Pick your Battles!

Ethical dilemma: When is it worth it to fight, to confront others and make a scene? When should one back down? I think I often fight on minor issues when I should just accept things. In addition, I think sometimes I am too cowardly to fight. Knowing when to act can be confusing. And when one does feel a confrontation is justified, it is essential to go into with a Christ-like attitude. I often try to win at all cost - and although I may win the battle, I sometimes lose perspective and lose the war. I tend to forget that "our battle is not against flesh and blood."

The contract that guides my work here as a teacher in IBI at the university states the following in Section III-D: "D. The time for the IBI class must be 3.5 hours per day from 8:00 to 11:30 with the actual time adjusted to the school class schedule. The classroom instruction by the teacher is 2.5 hours daily and self-directed study by students without the presence of the teacher is 1.0 hour daily Monday through Friday mornings. Students must be enrolled only for the IBI program during the IBI class hours."

During the year, I received the following email from the IBI director: "The specific teaching time for the teachers assigned to the English Department at TFSU beginning September 2005 is as follows.
08:00 to 10:00 classroom instruction time (lecture and class activities)
10:00 to 10:10 break
10:10 to 11:40 self-directed study"

I enjoy teaching very much. I believe my students also enjoy attending my classes. My goal is to challenge the students academically, while keeping the mood of the class fun and lively. I make an active effort to interact with all students, often going out of my way to talk with the shyest of students during the breaks or towards the end of class. I feel that if the students see me as a friend and advisor they can trust rather than a strange foreigner with nothing in common with them that they will be more likely to pay attention and interact during class.

I prefer teaching and challenging students as much as possible. I love watching them learn. I am passionate about my teaching.

The contract with the school - which guides how I should teach is obviously in direct conflict with the instructions from the director. The contract states 2.5 hours of instruction/lecture time is required. However the director dictates less time. His comments, since he is not around to see what I am doing, were based on the "reporting" of my "teammate", who has told me on many occasions that he likes spending time with students but does not enjoy teaching class. I can tell that too. You would be hard pressed to find anyone who claims that he is passionate about his teaching. I honestly believe he would agree with that.

So what should I have done? The contract certainly does not claim that 2.5 hours is a maximum. My argument is that I can teach 2.5 hours and hold additional hours outside of class like I have been doing. Perhaps it does not seem like a big deal, and in actuality it might not be. Over the past 6 months, I felt the director of the IBI program was deceitful and disingenuous. One trivial example of this is the email quoted above. He never told us anything about the teaching times in September even though he deceitfully claims that is the case. Honestly, my actions were less than honorable and I justified my deceitful actions toward him based on this. I was wrong in doing so. Regardless, I had lost faith in him, and so I decided to stand up and fight with him on this. I admit that I had not treated him with respect on prior occasions. Much of my actions towards him were made out of anger and my lack of faith in his leadership. I had started writing letters of resignation twice before -- once in early September and once in late November but was talked out of such action after discussion with students and my parents. I felt that doing so would be cowardly and a betrayal to the school and students. I couldn't bring myself to do that.

Why, you might wonder, would the director have a contract claiming we would provide 2.5 hours of lecture time when he argues that class time should be only 2 hours in a separate email to teachers? There are two reasons for this -- 1) SAFEA, the organization that oversees foreign experts (teachers) in China requires a minimum number of hours to qualify for a Chinese visa. What is this minimum? You guessed it -- an average of 2.5 hours per work day. 2) The second reason is in marketing the program to Chinese universities. The schools are shown cost figures of cost per hour of instruction. By claiming 3.5 hours of class time (and 2.5 hours of instruction time), the director can make a better argument to the school. However, at the same time, the director has trouble recruiting and keeping teachers. Turnover rates are high, the US job market is strong, and next year (2006-07) he will have the FEWEST number of teachers in his program since the mid 90's. Trying to keep teachers happy is another goal of his, and he is willing to do this at the expense of students and Chinese universities. I called him on it. I said it was disingenuous and deceitful. I also said he should inform the university and SAFEA of what he's doing or change his ways. I admit, I enjoy teaching and wanted the extra time. 20 minutes per day x 5 days per week x 17 weeks = 28.3 hours of additional teaching time. That is a significant amount of time. I will admit that I was not perfect. I was really bad about grading papers and exams in a prompt time frame. I have admitted my fault and have tried to improve. What infuriates me about the director is that he shows no remorse for his actions and accepts no criticism. Or, if he has, he has not made that apparent to me. I fear that my temper got the best of me while dealing with these issues. I found it quite difficult to respect the director (which Biblically I feel I am required to do) when I feel his actions his actions are incompetent and not deserving of respect.

