CLASSROOM ETIQUETTE

IN A CIVIL SOCIETY

Etiquette: 礼节 lǐjié Polite using good manners

Civil: 市民社会 shì mín shè huì

I Know…• Most of you are

already probably thinking about going to sleep now.

Please don’t! • Some things in this

presentation will surprise ( 诧异 chàyì) you, some will shock ( 震骇 zhènhài) you, some may

even scare you. I hope so.

• THINGS MOST FOREIGNERS AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS DON’T KNOW ABOUT AMERICAN SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES…

• Some students have told me that classrooms in the U.S. are often very free and wild. Students have “a lot of freedom and can do what they want!”

• American TV and movies give the wrong ( 错误的 cuòwùde) impression

( 感受 gǎnshòu) of the U.S. They reflect:• The casual liberal ( 自由派)

attitudes of southern California and• Are usually fantasies ( 幻想 huànxiǎng)

designed to make money.

In the U.S. at least 50% of the people are

conservative ( 保守的 ), and the majority of schools (90% at

least) are very conservative.

These are serious people!

• However, it is also true that some schools have many

Low Socio-Economic Status[low SES 社会经济的

poor/low class] students that behave very badly.*

* They usually end up as taxi drivers and drug dealers, in prison or dead. Education ain’t no joke!

But teachers must try…!• In those cases annoying students are

sent to the principle or vice principle and either scolded ( 责骂 zémà 叱 chì) or sent home. If the student misbehaviors continue they will be referred for a psycho-educational ( 心理教育的 ) evaluation and may be sent to an ED program.

E.D. Programs• 511 IAC 7-26-6

• Emotional Disability• 感情的 gǎnqíngde 残疾 cánjí

• Sec. 6 (a) An emotional disability is a condition that, over a long period of time and to a marked degree, consistently interferes with a student's learning process and adversely affects the student's educational performance. An emotional disability may include, but is not limited to, one or more of the following conditions:

• (1) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems

• (2) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression• (3) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or

health factors• (4) Inappropriate behaviors or feelings under normal circumstances.

Real teachers in real school…

• In civilized countries do not have to deal with uncivilized

( 野蛮 yěmán ) students. They go into special programs!

Civilized (adjective) Civilization (noun): 文明 wénmíng

• having an advanced ( 先进的 xiānjìn de)

or humane ( 人道的 réndào de) culture ( 文化 wénhuà).

• polite; well-bred; refined.• well organized or ordered: The car is quiet and

civilized, even in sharp turns.

WHY? WHY?• I know you all know the basic rules of

etiquette in a classroom. But, I think you might not know exactly WHY those exist. There are very good reasons for those rules, especially in the U.S. and Europe.

First, a PRE-TEST!!!

1. What is a tenured ( 转正 ) professor 教授 [jiàoshòu] and how is a tenured professor different than a professor without tenure?

• The United States and Europe have a system for professors called: Tenure 终身所有权

zhōng shēn suǒ yǒu quán.• Professors who teach at a university for a few

years, and publish ( 出版 chūbǎn) enough research are usually given “Tenure,” which makes it very difficult and in many cases impossible to fire ( 解雇 jiě gù) them no matter how crazy or strange they may seem.

Believe it or not!

Universities are NOT democracies. The professors are kings and queens (sometimes

tyrants 霸 bà!) and Teaching Assistants (TAs) are their knights in armor.

Tenure…

• Why is this?• The answer lies in history. This system started in

the 1800s and protects the freedom of professors. What happened is that some of the most brilliant ( 英明) university professors were not understood and then fired. Later, somewhere else, or in some cases after the death of the professor, people suddenly realized: “Wow, that guy was a genius ( 天才 tiāncái)!”

• Sigmund Freud for example, the father of modern psychology was considered crazy by many people because of his theories that people are primarily motivated by unconscious forces, especially sex and aggression. A lot of people really hated him. Hitler burned his books in fact. Later, people figured out his theories were actually rather interesting and in many cases true.

