介绍:
Lincoln: The recent death of a Chinese teacher has sparked hot debate online about whether the students are too “cold hearted” focusing on their exam. Wu You, maybe you can explain a little bit about exactly what happened here.
WY: During the final examination in a middle school in China, one test monitor’s sudden death was not noticed until the end of the exam. She was supposed to remind the students to hand in their papers at a specific time. But at the allotted time, students did not hear anything from that teacher, and then several students approached her to ask her if it was time to fetch their papers. It was not until then she was found sitting in the chair without any response. Then the students immediately called the headmaster, and then the teacher was rushed to the hospital, where doctors said she had died from a sudden cardiac arrest.
Lincoln: So, quite an unfortunate story there. What people are a little bit outraged about is that the students didn’t actually take notice of this at all. Was the teacher by herself?
WY: She was the only test monitor in the classroom, and reports say that there were two teachers patrolling the hallway.
Lincoln: Michael, what do you make of this?
Michael: Well, it’s obviously a very sad story to hear about somebody dying in what are very unusual circumstances, I would say, but I think a lot of the negativity coming out of this is the fact that, as Wu You mentioned, the teacher was found to have died actually in the examination room. All these students were taking their exams, and they seemingly either didn’t notice something was wrong, or, for whatever reason, chose not to offer any sort of assistance. So a lot of people are saying that – obviously, we know that China’s education system is very rigorous and is very test-based, but a lot of people are saying, you know, that maybe the students are too focused on their tests.
Lincoln: Wu You, what do you think?
WY: The teacher was actually sitting in the back of the classroom. She was sitting in a chair, without walking around. She was found still, sitting in the chair, without any kind of response, so actually, that happened quietly and suddenly.
Michael: Well, I think if you were looking at this from a slightly more cynical point of view, you might say that, I mean, in China in recent years, we’ve often seen several social problems, whereby people who go to help others, you know, people trying to be good Samaritans, are often scammed by the people that they’re trying to help, for money or whatever. Now, I’m not for a second suggesting that that’s what’s happened here, but what you often find, when you have this culture of, you know, people trying to help are then suffering and paying the price for helping, maybe that sort of mindset waters down into other areas of society.
WY: Well, I don’t agree with that, I don’t think that is a culture, and also, passers-by, if they notice someone fall down on the street, they directly saw it. But this time, it was a totally different situation, because the teacher was sitting at the back of the classroom quietly, they were all sitting in the classroom focusing on their examination, so in that case, I don’t think it is quite the same situation. And also, I think the students, if they learned, somehow, about the first-aid knowledge or emergency dealing skills, they probably would have a second thought. Someone said that although she was sitting in the back of the classroom, some did hear the groaning, and they thought the teacher was asleep snoring, so that is the only time when they probably noticed that something might have happened. My concern is basically to the teaching in the middle schools. They lack life skills and emergency knowledge. If they have been taught about first aid or emergency dealing skills knowledge, they would have noticed, but in this kind of situation, for most Chinese students, what they often hear is: “You keep focusing on your studies. Everything else is not that important. You focus on your studies.” With all these kinds of focus, the students wouldn’t have learned all these kinds of life skills. I think that’s the problem.
Lincoln: Let’s talk about what some people have been saying online.
WY: Some of the netizens, just like @moujiadesitushuli said, “We should think about what made the students become ‘cold-blooded’ test machines”. But [others] have different ideas, like @Angel-yanqingjiu, who says, “We’ve all taken exams, who has ever stared at the teacher behind you?”
Michael: Yeah, well, another one that I’m looking at here, this commenter says, “The only reason for looking at the teacher is that the students intend to cheat,”
Lincoln: Yeah, certainly a very sad story, and very unfortunate as well to see what happened there. Our condolences to all of those affected.
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