Pray for humility for me. Pray for me to love even when others are wrong. Pray for me to realize my faults, seek forgiveness, and change my ways when I am wrong.

I did share with students some of the issues involved in the conflict regarding my teaching. I did not solicit responses or ask for them to complement me or compare my teaching style to any other person's. However, several of them did contact me and pay me some complements. Some of these comments were received by email -- others by SMS. Unfortunately, I have lost many of the comments sent to me. But below you will find some of the comments received. Obviously, people's opinions are often biased and justify nothing. There is a right and wrong, and that is not decided by a majority of opinions. Nevertheless, they are encouraging to read. Names of students are listed so you will know these are authentic responses.

Without further ado, here they are (in alphabetical order):

Chang Hong: "You are the best teacher in my life."

Chen Yu: "We are lucky to have you this semester and we love you. The book we have is really boring. We did not like what ******* taught. We also thought we were wasting time to have *******'s class."

Dong Lingyu: "Actually i like your class very much, it's fun, exciting, and more useful."

Gao Zhifang: "Thank you so much for teaching us! You know that i plan to graduate school to study finance. Your teaching help me alot. Before the course i study by myself and i had some not understand like call and put option. you made me understand. i still remember the day i had fever and i asked your permission not come. i think ******* will not be so nice. we all love you."

Guo Liping: "You are the most wonderful teacher i have met. I will be proud to tell my Chinese friends about you. Actually all of us like your class better than ******* . Your class is more interesting and you do not care about trivial things."

Guo Lijuan: "I really cherish the carefulness and energy that you put in us. You are good firend for me. i will miss you. you are really good friend."

Guan Xin: "You are an excellent teacher."

Huang Zhen: "Mr. Green you are a good teacher. all of us think so."

Huo Xiaoling: "We all like your class rather than *******'s. for that class is too boring just like a traditional Chinese teacher, no creativity. i think you should teach like you do. we are all behind you."

Ji Yingying: "You are my friend (and also best teacher, at least in my heart). Being a teacher, you do what a teacher should do; moreover, you do far more for us. He is jealous of you, for we all like ******* better than him."

Jin Yi: "I really have learned a lot from you during the last four months, not only the law, marketing and economics, but also some good ways of thinking. You are a very good teacher. Do you know when we admire you most? It's when you explained to us a very complicated concept or something that we had no idea before using very easy and understandable words and examples. I can figure out that you really have put a lot of efforts to make everything easy for us. We appreciate that. And you have never got angry with us and always tried to make friends with everyone in our class. You have never left those who are very shy aside and always tried to make them take part in every activity."

Li Lan: "You are the most devote teacher I have met. I always feel very sorry about occupying your time with those silly questions (the things you have taught in class). As I known, Americans hold very strong conception of time. However, you presented to be so generous and patient and, never laugh at me with those silly questions. Remembered once you missed the chance to meet Lin junjie (the singer of Jiang Nan) only because I was asking questions about options. I was encouraged by your devotion and usually after class I will learn more by myself via the Internet. It is surprising that I got the highest score in IB course, which is the course I am afraid of. Mr. Green, I owe my accomplishment to you and I think you deserve it. Sam, it is my great honor to be your student and now your good friend. I cherished the time I spent with you. But now, the IBI class becomes more rigid, and it requires nothing but memorizing and taking notes. I mean the IBI class might be less challenging."

Liu Xiaojun: "We love you so much."

Lu Min: "All those days we spent together have brought me so much happiness, which I will remember and cherish all my life. We love you."

Nie Mintao: "All of us know which one of you two is better. i have always thought that you are the best teacher."

Ren Zhiqian: "We all love you. Thank you for what you did in the past semester. You will never walk alone."

Sun Yi: "Frankly speaking, all of us enjoyed your class far more than *******'s! What i said is not comforting you. actually *******'s classes are indeed boring."

Wu Dan: "You are the teacher I like most and friend as well. I had a very happy time that you gave to me. Your teaching style is more favorable to us."

