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[wailing_imam]

This is my second tour of duty in China. Yes, I am a repeat offender. On this second contract, I have been amazed yet again by the way that Chinese students and I suppose modern Chinese culture deals with perceived illness.

Students with the merest hint of a cough, or a slight tickle at the back of the throat will end up at some clinic with a saline drip stuck in their arm and a look of abject misery and helplessness plastered upon their faces. I have students who can't make it to class in the morning because of these traumatic headaches they have, meaning an extra few hours in bed are needed. The Chinese teachers are quite supportive of this suffering students. Countless times, my lessons have been interrupted by a student holding his belly tight and wincing, managing to gasp "teacher - wc", before stumbling out of the classroom, like his guts are full of shrapnel. I have taught in some quite interesting places and never come across a people who turn green so easily. And, it is usually the boys (90% ). Is this yet another example of a generation that has been spoilt, as I bet Mao Zedong's boys didn't go belly up so easily?

[China.Pete]

"Countless times, my lessons have been interrupted by a student holding his belly tight and wincing, managing to gasp 'teacher--wc,' before stumbling out of the classroom, like his guts are full of shrapnel." --Wailing Imam

Not being a medical doctor or an anthropologist, I cannot vouch for the relative unhealthy-ness of Chinese students. But I have observed that the requests to go to the WC tend to correlate somewhat with my requests for particular students to do something in class, like practicing spoken English. The drama associated with the request may be primarily for YOUR benefit.

If the students can understand English well enough, I'd tell them that only THEY know when they need to go to the bathroom, or are seriously ill, but that if they're not quick about it, I'll give them a "late." But those enjoying that much personal accountability tend not to have to go to the bathroom during class time--or perhaps have the presence of mind to go beforehand.

[tw]

I still don't understand why anyone would want to pay so much money to get saline drips for a common cold, or thinking that they would help them recover more quickly. As for missing classes, well, let's just say that I've had students coming to class coughing and sneezing, or looking like zombies, and students who didn't come to class because of a little headache or sore throat. I caught a boy in the school's computer lab playing online games last year -- after his classmates had told me that he was sick that day because of stomach problem.

[Calories]

Never had a student who wasn't in class because of an illness. Usually they write me funny notes like "teacher do not ask me to stand up today my throat is sore" I just laugh and don't ask them to stand up. With 60 some odd students in a class there's no point in fighting with a kid who says he is sick.

The kids running to the WC might be genuine. How many times have you done that after eating at a local resturant?! Hahaha, let them go anyways.

I find I get more students telling me "I'm too sad today" or "my homework makes me feel like I'm going crazy. I can't work today." than students saying "I'm sick". Eh, the depressed excuse works on me too. Again with 60 students in the class, there's really no point in stressing that one kid does his work. It's only a problem if most of the class is saying these things.

[wailing_imam]

I have a class of 19 that I see daily for five hours, and they have to produce a letter from the doctor if they are absent, or else risk losing out on a visa out of China.

So, these letters pile up, and the hospital makes a lot of money out of these students!

As for kids running to the toilet like the earth is about to fall out of them, of course I let them go, and no they don't correlate with any work done in class, as with such a small group, each student generally has to do an awful lot of oral work each day. A quick trip to the lav won't save any blushes!

The poor little Emperors....

[Leon Purvis]

I've had a rash of students running from class to the bathroom during the past week. It could be cafeteria food or it could be something else.

One of the first things that I tell my class is that if one is ill, he should not come to class. Another thing I say is that if one comes to class feeling a little nauseous, he should sit in the back of the class near the back door.

I treat my students as adults. (Some are in their twenties. Others were middle school students). If one student habitually abuses adult privileges, the rest of the class will usually get on his back about it.

I've taught American high school seniors who could not handle this small amount of freedom. Allowing one student to go to the bathroom often resulted in a slippery slope in which later I was either chastised for allowing one to go without a doctor's note (this opening the door for everyone else to complain that his bladder was near bursting), or for not allowing everyone to go because parents called the office threatening lawsuits.

Here in China, I trust the students.

And they trust me.

[kev7161]

Let's face it, with the habit of "going where you stand" started from a young age (you know, the kids squatting on the sidewalk and letting it fly through their pants with the slit in them), controlling their bladders or bowels is probably unheard of. I mean, I know it's not healthy to force your body to hold something in - - when you gotta go, you gotta go - - but I have and have had kids who want to bolt that last 5 minutes of class and seem truly agnonized when I tell them to wait until class is over.