• In order for professors to have the courage to do revolutionary research and writing, they need to be protected. So, today most American and European universities have the Tenure system.

2. Following classroom etiquette in the U.S. is a good idea because:a. Professors are like kings and queens and can give you any grade ( 成绩 chéngjì) they like; they can even seriously

damage ( 损坏 sǔnhuài) your chances at another university.b. Serious students will dislike you and can make your life at

the university miserable ( 悲惨 bēicǎn) if you disrespect the professor and behave badly in class.c. You won’t learn much and will fail if you don’t follow

classroom etiquette in the U.S.

d. Many professors have done favors ( 帮助 ) for gangsters 歹徒 dǎitú and can easily have you killed.e. __, __ & __. ?f. All of the above

Correct answer...• Letter “e,” a, b & c• It is true that in big cities like New York,

Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit, etc. many if not most professors probably have done favors for gangsters at one time or another. BUT, to be a good teacher (or parent) one has be able to forgive and forget.

• By the way, many teachers around the world in are killed by students.

• Next… I would like to apologize on behalf of myself, and all of your former teachers for having failed ( 没有做某事 ) to sufficiently explain classroom etiquette in a civil society. If it had been taught this lecture would not be necessary. The fact that I am presenting this lecture now implies that your former teachers and I have failed. For that I apologize again.

• In a civil society, people, even teachers are not too proud ( 自豪 zìháo) to apologize when they have made a mistake.

SOME BASIC RULES OF CLASSROOM ETIQUETTE

• I know you know this one but… perhaps forgot…!

• When the teacher enters the room, the students should be aware ( 意识 yìshí) of it. Students may smile, nod, say hello, or otherwise at least somehow - acknowledge

( 打招呼 dǎzhāohu) the entrance of the teacher. Thank you but kowtowing is not necessary! (ha, ha) Westerners don’t kowtow to anyone, even god!

Rude! • To simply ignore ( 不理 bùlǐ) the teacher is

considered – in civil society - rude 无礼的 wúlǐ de.

Do you really want to be like George W. Bush or a monkey?

• Many if not most teachers may require (= need) a couple or few minutes to prepare before beginning the class. These preparations may include starting a classroom computer and inserting a CD or USB and finding the correct files. It may also include finding the correct place in his/her notes and/or books necessary to begin the class.

During this time…

• During this time students may quietly review their notes, or the book or even finish whatever they were working on before the teacher entered the classroom.

Civilized students…• When the teacher begins to address the class,

students should immediately ( 立即地 lìjí de) stop whatever they may have been doing, listen and be prepared to take notes. There are a whole lot of reasons for this, not just the obvious ones.

To continue chatting with friends, doing homework for another class, talking on the phone, or anything else besides listening to the teacher after class begins is considered extremely ( 非常 ) rude ( 无礼的 wúlǐ de) – an insult ( 侮辱 ) to the teacher – at least in a civilized society.

Did you know…?

• What may be normal ( 正常 zhèngcháng) in your school or culture may not be

normal in an advanced country

发达国家 fādáguójiā

And, believe it or not

• Your habits will follow you! • People cannot suddenly magically change.

Believe it or not!

•What you see on TV is not the reality of American university education.

• This school (Huijia, IB and GAC) is supposed to prepare you for a Western university.

• To not be prepared to take notes when the teacher starts teaching is an insult ( 侮辱 wǔrǔ) to the teacher. It says: I don’t think what you are saying is important.

• Or: “I’m so smart I don’t need to write anything down. I have a perfect memory.”

• In fact, very, very, very few students have a “perfect memory ( 过目成诵 guòmùchéngsòng).”

• This is a lie many students tell themselves and their teachers. It is a sad and pathetic attempt to cover a lack of preparedness which is usually based on laziness or contempt ( 轻视 qīngshì) for authority ( 职权 zhíquán). It is a stupid, childish( 幼稚 yòuzhì) lie.

• Chinese culture works to avoid confrontation ( 冲突 chōngtū) so teachers will usually not call a student a “liar” to their face, especially in class.

