The other day, I came across this workplace-related joke on social media. I found it more sad than funny:

我每天堅持上班的原因

1. 喝免費的水
2. 吹免費的冷氣
3. 充免費的電
4. 帶薪上廁所
5. 和別人的另一半朝夕相處

This sense of cynicism towards one’s job is probably quite the norm, for it resonated with enough people for it to be posted and reposted in various forms. As a private tutor, I’m intrigued by this work attitude because I think it stems in part from that kind of dreary, memorization-based education that is the lot of so many of my students. This system spits out young people who know everything about the torture of cramming but nothing about the joy of learning; when they enter the world of work, they are therefore psychologically primed to accept a soul-crushing existence as normal. It is, for example, easy to imagine the mainland students in this video clip – they’re tearing their textbooks upon the completing their university entrance exams, out of a mixture of relief and rage – becoming the kind of employees who counts free water, air-con and electricity as the only positives of going to work. Years of rote-learning have led them to forever associate work with misery.

What, then, counts as an ideal education? One thing I know about it is it can take place outside the classroom and should take into account the idiosyncrasies of the child. I would rate as superb schooling the exposure the former University College London former Vice-Provost David Bowles provided for his fashioned-obsessed son. He would bring the elementary school-aged Hamish to high-end charity stores, stay on the sidelines, and watch his interactions with the saleslady with amusement. A typical exchange (as recounted by the elder Bowles):

Saleslady: Oh, hello, little boy, are you looking for something for your mum?

Hamish: Actually, what caught my eye was that dress in the window. Can I have a look at it?

Saleslady: Yes but be very careful.

Hamish: Do you realize this is from the early period of Balenciaga? What caught my eye was the stitching. That is always the giveaway!

Little Hamish grew up to be a Vogue editor and tastemaker of international renown.

When Taiwan’s Former Minister of Culture 龍應台 noticed her son was losing interest in school, instead of acting like the typical Tiger Mom and forcing him to study, she reasoned with him. After defining what she saw as “success” – being a zookeeper charged with scrubbing hippos isn’t less successful than being a banker, if one is really passionate about animals – she spelled out for him the importance of having a purpose. 「我也要求你讀書用功，不是因為我要你跟別人比成就，而是因為，我希望你將來會擁有選擇的權利，選擇有意義、有時間的工作，而不是被迫謀生。」

If more Chinese parents are like 龍應台 and David Bowles, more children will find themselves through work, and there will be fewer disengaged people in office cubicles.

 

Watch this interview for more information on my approach to teaching English writing: https://youtu.be/aQbAsMMHPd8