More Assemblies

Friday morning we had two assemblies, neither of which ended on time. During the first one, I heard the principal yelling at the students, and--although I often don't bother to listen to the details of the assemblies because even when I do, I don't usually know what's actually going on--I tried to make sense of what she was saying. Apparently some parents had called teachers in the middle of the night and the school was making it known that this was unacceptable and disrespectful to the teachers. I understand their annoyance.

But I don't understand yelling at students for their parent's behavior. I think it highlights an unfortunate aspect of rural Chinese society at this point in time: schools parent children more than many parents do. But, of course, it's a rather impersonal parenting, accompanied by a lot of yelling and very little love. It also points to the way China has modernized so fast that expectations of behavior haven't kept pace. Every family has at least one cell phone, but it's a fairly recent phenomenon, and so it takes teachers getting mad at being woken up in the middle of the night to make many people realize that they shouldn't call anyone anytime.

I soon stopped listening because I had to go to class and write on the board to be ready for when the students got out of their assembly (ten minutes late, as it happened).

Then, right after class ended, the bell was rung to signal another assembly, this one more lighthearted. People from the government had come to give out rewards to some students. I don't know what the criteria for selection was, but it was different students from the last couple of times.

Each student got a plastic bag with school supplies. I don't know what happened to the other things. 

What's in there? Do you have something I don't have?

Waiting in line to sign their names.