The irony is that I am also teaching at a private boys’ catholic junior high/high school, and my bushiban kids actually behave much better than those boys. These boys are obedient and such for their Chinese teachers, but when it comes to us foreign teachers, then all the respect and rules just don’t seem to apply anymore. That’s what frustrates me the most.

The school is really, super strict, and the students are scared to death on every rule. Have to be in class exactly when break ends, will get their names called out to the entire school if they are one minute late in the morning, can’t sleep, eat, drink, have anything but the absolutely necessary on their table, and can’t even leave their bags on the floor during classes. Every single little mistake is noted down and all is added up and used for collective punishment of their classmates.
And if you can’t get good grades because the teacher just doesn’t like your negative attitude, you’re going to be a loser for life because you can’t get into the good schools or colleges.

I bet that if it’s just virtually the same in junior high, then it’s no wonder to me, that they don’t know how to handle this great freedom they suddently get in the buxibans. When it’s suddenly not they who have to please the school, but the school who has to please them.

Obviously, I’d blame this whole social issue solely on the current picture of the high schools. They just don’t allow the kids to grow up.