#59 Teaching at Taizhou Teachers College, China (Graduation from Freshmen Military Training)

The October weather in the city of Taizhou, Jiangsu Province of China, has become less hot and humid, and a few brisk chills are in the air. Though there has been some heavy fog in the morning, I have needed little beyond my summer clothing, for now. :-) Some of the days even remind me of our beautiful Miami-Beach weather, and I treasure them.

The noise level eight floors below my apartment has remained constant, and only a few hours at night provide minimal abatement from the "symphony" of car-, truck-, bus-, motorcycle-, and moped-horns, whose performance has not improved in the 5 months I have lived here. When these drivers reach their "final" destination, I can only wish, that castration is waiting for them.

Unpleasant thoughts of impending winter have been sufficiently buffered by my 370 eager students, who seem quite willing to share the up-coming colder days with me. They are all students between the ages of 19 to 23, a few are as old as 26, and most are girls. (When I greet a group of them with: "Hello young ladies!", I will have already been rebuked with giggles and the comment: "We are not ladies yet, we are girls". It has already happened.

To understand my incredible "youngsters" better, and get to know them individually, I have produced eight photo-albums, with portrait shots of each individual student in my 8 classes. It makes it easier to connect the weekly journal entries with the 370 faces. All have chosen Western names, some of them unusual, ex. White Snow, Honey, Sunshine, Sweet, Ice, etc. ...... or more frequently used, as Emma, Monika, Gabriel, Jerry, etc.

As one would expect of children, they sit at their compact desks, ready and eager for every word and gesture coming from this crazy American, never sure what is humor and what is fact. Every comment I might make to any of them is taken very seriously, as they pass incredulous glances toward their surrounding classmates, wondering where my humor is.

The most serious threat to their fragile calmness in the classroom comes when I walk toward them, and request their presentations in front of the class of 4 dozen students. I have to take many by the hand, lead them down the aisle in support, and help shoulder the anxiety of their grand appearance.

These students will have to face their own classes as teachers within the next two years, and some have never made a solo appearance. To say they are shy is an understatement, and to speak about their naivete is truth.

Not a journal entry passes without a phrase on something that makes them or someone 'happy', or the common good they wish to do after graduation. Few seem truly aware of the world's problem, that linger beyond their college compound. Even for me, the sorrows and successes of the world appear more distant here.

The young men in my classes are in a severe minority. In other teachers classrooms, they seem to be most contend and least vulnerable, sitting and looking into the class-room from the back tables, wishing as little attention as possible. These students continue to be the class- and dorm-mates since their 1st year of college and until graduation.

The girls are constantly in stress-mode when separated from the supporting arms of a female-class-mate. As groups, boys and girls never mingle, though they share their day, from morning until lights-out, in common activities for the duration of their college years. During this 3-4 year college experience they will bond in friendships, that often last a life-time. In fact, many of the banquets Arthur invites me to are moments, in which college friends re-new their joys of the past.

When I enter the class room at 7:45 a.m., they will have already completed an hour of loud-reading, which creates chant-like-sounds, resonating from every floor and class-room, across from my English Office . Long hours of instructions and study, greet them every day of the week, and I mean Monday through Sunday. Many study through the night, until lights are switched off for all in the dormitory, at 10:30 p.m.

Few boys and girls can be seen socializing, no matter the activity. Amorous interludes among them are rare. By Western standards they would not amount to more than two butterflies hoping, one of their wings might touch in flight.

It no longer rings hollow when my students make it repeatedly clear, that until the age of 25, hopes of puppy love or of romance would be unforgivable distractions. The goal of studying ever more and achieve better scores on batteries of national examinations, whose numbers will determine every-next-step in their lifes, is their only topic of discussion, ... so they all try to convice me :-)) I would love to read the content of their frantic text-messaging, for it is rare to see a student without a mobile phone in some kind of use.

The Freshmen have also been totally integrated into the academic life, after their 3 week of mandatory military training. It was raining on the morning of their military graduation, but the Freshmen of Taizhou Teachers College were no less eager to show their skills after 3 weeks of on campus drills.

This mandatory arrangment has been made with every Freshman on every College Campus in the P.R. China, and none can escape the drills and the exercises from morning until night, including the handling and firing of military rifles. This three week Freshmen military orientation was initiated some 15 years ago, a few years after the incident in Beijing of 1989, rather co-incidental for this type of training so late in China's recent history. But each of the students seemed to have fun, and none have expressed objections and controversy about this short training-commitment in their first year of school.

During some of my afternoon free time, I would watch their efforts at becoming a group, marching in step, understanding the commands, and slowling turning into a cohesive unit. Each group of young women and men, (90% are women), would use this time to bond in common exhaustion, and by each afternoon they would know each other better, hoping to become the best unit, if not the most disciplined unit. So many of them have now become my first year college English students, and every day among them brings greater appreciation for their desire to find an edge in their learning skills.

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