24 May 2009
I started teaching a 5-week hospitality management subject since last Saturday. The class is 8 hours long, with a total of 1 hour break in between. I proposed to my Manager that it should start at 9 am, but was advised that the students would not able to make it to class by that time.
It seemed my Manager was right - only 3 out of 5 students arrived at 10 am on week one and 2 students Sue and Betty (names have been changed for privacy reason) decided not to come at all.
All the students rely on train to get to school. Sue and Betty live in the west suburbs about 25 km and 30 km respectively, the furthest compared with the others. Despite several phone calls to them last week before and after the commencement of class, they chose to stay at home.
To my surprise, Sue and Betty turned up this week around noon, when the class was in recess. After the class resumed, I wanted an explanation from them. As expected, their excuses were they lived far away and the class started too early.
I told them that those were very poor excuses and I had a better “story” for them. When I first came to Australia, I had to take two trams to school. During those torturous cold, dark winter mornings, I was at the tram stop by 6.15 am waiting for the first tram to Melbourne City to arrive. Arriving in the City, I had to change to another tram to my high school. Around 7.30 am, I and two other very studious female students would be waiting at the school gate for the school caretaker to open it. We then dashed up to the library and waited outside for another quarter to half an hour for the librarians to arrive. We were there early to reserve some overnight loan physics reference books.
And then, there was a public transport strike one morning. I did not have the money to take a taxi, but instead I spent 3 hours walking to school. I did not get my reference book that day, because I arrived 1 hour after commencement of the first class!
My stories illustrated that there are people like me, could make it to school much earlier using public transport, and still made it without any transport! That 5-minute deliberation was unlikely to have long last impact on their thinking. They may be, for some reasons, reluctant to go to school. Furthermore, they could not see the benefit for coming early due to past experience.
To this end, I presented two other examples to show them the importance of punctuality:
Example 1
Soon they will be working in the hospitality industry. What can happen if breakfast is served at 7 am and they turn up to work at 9 am? Will the employer and guests be so accommodating to allow this to happen?
Example 2
They invite some friends to come home for dinner at 7 pm and two friends turn up late at 9 pm. The rest of the friends get very hungry, and foods get cold or overcooked. How will they feel as hostesses?
Finally, I quoted what my mother used to say to her children, “you may not fully realise my intention of what I am doing to you now, until you become a parent yourself”.
No others teachers would have the patience or dare to challenge the students this way - probably they do not have similar personal experience or any plausible arguments to overcome such “objections”; they may be indifferent towards the life wellbeing of the students, thinking that they are just someone else’s children; they may think that the students are already mature enough to understand life.
All I am asking for is that my students turn up at 9 am, so that they can get the maximum benefit from my teaching – for the subject as well as about life experience.
I hope to Sue, Betty, and the rest of the students come to class on time next week! I also hope that they will convey my simple stories to other people to make this a better world!
It seemed my Manager was right - only 3 out of 5 students arrived at 10 am on week one and 2 students Sue and Betty (names have been changed for privacy reason) decided not to come at all.
All the students rely on train to get to school. Sue and Betty live in the west suburbs about 25 km and 30 km respectively, the furthest compared with the others. Despite several phone calls to them last week before and after the commencement of class, they chose to stay at home.
To my surprise, Sue and Betty turned up this week around noon, when the class was in recess. After the class resumed, I wanted an explanation from them. As expected, their excuses were they lived far away and the class started too early.
I told them that those were very poor excuses and I had a better “story” for them. When I first came to Australia, I had to take two trams to school. During those torturous cold, dark winter mornings, I was at the tram stop by 6.15 am waiting for the first tram to Melbourne City to arrive. Arriving in the City, I had to change to another tram to my high school. Around 7.30 am, I and two other very studious female students would be waiting at the school gate for the school caretaker to open it. We then dashed up to the library and waited outside for another quarter to half an hour for the librarians to arrive. We were there early to reserve some overnight loan physics reference books.
And then, there was a public transport strike one morning. I did not have the money to take a taxi, but instead I spent 3 hours walking to school. I did not get my reference book that day, because I arrived 1 hour after commencement of the first class!
My stories illustrated that there are people like me, could make it to school much earlier using public transport, and still made it without any transport! That 5-minute deliberation was unlikely to have long last impact on their thinking. They may be, for some reasons, reluctant to go to school. Furthermore, they could not see the benefit for coming early due to past experience.
To this end, I presented two other examples to show them the importance of punctuality:
Example 1
Soon they will be working in the hospitality industry. What can happen if breakfast is served at 7 am and they turn up to work at 9 am? Will the employer and guests be so accommodating to allow this to happen?
Example 2
They invite some friends to come home for dinner at 7 pm and two friends turn up late at 9 pm. The rest of the friends get very hungry, and foods get cold or overcooked. How will they feel as hostesses?
Finally, I quoted what my mother used to say to her children, “you may not fully realise my intention of what I am doing to you now, until you become a parent yourself”.
No others teachers would have the patience or dare to challenge the students this way - probably they do not have similar personal experience or any plausible arguments to overcome such “objections”; they may be indifferent towards the life wellbeing of the students, thinking that they are just someone else’s children; they may think that the students are already mature enough to understand life.
All I am asking for is that my students turn up at 9 am, so that they can get the maximum benefit from my teaching – for the subject as well as about life experience.
I hope to Sue, Betty, and the rest of the students come to class on time next week! I also hope that they will convey my simple stories to other people to make this a better world!