The Student On Duty

In every middle school and high school classroom in China, there is a Student On Duty. His or her responsibilities include erasing the blackboard for the teacher, sweeping the floors at the end of the day, aligning the desks between classes, opening or closing the curtains and windows, and other duties assigned by the Chinese teacher.

Foreign teachers don’t always know that you have a helpful assistant in your midst. I discovered their existence one day when I was presenting a class under the observation of Chinese English teachers. Before class, I filled the blank board with words and phrases for the students to use to build sentences. After the fifteen-minute session, I turned my back to the audience and began to erase the board.

“Mrs. Black, Wang Jie Yu can do that. It is her duty,” one of the seated teachers said.

A young girl came to the front of the class and removed all the script from the blackboard. This gave me the opportunity to scribble the second session’s tasks for everyone to review. I thanked the young student as she took her seat and noted that I would call on my student on duty in every class to help me out.

Learning takes place when one is able to enact social norms after having learnt them. A ‘transformation’ effected in a practical action must take place. ~ Confucius

Student on Duty supports the teacher

Students on Duty will clean up after New Year celebration