Wang Xinjie: "Last year before I took your class, I knew little about law. After your class, I decided to switch my focus. I have just been accepted to law school at Yunnan University, and I owe that to your excellent teaching."

Wang Xu: "Words failed me to sufficiently convey my love and gratitude for you. you are so dear and special... I like your teaching style. I could not have had such a memorable semester without you. You are our best teacher and friend. we all love and cherish you so much."

Wang Yi: "You give us a lot of pratical knowledge and have done your best to make us happy and knowledgeable. Your teacing is more effective. And the information you gave us is useful nd practical which is the very thing we lack. I don't want to flatter you or say ******* is bad. My point is you are as precious as gold and gold will release light wherever it is."

Wu Yinqiu: "You know that we all like you more than ******* and I believe ******* knows that."

Wang Yue: "To me you are a very good teacher and friend! Dont let this make you down."

Xia Qian: "Without your efforts, I'm not able to be a good student and to know so much about international business and marketing. Thank you! You are a very competent teacher. No matter what, you will be my teacher and friend forever.:)"

Xie Juan: "I cherish the IBI class because your teaching style. if even you teach like *******, the class will be boring. Actually i only take game theory etc as useful things I had learned. If you teach like *******, that will be no different between chinese ordinary class and IBI. To make things worse, students will be more likely to drop class because they can learn by themselves at home. Teacher are afraid of knowing more than them. do you know story of cat and tiger? cat teach tiger all execpt climb tress to prevent tiger eating."

Xie Zhixia: "You are our teacher and friend. you are closer to us, know how we think and what we want to learn."

Yan Bing: "I'm working happily everyday. Now I use a lot of knowledge that you taught me in your lesson. I'm so lucky to have been your student."

Yang Mingzhe: "You are the best teacher i've ever had."

Yuan Shuai & Wang Yingjun: "You are a good teacher. We like the way you teach us. We will always support you. we all love you."

Yang Yuting: "I understand you so much. Don't be frustrated. you are really a good teacher. i really learned a lot of things from you and to be honest, we all think you are better than *******."

Zhao Yinan: "Thank God to give me such a good teacher and friend like you. You are the most interesting guy i eer met. i like you very much."

Zhang Lidan: "You gave me more in way of thinking, you treated me as equal and let me believe nothing is impossible through efforts."

Zhang Jing: "As your student, i admire you as the best teacher. As your friend, us will be by your side to support you.

Zhang Peilong: "I have a bad feeling after leaving your class. Your teaching us so useful information. I will miss you."

Zhang Xinyu: "Realize the fact that all of us like you much more than *******. We like the way you teach us and we like stocks and options. We are tired with his endless boring book teaching and homework. We will always support you and be your friends forever."

Zheng Chenxi: "I like the way you teach. No matter what happens i will always respect you as a teacher."

Zhou Ze: "Thanks a bunch for teaching us bonds and options. i love that. Maybe one day i can make a fortune through what you taught me. thanks for your jokes. we love you. I do not know how to express my feelings. i will say we all like you. You are the best teacher I have met. We all admire your adaptability and easy going. I told my parents you are the best teacher."

OK, wow, what great comments. I'm really something, right? Definitely, I was greatly encouraged after reading these. It does really makes me feel proud. Wait a second, shoud I feel proud? I must be careful about that. Judging one's teaching ability based on the comments of students is tricky. Students can sometimes like the teacher who gives them the easiest tests, the best grades, the most breaks, the least homework, etc. Of course, I can say objectively -- that I did give the hardest tests, the lowest grades, the most homework, and had the most hours of class. In the past, I have held extra makeup classes at night and even came back to Tianjin early to teach 2 extra classes during November 2004 when I was given a one week break from teaching (but students were still having classes at school). Still, I must consider these comments carefully and hold them in perspective. I'm not great -- God is great and He has created each of us with special skills and abilities. If I am a talented teacher, it is because God has blessed me. And even if I am not, God loves me anyway!

For those who are interested, I also received a comment from the TFSU administration via email. I cannot go into detail about the email, but will provide a quote from the administrative assistant in the department where I worked, Fan Wen. She said: "We really feel regretted that u are not working here any longer."

In concusion, I have made many mistakes and I admit that. Thank God for His forgiveness and love. I'm praying that I can let God better direct my actions in the future and that I can always act with love and humility.