• In the U.S. however, teachers are often extremely direct ( 直接的 zhí jiē de) and will sometimes openly confront students in class.

If you’re lucky they might just make a joke out of you and everyone will laugh at you and think you’re an idiot.

• If a student thinks he or she can then go about getting revenge ( 报复 bàofù) on the university professor for that direct feedback, like gossiping ( 闲话 xiánhuà) about the professor that student had better pack his or her suitcases and prepare to leave the university – for a large number of reasons. This can be very dangerous in the U.S.

Back stabbing:暗箭暗害

Is not appreciated!

WHY?• Many or most American University

students have to get student loans 学生贷款，贷学金 to pay for the university. It usually takes 10 years of hard work to pay that back. So, they don’t like someone stealing their time learning by playing idiot games.

• If some students are chatting with each other during class, or otherwise not paying attention ( 注意 zhùyì; 抓紧 zhuājǐn), the teacher will have to repeat ( 重复 chóngfù) him/herself and waste everyone’s time for those that were not really listening.

The math• A student that wastes two minutes of the

teacher’s time is actually stealing from the whole class. If there are ten students in the class, stealing two minutes from the teacher actually adds up to two minutes from each of the other students and the teacher, some 20 minutes. That is theft. It is very selfish and extremely rude.

2 minutes X 10 students = 20 Am I wrong here?

How about wasting an entire class or two or more?

Which of the following do you believe?a. I think rules and laws decrease ( 减少 jiǎnshǎo) our freedom.b. I think rules and laws increase ( 增长 zēngzhǎng; 提高 tígāo) our freedom.It is my belief, and the belief of most educated ( 受过教育的 shòuguòjiàoyùde) people that most laws and rules increase ( 增长 zēngzhǎng; 提高 tígāo) the freedom of everyone.

• The law against murder protects everyone’s freedom to live.

• The law against stealing protects everyone’s freedom to own things.

• The rule against talking in class protects the teacher’s and other student’s freedom to have a class in a peaceful environment.

• The rule against playing on computers and phones during class increases everyone’s freedom to not have the teacher repeat everything he or she says several times.

• Another thing most high school students don’t know about American universities is that in every class professors are required ( 必要) to fail ( 落空) the lowest 15% at least. If they don’t fail the lowest 15% their department can lose its accreditation 各大学特许升学的联合委员会 and federal funding.

• So, if the average exam score in a class is 95% and you only get an 88%, you may get an “F” and fail. All classes are graded on a statistical curve 常态分布 chángtàifēnbù (normal distribution).

• But, the reality is sometimes even worse than this.

• I remember in the late 1970s too many people at my large state university were registering for classes in the business department. So, they started failing 90% of freshmen students so that only 10% would go on to more advanced courses in the department.

90% FAILURE!!!!

• Also most high school students don’t know that in American universities they will be competing ( 竞争 jìngzhēng) against the smartest people from the 196 countries all over the world (South Sudan is a new country as of last year in case you don’t know).

• Most of the Chinese students in American universities are not from private schools, but from public schools ( 公立学校gōnglìxuéxiào) there on scholarships ( 奖学金 jiǎngxuéjīn) and are extremely intelligent and very, very hard working. They have excellent study habits. YOU WILL BE COMPETING ( 竞 ) AGAINST THEM to not get failed out. Remember the lowest 15% gets failed, not matter how good you are.

• To get into good Graduate Schools ( 研究生院 yánjiūshēngyuàn) students must have a high GPA ( 成绩 chéngjì).

• So, some students will do dirty tricks ( 奥步 ǎobǒu) to improve their scores and push other students’ scores ( 成绩 ) down on the curve.

Believe it or not!

• For example some students may steal other students notes so their grades go down, pushing the thieves grade up on the curve.

• If you ask to borrow someone’s notes, they might give you notes with wrong information, again, to push your score down and their score up on the curve.

• Some students will read everything a professor has published and then go and talk to the professor in his/her office. Professors tend to remember such students and like them, consciously or unconsciously giving them higher grades.

