I've been taking some big risks lately, some of which the outcome remains to be seen. No doubt, leaving my home, my job, my family, and everything familiar, to step on to planet China was a HUGE risk. So far, in spite of some hardships and challenges, it seems to be working out for me here. I have had some moments when I feel like I get 'confirmation from the universe' that I am right where I am supposed to be, at this time in my life. Today I had one of those moments...
Let me back up a few weeks....
One of my challenges in making the change from teaching at the college level to high school is that I need to move away from a straight lecture format. I now have two semesters to cover the same amount of material as I had in just one semester. I have five 45 minute periods over the course of the week, where I previously had one two-hour fifty-minute block meeting once a week. I have so. much. more. time. to really explore topics in psychology. It is more of a marathon now, rather than a sprint. It has led to a whole different way of teaching, for me.
For starters, these students have many more questions. It takes me longer to explain concepts because the terminology is so unfamiliar to them. Given that these are Chinese national students, it often takes learning several vocabulary words to get to the original point I was trying to make! Throw in shy, giggly, hormonal, teenagers and my days keep me smiling :) Add to the fact that I am far too outspoken and brazen for them much of the time, and I am sure they don't know what to make of me on most days. Clearly, I am wayyyy toooo American, but that can be a good thing, right?!
I just finished the unit on personality. I talked about the various paradigms of psychology; their theories of personality formation and how to measure personality accordingly. They got the 'sex talk' when I discussed Freud's five stages of psychosexual development. We made Rorschach inkblots in class. (That was a fun day- messy, but fun.) The students wrote skits and performed Freud's twelve ego defense mechanisms. We took the Myers-Briggs, and looked at their personality profiles. We then spent a day looking at careers that fit their personality type (they are seniors in high school, and I am an old guidance counselor, after all). We talked about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, Carl Rogers' unconditional positive regard, real self/possible self, and authenticity. Because we finished with the humanists, I knew what I needed to do to wrap up the unit. I needed to show Dead Poet's Society, and it was going to be a tough sell. It took me weeks to get permission from the administration to show the film. Given the content, I understood their concerns. Fortunately, where everything in China (it seems) is copied from somewhere else, getting a bootleg copy of the movie was the easiest part, lol.
If it's been awhile since you've seen the movie, there are a number of psychological themes; social conformity, self actualization, archetypes, genuineness and authenticity, and self-actualization.
The movie is set in the 1950's, when the primary parenting method was authoritarian. when "Father Knows Best." Authoritarian parents demanded respect and obedience from their children. Parents issued orders, and children were expected to follow those orders without question. Parents had high expectations of their children. Strict rules were set, and were expected to be followed. And parents punished harshly with little reason or explanation. Children had no voice, and very little choice in the matter, if at all. In short, the parenting style of the American 1950's is still very much the Chinese way here today. Add to the cultural norm of having only one child, and ALL parental expectations are placed upon that one child. It can be a pressure cooker environment for an only child in this culture, and I already have seen that on the faces of these kids. The fact that they are in school daily until 10 pm every night is more than enough pressure by itself. Throw in the pressure of perfect grades, the highest of test scores, and the expectation of being accepted to their 'dream college', and I have seen more than one student crack already. (The SAT's were just two weeks ago.)
Still we forged ahead, and as they closely watched the movie (they were enraptured), I closely watched them. Late in the movie, the main character, Neil Perry, commits suicide, as he is unable to stand up to his father, and the life's plan his father wants for him. He discovered his passion in life, to become an actor. However, his father expects him to attend Harvard and to go to medical school. His father tells his son of the 'many sacrifices he made' for his son to attend Welton Academy. The overbearing father makes a point of telling his son that he has been given opportunities that he (the father) never had. All of the guilt simply adds to the pressure, and eventually Neil breaks.
The movie was powerful to my students, as I knew it would be, They identified with much of it- they are seniors in high school, are attending a boarding school, have parents who have made sacrifices for them to be here, and they feel tremendous pressure to succeed. They are also bright kids, and they were able to identify the humanistic themes in the movie. We spent a great deal of time today processing and debriefing. It was good. Very good. And it was totally worth the risk.
G'Nite, y'all!
No comments:
Post a Comment