I think you're right Manchu that not enough weight of responsibility has been shifted to the teachers; however, I must disagree with your sentiment that some of us are overly supportive of teachers without focusing our attention on the students, where, as I definitely agree, it should be focused. I think you'll find by perusing the archives here that Fish and I, as well Yingwen and a few others, have expressed an affinity for the student that is similar to yours.

But this oversight on your part does not diminish the validity of your argument nor the clarity and keen awareness expressed by your posts. In fact, I find that much of what you have written resonates deeply within the core of my own belief system.

Perhaps there is nothing that you have written that is more telling in terms of your own awareness than the following:

"We, you and I, are privileged to be accorded an opportunity to teach English to the indigenous people of the oldest continuous society on earth, in a nation that is the most populous on earth, that is home to the largest number of ethnic groups (56) on earth and has contributed more knowledge to the people on earth than any other. We have a responsibility to China. I do not take that responsibility lightly. I hope that you do not. And you. And you. And you."

I couldn't agree more and could only add that the fascinations that I face daily as I walk this path in my life have filled me with a sense of wonder and awe and gratitude to be a part of something that has evolved over thousands of years and that continues to evolve dramatically and meaningfully. Truthfully, I find myself more and more able to understand the needs and desires of my students, as they too are a part of this process of change and newness. Perhaps I should have added that to my previous post as reasons I should be kept on as a teacher for a little longer.

I guess it is that absence of concern for the students and the future they are trying to carve out that I would rate as the biggest blunder by so many teachers here. And I think you're right that too often we allow ourselves to be sentimentally moved by the "plight" of our fellow teachers when, in reality, they are as foundational to the problem as the system itself.

I believe though that the problem is so multi-faceted that it is like a house of cards waiting for the slightest puff before it collapses. So, on this we agree also. Actually, I've expressed here in the past that the whole thing MUST collapse before it can be properly rebuilt.

So where do we agree to disagree? Maybe it's that I would just as soon see the "back pack teachers," the culturally insensitve, and the just plain incompetents sent home and forgotten about rather than make them face their inappropriate and ill thought out behavior in the here and now. I've still got some more thinking to do about this. And in that regard, I hope this thread doesn't dissolve too quickly, like so many others have, without us being able to stamp out some sort of solution that at least seems worthwhile even if we know it will not be implemented anytime in the near future.

Thank you Manchu for keeping me thinking.............