• When a professor assigned a class to read some articles from scientific journals, I’d go to the library and photocopy the articles, then find the references – and photocopy all of those articles, and the references used in those articles, so that I’d know more about each assigned reading than any other student. I rarely answered questions in class unless no other student could answer. But when I did answer, I knew more about the subject than any student and sometimes as much as the professor on those particular subjects because I had just read the entire history of research relating to that subject. Professors are usually extremely smart and they always knew how much research you do. It took a lot of time, but that’s what I did. Why? To be the best. I wasn’t always the best test taker, but my research was always number 1!

• TV shows make going to a university easy. They often show lecture halls with a professor asking the class a question and some bright eager student cheerfully answers, usually right.

• In fact those TV shows never, never, never show the hours and hours and hours and hours and hours of study the students must do, and it’s 10 times harder for a foreign student who has to use a dictionary to understand half the words in the very large complex books.

• I personally spent hundreds of nights working on writing papers and studying for exams all night long going to classes the next morning with no sleep. And, I never slept in a class. That is (suicide 自杀 zìshā) in a university. Why?

• A professor can give a student any grade they like on papers and essay exams ( 考试 kǎoshì) and there is virtually nothing a student can do about it.

Sad, but true…

• There is an appeal ( 上诉 shàngsù) process, but they rarely succeed in overturning tenured professor’s decisions. Remember, professors are like kings and queens.

• Old habits ( 习惯 [xíguàn] die hard. • If a student in high school likes to play games in

class, and avoid working hard, it’s going to be impossible to change suddenly when they enter the university and become a model student because:

• They don’t know how to take good notes.– Listen for key points– Organize and write notes clearly– Systematically review and memorize notes and text books

• They don’t know how to ask good questions.• They don’t know how to study for exams.• They don’t know how to do good research.• They don’t know how to write good papers.• They don’t know classroom etiquette.

• I’ve had students refuse to take notes saying they can digitally record ( 录音 lùyīn) classes. What a joke! If they have three classes a day, that’s 3-5 hours of recordings each day. Are they going to spend 3-5 hours every night listening to them? It’s a lot easier to listen carefully and take 3-5 pages of notes in each class which can be reviewed in half an hour. Recordings don’t find key words that need to be memorized. In some of my university classes I did record the class because they were extremely complex classes (neurophysiology, microbiology, etc) but I also took notes. Taking notes and then going over recordings every night is a good idea. Just recording without notes is stupid.

• I love watching TV shows like Gossip Girls where the students spend all their time having social/emotional dramas, but never spend a minute studying. What a JOKE! Every single one of them would fail. It takes thousands of hours of hard studying to just get an Undergraduate Bachelor’s Degree ( 理科学士学位 lǐkēxuéshìxuéwèi) (a four year University Degree).

• At this time I’d like to test if what I’m saying is right. I’m going to read a page from an American second grade elementary (primary) school text book and then give you a test on what you’ve heard. Are you ready?

• Do you have paper and a pencil ready? If not, you’ve already failed the most important test.

• “The Greeks have won for now,” said King Darius, “but I promise, we will crush them all!”• Before he could keep his promise, however, Darius died. His son, named Xerxes became King. “I will keep my father’s promise,” he said, and he prepared a

great army. Hundreds of thousands of Persian soldiers attacked Greece from the north. They marched southward, toward Athens and Sparta. Could anything stop them?

• The Persians came to a narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea. At this place, called Thermopylae, a group of about three hundred Spartan soldiers, with some other Greeks to help them waited for the Persians. How could only a handful of men hope to stand against so many thousands?

• Bravely the Spartans faced their foes. To the Spartans, there was no such thing as fear. The Persians came forward, only to meet death at the points of the Spartan spears. But there were so many more Persians than Spartans that, one by one, the Spartans fell. At last their spears were broken. Yet still they stood side by side fighting to the last. Some fought with swords, some with daggers and some with only their fists. All day long they fought and held back the Persians.

