介绍:
Xiaohua: A teacher’s pet is someone who is greatly favored by a teacher. To become a teacher’s pet it will take a bit of work, but the results are phenomenal. When you are a teacher’s pet, the teacher is more likely to accept excuses from you, give good opportunities to you, and write positively on your evaluation. But of course everything comes with a price.While favored by a teacher, you’ll risk being hated by the entire class.
在班上老师总是会偏爱一两个学生。他们虽然会被班上的同学鄙视，但是被老师偏爱的好处也是无穷的呀~今天Round Table就来教你如何成为老师的宠儿。
Yes, so we are giving you advice on how to become a teacher’s pet. But really is it worth trying to become a teacher’s pet?
Mark: What we should do is what we said should be done with teaching gifts. We should all declare an interest if we have one. Were any of us the teacher’s pet? I can say that I definitely was not.
XH: What about you Amy?
Amy: I think I definitely was.
Mark: Really?
Amy: I was a total goody two shoes. I definitely sucked up to the teachers. Not on purpose, it wasjust I was usually in the gifted and talented programs and stuff. And so, I don’t know, I just had this compulsion like be good. (XH: Please people.)I could get in trouble I’d feel like terrible and I’d cry if I got in trouble.
Mark: You’ve gotten red, Amy. You’re blushing.
XH: Amy’s a Cancer. And as a Cancer myself, I can totally understand your feeling. Cancers don’t like to upset people. Satisfying people is their biggest wish in life. Somethinglike that. They cannot feel the same rebellion that’s in other people’s heart. They just don’t want to do that.
Amy: I always wanted to be a rebel. I just couldn’t find it in my heart to do it.
XH: Exactly, so that’s not your fault. But anyway, Amy, maybe you should read out all these advice on how to become a teacher’s pet. Is there anything that impressed you?
Amy: Let’s see. I think asking questions, always having your hand up when the teacher said “Does anybody know the answer?” “I do! I do! I do! Call on me! Call on me!”
Mark: I did that. I did that too.
Amy: You did? See, maybe you were a teacher’s pet.
Mark: Perhaps I was a teacher’s pet anddidn’t know it.
XH: Yes, perhaps. Also you have to ask the right question. Asking questions I think is always good. The teacher encourages some class participation. But if you accidentally ask the question that the teacher doesn’t know the answer of, then it’s not very good.
Amy: I don’t know. I think in the States, that’s like a sign that you’re a good student. So the teacher will be like “That’s a very good question Amy. Let me figure that out for a second. The teachers like the smart students. They like the well-behaved students. They like the students that talk to them. So I guess if you spend a lot more time with the teacher than you do with the other students, that’s teacher’s pet.
Mark: I’ve just remembered a terrible thing I did to our teacher, a German teacher who was actually German. I would take CDs of these sort of German punk songs. I knew there were full of rude words. And then I’d ask her to play it, and “Could you translate it for us?”
XH: What?
Mark: And embarrassed her.
Amy: Really?
XH: That would be regarded as a challenge of authorities, and not welcomed.
Mark: I think she said something that I knew it wasn’t right. I just had to accept whatever words she said it meant.
Amy: See, you were a teacher’s pet.
Mark: No, that’s the opposite of being a teacher’s pet. You can see that I really would not want to be a teacher’s pet. For us, it was the last thing you’d want to be. So I’m fighting against this accusation of being a teacher’s pet.
Amy: But nobody wants to be the teacher’s pet. That’s like a very bad thing to be. And I think I was only the teacher’s pet because I was just like kind of a weird kid.
Mark: Do you think teachers respect the teacher’s pet, or just feel sorry for them?
Amy: I think they feel sorry for them.
XH: I don’t think so. I think it depends on whether you acted it out naturally or whether you were being too pretentious, and trying to make too much effort. I think teachers can see that. You know, you’re kids. The teacher is like several decades older than you. So they know whether you’re pretending to be nice, or whether you’re just naturally nice.
Mark: There’s a difference though. There’s a difference between being a teacher’s pet, like Amy was, or being the English monitor, like Xiaohua was, cause you were made to do it, won’t you?
Xiaohua: I was made to do it.
Mark: You were instructed. You didn’t volunteer for it.
Xiaohua: No I didn’t.
Amy: What does that mean, the English monitor?
Xiaohua: The English class representative meaning I have to help the English teacher with a lot of assignment collecting and things like that.
Mark: That’s fair enough. That’s not a teacher’s pet.
Amy: See, if you did it voluntarily, that would be a teacher’s pet.
Mark: It would be. It’s easy. It is all to do with not what you do but what your attitude is while you are doing it, whether you’ve volunteer for it.
Xiaohua: I don’t think it’s a healthy attitude. What is wrong with being helpful? For example, if the teacher finishes a class and there’s a blackboard full of chalk writing, and the first one who came up and tried to wipe those will that be considered as a teacher’s pet or trying to impress the teacher?
Mark: I mean I think it’s all to do with maturity and being an adult really. Cause now I totally agree with you. I mean I think if I was a teacher I think it will be great if someone volunteer to help out. This is how we function at work. Everyone helps each other out. But at school, it’s a different situation. In British school, anyway you must not be seen to be siding with the teachers or helping them.
Amy: You will definitely get picked on for helping her clean the black board.
Xiaohua: I think even in China, that’s true. What about helping your teacher hand out some sheets of paper or test results?
Mark: I think that’s OK. Because that’s a sort of you don’t really often have a lot of choice, do you? You were given them and you have to give them out.
Xiaohua: So it depends on whether you willingly want to help out.
Amy: Exactly, that is the difference. Teacher’s pet or not a teacher’s pet.
Xiaohua: OK. People are being punished for being a good person. That’s all.
