This idea also goes back to what I posted earlier about writing summaries v. creative writing.
I had an interesting chat with one of our Chinese teachers today about how kids are sometimes stubborn in the way that they want to say things, and how difficult it can be to manage their will when they are developing strong ones at a fast clip. We're near the end of 3rd grade, here, just to give you a sense of where we are at developmentally. Things were easier when the kids were younger. (They're much more pliable. As they get older... well, pre-teen and teen-hood, here we come...)
The teacher was telling me how hard it was to manage creative writing projects when kids want to insist on "saying" or writing something in the way that they imagine it in their heads. She literally had to rewrite nonsense, despite the tyrannical insistence of some. I never thought about this issue much before... But it matched a recent encounter I had with a parent regarding Chinese writing for this age group that needs to be illuminated. It gives yet another view into how hard this MI business really is, given the huge disparity of assumptions going into doing just about anything.
A lot has been said about quality teacher training for MI and the need to "adjust" the Chinese teachers' cultural viewpoints and experiences to the American classroom from a cultural standpoint. Chinese teachers are blamed for being too authoritarian and not collaborative enough. But those of us who grew up with both cultures, we are already bristling at this criticism for a lot of reasons. Of course, there are the self-haters out there who play into it, do so thoughtlessly, thereby sacrificing a higher quality experience for their kids. Hence, this blog. I'm really tired of it. There is A LOT to learn on ALL sides, not just "both sides." There are actually a lot of sides, here.
Not enough has been said about how parents and kids who do not come from any background in the Chinese language, that these people need to do a lot, themselves, with "adjusting" to how things are done.
So back to developing writing, and even developing speech. The thing is, why should an 8 or 9 year old dictate to an adult how something should be properly said or written? We don't tolerate this in English. Why is it tolerated in Chinese when you are part of a bilingual/bi-literate/bi-cultural language immersion program? I really doubt they tolerate such nonsense in the French schools.
But I had an exchange with a parent (who doesn't know Chinese) who made the assertion that the kids ought to have a sense of ownership over their "creations" and to let them do it "their way." Implication: don't interfere. Adults shouldn't interfere.
This begs two questions: Either this parent thinks that these kids have better skills than are actually in play, or this parent was simply arguing for this principle to be embraced wholesale, without nuance nor gradation for context. I don't know.
The teacher and I, however, are on a different page. In our minds, if something is said improperly, then the kid should be taught to say things in a more proper and appropriate manner. And, on top of that, the kid should listen. Yes, even "obey" is an appropriate word, here. The kid should say, "Okay, I understand," and then correct themselves. But since these kids are in a Mandarin-poor environment, with very little access to people who speak naturally and properly, then they apply this "American" sense of ownership over their "creativity," some doing so to the utter frustration of the teachers. This is not okay. Your kid cannot teach your teacher what proper grammar and even higher levels of expression look like in a language that your kids simply barely know.
And since your kid's Mandarin level is so far behind his/her English level, then their sense of "ownership" and creativity will, in fact, be frustrated by comparison. Your kid will enjoy what they create in English far more because they have such a higher command of the English language. Herein lies the problem - one of the biggest problems of all. How do you keep your child's brain engaged when as each year goes by, then they become increasingly aware of the frustration they face in creating something in a language they are barely hanging onto? This is why you have to do more when they are less conscious of what "more" looks like.
Parents, get a grip. Your child does not know proper Mandarin. We assume that this is why you want them to be learning the language in the first place - that they are there to learn what "good" or even what "great" looks like. Since you don't know Mandarin and your kids don't know Mandarin, then tell them that they need to defer to their teachers.
This is also why I had wanted my child to return to writing book reports/summaries, rather than doing too much free-form creative writing because she found the book reports boring. Bored? So what. Get back to those book reports because the books are chock full of very proper and higher-level Mandarin that is setting an example that you need to follow. I'm not here to listen to my 8-year-old dictate what eloquence looks like just so she can do what she "feels like" doing. I could already see her level take a big dip when she went to create something from a blank page. (This is why so many of us going to Chinese school back in the day had to copy, copy, copy, endlessly copy passages. We didn't get to write creatively. And while that may have been a mistake, in not balancing this activity with creative writing, but there was also a point for us to learn more proper language from the written word.)
Making this a battle between American and Chinese cultures? Red herring. What an idiotic thing to do. This is about learning what good language looks like. If you don't know, then you are not in any position to dictate that to your teacher. This is where the immersion model fails a lot of teachers (and thereafter failing the students and parents). Since the teachers cannot teach "in translation" then they are left explaining really quite profound linguistic differences to young brains that simply don't get it. This isn't a cultural thing. It is simply a material difference. It's also a crazy thing to have to manage in an instructional setting.
But sure, I get why so many English-only parents blame this on a cultural difference, instead of attaining some humility in the face of their ignorance. Inane waste of time. Moreover, doing so does not get you any closer to the 3B's.
I have to wonder if taking kids down a path of doing creative writing too early is really a good idea, or not. Certainly, if your kid is in a resource-poor environment, where there are not enough teachers and time to go around in order to teach what proper language looks like, then it would be a miserably failed endeavor, for sure. Copying looks like a really great substitute, in that case. But the kids still need to have some degree of a creative experience, in order to become increasingly engaged. But what do teachers do when some kids turn into tyrants? And then what do parents like me do when the teacher would get consumed by these little tyrants and they no longer have enough time and attention for my child?
It may be true, that Chinese teachers are used to more authoritarian classroom cultures. But it is also very true that the American mindset is too arrogant, hubristic and know-it-all-despite-being-ignorant. The adjustment needs to go in two ways, to start. Parents in MI programs in America are long overdue for being held accountable on this front.
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