• After the Persian Wars the people of Athens enjoyed some years of peace and they worked hard to rebuild their city. During the leadership of a wise man named Pericles they built a new temple out of marble and dedicated it to Athena, the goddess they believed watched over their city. It was called the Parthenon.

• The ancient Greeks wrote a lot about history and philosophy. They also wrote a lot of poems and plays. The ancient Greeks used an alphabet which is still used in Greece. The first four letters are alpha, beta, gamma, delta. The first two letters, alpha and beta used sequentially form the basis for the word: alphabet.

QUESTIONS:• What was Xerxes father’s name? ____________• How many soldiers did Xerxes have? ___________• What direction is Persia from Greece? _______________• How did Persian army get to Athens and Sparta? _______________• A famous battle was fought between the Persians and Greeks on a

narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea. What was that narrow strip of land called?

• What was the first weapon used by the Greeks to defend against the Persians? ____________

• After their first weapons were broken, what weapons did they use next? ___________

• To whom was the temple called the Parthenon dedicated? __________

• What kind of stone was used to build the Parthenon? _________• What are the third and fourth letters of the Greek alphabet?

_________ ________

• The answers are:• What was Xerxes father’s name? King Darius• How many soldiers did Xerxes have? Hundreds of thousands• What direction is Persia from Greece? North• How did Persian army get to Athens and Sparta? They marched• A famous battle was fought between the Persians and Greeks on a

narrow strip of land between the mountains and the sea. What was that narrow strip of land called? Thermopylae

• What was the first weapon used by the Greeks to defend against the Persians? Spears

• After their first weapons were broken, what weapons did they use next? Swords

• To whom was the temple called the Parthenon dedicated? Athena• What kind of stone was used to build the Parthenon? Marble• What are the third and fourth letters of the Greek alphabet? Gamma

& delta

• That, remember, was an American second grade elementary (primary) school text book. Does anyone in this class doubt that you need practice taking notes?

• Does anyone in this class think that given the competition 竞争 jìngzhēng you will face in American university classrooms, you can

afford to also anger the professor or Teaching Assistant with silly childish rude behavior? It’s hard enough to pass even with perfect etiquette, even for a native speaker.

He later became a taxi driver and she a hooker.

ONE FINAL STORY…

• In 1946 in the U.S. Dr. Benjamin Spock published a book titled “Baby and Child Care.” It was a best seller and in the 1950s and 1960s most American parents started following his very liberal ( 自由派) advice.

Biggest selling book in the U.S. after the Bible at that time.

• But by the middle 1970s problems started appearing. Many young people had no discipline ( 约束 yuēshù), were very lazy and were easy prey ( 受害者 shòuhàizhě) to some very bad people like drug dealers ( 毒品贩子 dúpǐnfànzǐ) and cult leaders ( 宗教崇拜 zōng jiào chóng bài).

• This led to great unhappiness for many many people, especially the families of the victims ( 受害者 shòuhàizhě]). The very liberal upbringing ( 教养 jiàoyǎng) produced people who were like Jellyfish ( 海面浮标 hǎi miàn fú biāo) with no courage and determination ( 勇气 ) no inner strength ( 蕴), no morality guidelines ( 道德观 dàodéguān). Millions of young people were slaves to drug dealers and cult leaders.

• So in the late 1970s a new idea became popular, called: “Tough Love.”

• This means that sometimes parents had to be forceful and strong ( 有力的 yǒulìde) to protect their children from the very bad people that will turn them into slaves.

• QUESTION FOR STUDENTSWho is the better parent and teacher? Someone that always coddles ( 娇惯 jiāoguàn) their children and students, or someone who has the courage ( 勇气 ) and strength ( 有力的 ) to be honest and direct? Please don’t try to answer this now. Just think about it. I’m sure in the end you will agree that some kind of balance between the two is necessary. But, too much of one or the other is going to be a problem for sure.

• Bitter or better? It’s your choice.

• If you’re tired of starting over, stop giving up.

Classroom etiquette…

•Ain’t no joke!