Facing Reality
I've always known that the academic abilities of students in our nation’s capital vary widely.
But when I was faced with that reality up close,it still left me stunned.
How did it come to this? Let me take you back a few years.
It was around my fifth year of teaching.At the time, I’d been working at public high schools for a while,guiding students through endless past exam papers for university entrance tests. My confidence was sky-high. (Yes, back in the days when the exams still had an English section. Now, in July’s subject-specific exams, English is no longer included.)
I thought to myself,
"After all the years I’ve spent studying, I should be more than qualified to teach private school students!" So, I told my team I was open to taking on private school students.
At first, everything went smoothly.
The biggest challenge was dealing with students who were working two years ahead of the standard curriculum. That was manageable.For instance, one private school’s sixth-graders were using eighth-grade textbooks, and by seventh grade, they were already reviewing ninth-grade materials.It was a bit intense, but I could handle it.
Until one day, I met a particular elementary school student...
"Why aren’t you paying attention in class?" I asked, tapping on his desk during our second session.
"Because I already know all of this. It’s boring," he replied calmly, looking me straight in the eye.
"Are you saying you’ve mastered everything your school is teaching?" I asked.
"Yeah. It’s really easy," he said casually. (For context, his school was already teaching high school-level English.)
"So, what do you want to learn?" I asked, curious about his expectations.
"I don’t know. I just know the schoolwork is too easy, and I don’t feel like learning it."
"Alright, how about this—I’ll give you some different materials to try, and you can decide what you’d like to focus on," I suggested.
"Okay," he nodded in agreement.
So, I pulled out a variety of materials I’d used in the past: questions from junior high school entrance exams, high school reading comprehension exercises, and TOEFL practice tests.
To my shock, the student brushed off everything as "too easy"—except for the TOEFL materials.
He chose TOEFL.
I was dumbfounded.
I hadn’t worked with TOEFL materials in years and wasn’t confident with them anymore.
All my recent experience had been with high school-level content.
Did this mean I had to go back and restudy TOEFL just to teach this sixth-grader?
The thought of it was exhausting.
Shock.
I was just teaching an elementary school student. How did it end up with me needing to relearn TOEFL?
面對
一直以來，我都知道我國首都的學生素質相差極大
但是
真的面臨這樣的情況
我還是挺衝擊的
這究竟是怎麼回事呢？要從好幾年前發生的事情說起了
那大概是我入行第5年時的事情了
那時候，我已經教公立高中一段時間了
學測指考歷屆也刷的差不多了，信心爆棚 (是的，那是個還有指考英文的時代，目前七月叫做分科，已經不考英文了)
想說
憑我的實力，應該有資格去教私立學校的學生
於是我就跟團隊說，開放讓私立學校的學生進來
一開始都沒事
頂多就是超前兩年進度，還好
像是某學校小六生，學校用公立國中國二課本，國一就在國三複習考，這些都還好
我還算有實力去教
直到有一天，我遇到一個小學生......
教學現場
「你上課怎麼不專心？」我敲了敲桌子，那是我第二次上他的課
「因為我都會了，挺無聊的」這位小六學生看著我說道
「你學校的都會了嗎？」我問道
「會了。學校的很簡單。」他回答道 (他們學校已經教到高中英文！)
「那你想學什麼？」我想知道他的意見
「我不知道。我只知道學校的東西太簡單，我不想學。」
「那我拿幾份教材給你寫寫看，你再決定好嗎？」我問他
「好的。」他點了點頭
於是，我拿了一些我以前寫過的題目給小六生寫：國三會考題目、高中閱讀測驗、托福
結果，小六生說其他太簡單，他選了托福
??
????
??????
!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
我真的傻眼
因為我已經有一陣子沒碰托福了，其實我有點不熟。我那幾年都在唸高中的東西
啊不就要重新唸回來！
那我會很累耶>口<
震驚
震驚震驚
震驚震驚震驚 (๑•́ ₃ •̀๑)
我只是教了個小六生，為什麼又要開始唸托福？！
私立學校真的太恐怖！