In my past school, we had 15 minute breaks between every 45 minute class. In my current school, we have 15 minute breaks between every 40 minute class. I lecture my kids constantly to do their business during this break. Some do, some still have to make a mad dash midway through the lesson. Luckily, the toilets are right next door to my classroom.

[China.Pete]

"The kids running to the WC might be genuine." --Calories

Possibly. It might be worth observing the actions of a student thus "restrained" immediately after class. Does he/she run for the toilet, or fall into chatting with classmates, as usual? While I recognize it as a part of Chinese classroom etiquette, like "politely" tapping at the door when coming late to class, I find it absurd to be placed in the position of regulating others' bathroom breaks.

"I have a class of 19 that I see daily for five hours, and they have to produce a letter from the doctor if they are absent...." --Wailing Imam

I've never accepted, asked for, or worried about doctor's notes. Typically, I'll give every student a reasonable amount of "personal leave," after which I begin to deduct points from their participation grade. Students with perfect attendance at the end of the semester can even take a "mental health" day if they wish! Don't know why my approach hasn't caught on with Chinese administrators. Possibly for the same reason that failing students aren't kicked out of school just because they continue to pay their tuition. Personal responsibility seems to be a very foreign concept here.

[wailing_imam]

China Pete - Unfortunately I have to get doctor's notes from the kids as I am running a course in line with the Singapore MOE and must therefore be much stricter with them regarding this matter than they are used to. We don't have such a thing as a participation grade. If their attendance falls below 90% they are warned. If this continues, they are booted off the course. It's a good way to get rid of all the flotsam in a class.

You are right about personal responsibility. Even at university their lives are much more regulated than in a western university. Having worked in a boarding school here before, I was shocked at how regulated their lives were, it seemed that every minute of the day was accounted for, and to move from this to a university, might be too much all at once. Perversely, when these Chinese students come to Singapore and have total freedom (other than the six hours they have to be at school each day) they become depressed and bored - they simply don't know what to do!

Three boys absent today. Two with stomach aches and one with another of these mysterious headaches. I'll give the little @#$%s headaches when I see them tomorrow.

[KarenB]

I usually consider the "I have to go to the WC right NOW!" as genuine as the students generally reappear within 5 or 10 minutes.

Actually, I think for the colds they are getting antibiotic drips, not saline drips, which can be really dangerous in the long run. Most pediatricians in the states no longer give antibiotics unless the child is running a high fever and has an obvious bacterial infection (unlike a cold, which is viral, of course). I've also seen Chinese pay 30 RMB for daily drips of medications (for chronic problems) that they can buy in their local pharmacy for about 4 or 5 yuan for a month's supply of tablets. The medication is legit, but it hardly needs to be taken by IV!

I HAVE had students feign illness when they want to get out of doing something in the classroom. Last week, my students had to give speeches, and one boy got an attack of nerves, and forgot about half his speech, and offered the excuse, "sorry, I'm ill." But at the end of the class, he asked permission to give the speech again, and did fine -- it was all nerves, of course. Yesterday, I called on a student in class to do something (because I noted she wasn't participating in the pair work, but was instead reading a Chinese novel). Of course, she couldn't produce the English she was asked to produce (since she hadn't been participating in the class), so of course she said, "I feel ill." Well, maybe the embarrassment of standing up in class and looking like an idiot did make her feel ill.

[China.Pete]

"I usually consider the 'I have to go to the WC right NOW!' as genuine as the students generally reappear within 5 or 10 minutes." --Karen B

When some of my students say this--and there aren't many on a percentage basis (<1 percent)--they seldom or ever reappear. And that, whether there are 10 minutes remaining in the class, or 60. The only doubt in my mind is whether the "reality avoidance" is largely conscious or unconscious.

I should say that I've come by my skepticism of these cases quite honestly. Because, you see, I used to feign illness or ask to go to the bathroom myself, usually to get out of Math class, which I found rather difficult and, well, just boring in general. Of course, I was in 2nd grade at the time, and my students are, last time I checked, now in university.

BTW, I concur with you on the dangers of inappropriate use of antibiotics for colds and other minor ailments.

[mondrian]

I have made "a rod for my own back"!
I made a fairly rigid sickness policy in my classroom from the first week: sick notes with medical proof: use of humour for those "taken short" and having to make a run for it. All has worked beautifully until last week, when a student who continually sneezed from the front desk and mouthed to me that he had been to the hospital and was taking medicine, has developed the flu (very rare in China?).
Now I am laid up typing this with a headache, coughing and a streaming cold!