Rekindling Students’ Purposes Within
Students’ experiences shape how they imagine their future. If their learning is confined by the borders of their schools, the narrow-minded people they meet, and the repetitive curriculum they learn, they can’t realize their full potential.
Mavis Yeung (Fellow 16-17) bringing her students to rebuild houses for farmers affected by floods
When I was about to graduate from my university, news about student suicides dominated the scene. People were questioning “Why is Hong Kong education so depressing?” and “Why is our next generation so fragile?”
These events touched my heart. They prompted me to start reflecting about my responsibility and the roles I could play in Hong Kong society.
I wished to understand the obstacles students face through the lens of a teacher. More importantly, I hoped to help students to realize their potential and understand their connection to other individuals, communities, and the world, thereby looking forward to their own lives.
It was the pursuit of realizing people's potential that drove me to join Teach For Hong Kong (TFHK)’s second cohort of Fellows.
A School Life without Purpose
I worked in Buddhist Hung Sean Chau Memorial College during my Fellowship. Through organizing different Life and Career Education activities, I met students from underprivileged and single-parent families, and whose parents were chronically absent.
These students rarely engaged in their communities, and they didn’t feel excited about their schools or community activities. The biggest reasons were that they:
Did not have a particular interest or do not want to participate in activities
Could not afford expensive transportation and participation fee
Their parents are too busy to participate in activities with them
Believed that activities are meant for academically high-achieving students
Believed that all activities are repetitive
Each day, students were waiting for schools to end, and it was difficult to find the purpose of learning. The students could only countdown to its end.
Mavis' classroom full of enthusiastic students
Let Students Rediscover Their Purposes
In just a year, Ernest (my partner Fellow in the same school) and I took advantage of TFHK’s resources to organize hotel and company visits based on students’ interests and skills. We also took students to engage with employees from multinational corporations in English, volunteer for Mainland farmers affected by floods, and participate in social innovation competitions. These engagements ultimately broadened their imagination to their own lives.
The most memorable activity was the monthly cultural exchange with foreign employees in a multinational corporation in Central.
Since the employees could only converse in English, students could only use their limited English supplemented by their body language to express themselves.
To my delight my students made an effort to organize and express their thoughts, which made me realize that they actually have a lot of ideas and dreams. Once, the students were asked about their “dreams,” and they answered that they would like to be writers, singers, doctors, etc, and explained their reasons behind. However, the students became discouraged immediately, saying that it was so difficult, they didn’t have excellent grades or their parents definitely would not support their dreams.
The employees encouraged them, “These are wonderful goals, so just work hard and chase your dreams!” The employees shared their own experience to inspire students to just try and believe in themselves.
During the cultural exchange, they talked about school, work, interest, and even about the world.
Mavis' students and the investment bank employees eventually became one at their final session
Students Need “Different” Experiences
Aside from their conversation, the students also had the chance to visit the entire office and witness how an investment company operated for the first time. They watched the employees working in front of computers, TVs broadcasting financial news on the wall, and online meetings with employees in Tokyo.
When the students left the company, they all discussed their feelings from the visit excitedly.
“I don’t really know how to speak English, but I tried my best”
“Can I come again next time, I will be less afraid next time”
“I want to work here when I grow up”
“The world is so big……”
Mavis and her students taking final pictures after a social innovation competition
Although the students had a lot of English lessons at school, they lacked the opportunity to practice it in real life, and they didn’t realize the purpose of mastering English. Perhaps it was exactly these immersive experiences that they became more motivated to learn English, so to understand the world outside of their comfort zone, to think about how they can achieve their dreams, and even to discover more possibilities in life.
I strongly believed students’ experience shaped how they imagine their future. If their learning experience is confined by the borders of their school and community, meeting narrow-minded people and learning repetitive curriculum, they can’t realize their full potential.
