“Do you really end up being able to use what you learned in textbooks?” It’s a doubt commonly expressed by students. With a skeptical mindset toward book learning, it’s easy to lose interest and acquire a bad attitude.
If you ask students, “What do you look forward to most in class?” it’s likely that the most common answer would be: “Class letting out.”
A fifth-grade homeroom teacher at Gangshan Elementary, Janet Lin recalls that when she started in the job, if class went over by a minute or two, the students would begin to get impatient. “Some would give me the death stare, and others would rest their chins on their hands with a look of complete displeasure.” The students’ attitudes made Lin wonder: “Are my lessons that boring?”
Finding a goal = finding motivation
A negative attitude toward learning among students is a difficulty faced by all teachers. It’s the same all the way from elementary school to university: Students often act as if they were shackled to their desks and evince little interest in their educations. Lin asked her students: “If you don’t learn now, then what are you going to do in the future?”
Some students responded: “I’ll just get a job and make some money.”
That answer prompted Lin to design a series of worksheets, and pushed her and her students off on a wonderful journey.
The first worksheet was designed to help the students find work, and the conduit for the search was the classified advertisements of newspapers.
“The online recruitment platforms are too varied. The newspapers provide a chance to practice reading and to get a look at various kinds of work.” Lin explains that the help-wanted ads in newspapers feature not only white-collar positions but also employment for laborers, tradespeople, basic service-industry jobs and so forth. It provides an excellent opportunity for students to get acquainted with the various categories of employment.
The students begin by sorting through stacks of newspapers that Lin provides. A few of them immediately ask, “Miss Lin, what’s this character?” or “What’s a monthly salary at NT$120 per hour?” Lin answers the questions, while also noting: “See, you guys don’t even understand the help-wanted ads. How do you expect to find a job? So do you want to get educated?”
Want-ads lesson: No work is ignoble
Finding the right job to apply for doesn’t mean you’re going to get hired. The employer has to want you. That gets us to the second stage: the résumé.
The students look blankly at the empty résumé Lin lays before them for a moment, before one of them guardedly asks: “Miss Lin, what’s professional training?” “What am I supposed to do if I don’t have any executive experience?” Lin carefully responds to these questions, helping students to find their strong suits. Then she pulls out an excellent résumé and says, “This is the résumé of a fifth-grader at another school. You’ll have to compete with him for a job opening. If you were an employer, who would you hire?”
“This is the real situation that they’re going to have to face out in society,” Lin says. Many elementary school kids growing up under their parents’ protective umbrella come to think that everything will come as a matter of course, and they find it hard to cultivate any motivation to learn. “No matter what kind of job, whether of high or low status, no matter what professional track you take, a basic education is essential,” says Lin. She recounts that one of her students was a neat freak and really liked to tidy up, so he decided he wanted to be a janitor. But when he told his parents of his plans, they objected. Lin encouraged him, telling him that if he really was interested, he could take it a step farther and gain a greater understanding of the field: “Perhaps you can see demand where others can’t and can open a sanitation company.”
What kind of life do you want?
After the job-hunting experience, the experiential worksheet education isn’t over.
Lin follows by tossing out new questions: “Once you’ve found work, are you going to buy a house?” “If you’re working, will you need a car?” “Do you want to marry? Do you want to have children?”
Facing this string of questions, the students all nod their heads in affirmation, and Lin picks up a pile of real-estate ads and car dealership ads, allowing the students to pick from them. This time the questions are more numerous and more complicated. “How big is a ping [a Taiwanese unit of land or floor area]?” “What’s a double parking space?” “What’s the difference between gasoline and diesel fuel?” Interestingly, though some students don’t have much understanding about cars or homes, others already have clear ideas: they want to live in luxury penthouses, drive Ferraris, have ten kids....
After the children fill out the worksheets with the relevant information, Lin then asks them to calculate their food costs, travel expenses and so forth. They proceed to add up the totals with calculators, getting a rough understanding of what they need to live on in a month.
The children stare in amazement at the total—because the totals are all far in excess of their expected salaries. And so they ask Lin for help. Under her guidance, the students choose to live in smaller residences and drive second-hand cars. One who had originally wanted to live in a luxury high rise and drive a Ferrari, decides to live with his parents and ride a bicycle. Some decide neither to get married nor to have children. It’s not easy making ends meet.
Moving ahead with clarity
After the students fill out the worksheets, Lin goes a step further to request that the students discuss things with their parents, so they can better understand the family’s financial situation and appreciate the hard work that Mom and Dad put in to support them.
One girl, when she discovers that the salary of the job she chose to apply for won’t cover her monthly expenses, suddenly says, “It doesn’t matter. I can get married to someone who’s rich.” Someone else says, “The salary’s too low. I’m going to open my own business and be my own boss.” Lin responds with questions of her own: “So you want to marry someone rich. Well, how are you going to attract him? Rich men are very picky.” And, “If you’re the boss, you’ve got to be able to lead people. Do you have what it takes to manage those who work for you? Can you get them to follow you?”
These questions aren’t meant to be critical; they are merely reflections on the true state of society. Lin believes that instead of being preachy and patronizing, it’s better to invite discussion from her students, letting them see clearly with their own eyes life’s various possibilities.
Lessons aren’t just learned from textbooks. Even if no one teaches them, children will know what luxury housing is and that Ferraris and Mercedes are good cars. Society’s values are completely reflected in the answers on these worksheets, but Lin has decided not to preach, knowing that her students would only turn a deaf ear to her sermons. Instead, she chooses to get real: Let the children learn from life; let them see reality and walk down paths of their own choosing.
The students go on many field trips in conjunction with their studies, including here to meet master baker Wu Pao-chun.
Janet Lin has designed worksheets that introduce students to real-life situations and help them kindle a passion for learning.
Janet Lin has designed worksheets that introduce students to real-life situations and help them kindle a passion for learning.
In order to give students an arts education that is extremely hands on, Janet Lin and her students have designed eye-opening field trips around Kaohsiung.
In order to give students an arts education that is extremely hands on, Janet Lin and her students have designed eye-opening field trips around Kaohsiung.
In order to give students an arts education that is extremely hands on, Janet Lin and her students have designed eye-opening field trips around Kaohsiung.
In order to give students an arts education that is extremely hands on, Janet Lin and her students have designed eye-opening field trips around Kaohsiung.
Janet Lin’s passion and creativity give students a sense of release from their dry academic coursework and help them find joy in learning.
Janet Lin’s passion and creativity give students a sense of release from their dry academic coursework and help them find joy in learning.
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