the teaching quality. That teacher was one of the best in school. My classmates just thought he was weak and easy to pick on.

Apart from the inner devil in us that wanted to burst out, I can think of three reasons: boredom with what was being taught, uncertainty about the future, and not knowing how to have a meaningful conversation with a teacher.

There are ways to address these issues. Teaching materials and formats can be revised to add relevancy. More courses related to a student's job prospects and less pointless theorizing would help. But most of all, students should learn to rebel with respect.

Nowadays it is unrealistic for a teacher to shroud himself in an omniscient aura. The time of dispensing snippets of wisdom a la Confucius is gone forever.

Today's students may have more sources of knowledge and, being adolescents, they enjoy challenging authority figures whose mystique has been eroded by proximity. But they should know that to respect someone does not mean you have to agree with everything he says and to challenge him is not the same as debasing him.

Our culture tends to swing from one extreme to another on this matter. Students should respect teachers and other elders, and they should find rational outlets for their rebelliousness.

Email: raymondzhou@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 06/02/2007 page4)