Day 554 Snow White

In my PAL Psychology class (grade 10), we have been learning about schizophrenia, the spectrum of schizophrenic disorders, what causes it, how to treat it, etc.  Mental illness is something that is not acknowledged much in the Asian culture. I presume it has to do with 'saving face' which permeates many aspects of their day to day existence and interactions.  The plus side, these concepts are so new to my students that they are eager and willing to learn.  

I am proud to say that the enrollment in my courses doubled from last year to this year, and I have several students who have chosen to pursue Psychology at the university level.  Two of my kids this year are headed to Wake Forest, one is going to Boston University, one is headed to Canada, another to the UK, another to Australia-Sydney, one is going to UCSD and another to UCLA, yet another to the University of Wisconsin, all to pursue Psychology.  Those are the ones I am aware of; offers are still rolling in for our kids. It is an exciting time for us all :-)

Once again, the challenge of teaching Chinese babies is that there is very little dialogue and engagement in the classroom.  As primary school students, there will be 50-70 students in the room, with the teacher on a stage behind a podium.  Children are taught to sit still, listen, follow directions, and be very disciplined.  Questions are not encouraged; they are 'lectured', and that is their primary method of instruction from the time they are wee little.  Sometimes I get very animated in telling stories related to psychology concepts, and draw upon caffeine and my years in community theater to present the information to them in a new and interesting way.  They snicker and hide their smiles behind their hands to the face.  I pull their hands down when I see it, and encourage them to simply express themselves freely- particularly joy :)  They are so serious all the time, it is good to see them allow themselves to be kids, and to not simply be toy soldiers of academia.  Besides, over the years I have had many, many students tell me from high school through my years teaching at the college level that they remember much of what they learned in my psychology class simply because they remember my stories.  

This time, it was the kid's turn to tell stories....

After a week of lessons on schizophrenia, I finished up the week by showing a condensed 'read along' version of Snow White. They love all things Disney here in China, as there now is a Disneyland in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, Japan.  These 15 and 16 year old kids watched Snow White with the delight of a five year old.  It was precious watching them watch the story.  I love my Chinese babies <3

After the movie ended, I announced, "Here's something you may not know. There's another perspective to this story.  What if I told you the Evil Queen suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, and she hallucinated a mirror talking to her and telling her to kill Snow White?"  A collective "Woooooaaaahhhhh" rang out over the classroom.  I went on and said, "Or consider this, what if Snow White was an ordinary high school girl that suffered from grandiose delusions?  She believed she was a princess, and she had seven imaginary little friends?" I then turned them loose to separate in to groups and rewrite the story of Snow White. They had two days to write their story and illustrate it, and then we had two days of presentations.  It was awesome!

  

Seeing them interacting with each other as they worked
out their story lines was so much fun.

Just to see them smile and not be so
serious made me smile.

Their laughter was music to my ears :)
(Notice the hand over the mouth!)

They are so accustomed to engaging in lineal thinking
to memorize facts and work formulas, that sometimes
the creative thought process is a struggle as there are
no right or wrong answers. By golly, they worked it out! 

Such beautiful smiles :)

Working hard at working it out.

My room was filled with laughter; I had to shut the doors
so I didn't disturb the other classes- a good problem to
have if you ask me!

The day of their presentations had us all in stitches;
note the dwarf in the lower right hand corner!

The apple wasn't poisoned for deep sleep, per se- it was
Thorazine that caused the hallucinations and delusions
to go in to remission.  Perfect :)

Here the psychiatrist was offering a detailed diagnosis and
treatment plan- impressive!

In this case study, the patient's name was White Snow...

This group called their schizophrenic young girl "Black
Rain"...points for creativity....the Chinese are SO literal, lol.
I love that in Black Rain's diary she laments, "She wants
to stop me from being perfect!"  These poor Chinese babies
are pressured into perfection from Day One.  Such pressure :-(

So there you have it, Snow White like you've never heard before.
Waytogo, kids!  Way to make your teacher proud of you :)))

G'nite, y'all!