Why Are We Not Doing This?

Why are we not doing this?

Feb. 5th

by Sunny Huang

Students in American schools can use computers, learn how to cook, try sewing using a sewing machine, finish math assignments with a calculator, and use an erasable pen to do calculations on the table instead of wasting tons of paper as scratch paper. Things like this can help, whether just a little or greatly, with their personal development, including basic but necessary living skills and academic improvement.

So why are we not doing this?

Is it about money? Are the computers still too expensive for a big and famous school to purchase, while a relatively small school in Batesville can afford it? Or are the Chinese teachers worried that students will play the computers during the class? Nevertheless, there will be a time when they get to use computers without a teacher restricting them.

Is it about safety? Are the teachers worried that students might get themselves hurt using a knife or a needle? But they are going to deal with them eventually, aren’t they? Shouldn’t they be prepared beforehand? Or are they afraid of the responsibility, because students can get ill eating the non-promising food at school?

Sometimes we always worry too much about what COULD happen IF we do this or that. But here in Batesville, it turns out that everything just goes perfectly right. Worries stop us from trying and achieving.

Sometimes we avoid responsibility, because it is just too much to take.

Is it aboutletting the students to learn more? But I always don’t understand why we shouldn’t use calculators when they are now so easy-to-find everywhere. Isn’t it like insisting using candles instead of light bulbs, just because you can learn how to deal with fire that way?

Is it about keeping the desk clean, because this is the rule? But the pen is erasable, isn’t it? I once saw a group of people trying to make a new kind of pen, whose ink can disappear in 10 minutes, so you can reuse the scratch paper. I thought they were creative before, but now I am thinking: why bother inventing a new kind of pen, when there’s already an easy solution?

After analyzing these questions, the problem is still not solved: why are we not doing this?

Maybe schools in China and America are different?

We’d never know if this is true or an excuse, since we’re not making a single attempt.