Laying down the law...

Yesterday was an interesting day for me, as I had one of my rare opportunities to express my anger at a class of students. And I do mean rare. I can literally count the number of times I've done it in my 2+ years here on one hand. Of those, it's a sad fact that 2 of them have been with this one class.

The class is on the lower end of the academic scale. Japan (or perhaps it's just this school, though I highly doubt it) generally places students into classes where the students have about equal academic ability. Lower homeroom numbers correspond to an overall high achievement in academics. The class in question is on the higher end of that homeroom number scale, and is not surprisingly full of jocks.

(N.B. I am not equating lower academics with high sports ability. Clearly, our world is full of people who are both physically fit and mentally astute. However, for the purposes of this class, while the students may be good at sports, they are poor at academics. So yeah. Jocks.)

I digress. The incident in question happened just after lunch. The funny thing about language classes is that if you don't understand what's going on, and you continue to not understand as the class progresses, there is a tendency to simply shut down. As students in Japan are less than pro-active about anything, really, students tend to shut down a lot. For most of this year, this class has bucked that trend, and during my non-grammar parts at least, they are...lively. A mixed blessing to be sure.

This class was shaping up like any other. I had spend a fair amount of time the day before prepping the class activity (effectively a vocabulary version of Who Want's to be a Millionaire), complete with PowerPoint presentation (with animations!), ABCD answer signs for each group (10), and the borrowing of the projector. While the content was academically based, the presentation was fun.

In a previous class, the activity went off without a hitch. Of course, that time it was with my most well-behaved students, but that's neither here nor there. In general terms, the rowdier my class the better, as long as students are doing the activity.

So when I set everything up, I immediately saw that things would be a lot harder. Where as in the previous class the students had made neat, clearly defined groups, during my jock class I saw clumps of 8-12 students. While they were technically in groups, they had decided to stick near their friends. Repeated requests for them to make who was in what group met with limited success, so in the end I simply decided to run with it.

The rules were explained, and the students (surprisingly) understood the basic concept almost from the get go. We launched into the game, but before we could even finish the first round, the game had started to fall apart. Students sat in their groups chatting and paying little attention. Answer signs were twirled around, making it impossible to see what answer each group was giving. Total Bedlam.

It's a funny thing. When you first come to Japan to teach as an ALT, you want to be all buddy-buddy with the students, and establish a sort of informal, not-teacher/student relationship with them. But as you enter your second year, this model starts to fail, and more and more I think you are required to take on a more teacher-like role. So as time goes by, the amount of bullshit you are willing to take from your students begins to diminish. I have, I think, a high tolerance for bullshit. But I have seen it diminish steadily over the last few years. The question is not one of students acting as drones, but of paying at least a modicum of respect to the teacher. It is not, I think, too much to ask that the students put in at least some level of effort, considering the effort that went into making the lesson.

Of course, this class would have none of that. So, I quietly went over to my JTE, Mr I, and told him that this would not work. He nodded to me in agreement, and suddenly turned to the students.

I had previously dismissed Mr. I, who is a super-nice guy outside of class, as a bit of a walk-over in class. I am happy to say that this is most definitely not the case. He unleashed the beast and opened up on the class with both barrels, and in an instant the class went from rowdy to dead silent. He harangued them for disrespecting me, disrespecting the class, and in a dubious voice asked them if they were really high school students. During this time, I made a show of both shaking my head in disgust and packing away my laptop and the projector. Most of the students were graceful enough to have hang-dog expressions, and after Mr. I had snapped at them to bundle up the answer signs and return them, most of them would hand them not to me but to Mr I. As they meekly returned their desks to their original positions, Mr. I caught my eye again, and I left the class without a word. As I left, and walked past the open window, I made sure to shake my head sadly, conveying the thought, I hope, of 'What a fucking waste.'

Next week, thanks to the ALT monthly meeting, I will not be able to go their class. Mr. I was pleased about this. My absence the following week would only serve to hammer in that I may not ever go back to their class. Gone would be the games and the candy. Gone would be the wacky, idiotic ALT. Of course, this isn't true at all. After all, I'm not paid to not go to class. However, it was a good chance to lay down the law and hopefully do a little attitude adjustment in the kids.