As an effective way to alleviate the problem of lack of rural educational resources, rural teaching can also enable college students majoring in education to have a deeper understanding of the significance of education. Even if you don't plan to teach in a rural school for a long time, this volunteer teaching experience can be very beneficial for personal growth.
In the application requirements of many prestigious international universities, students are explicitly required to have volunteer experience. In general, large-scale volunteer activities may affect students' academic plans, so in order to meet the needs of prospective international students, some educational institutions have launched the "Tourism Volunteer Education" project, which is advertised as volunteer activities, but in fact there is no essential difference from research trips.
When "volunteering" evolves into a commercial behavior, living in a homestay, dining in a restaurant, and getting an international volunteer certificate within 5 days? Xiao Liu, a third-year student at Sichuan University, came to Guangnan Village in Guilin to teach through a local teaching group activity. The original trip lasted for 5 days, but due to the long distance, the round trip took up almost one day each, and the actual teaching time did not exceed 20 hours. As soon as I got acquainted with the students, it was time to say goodbye.
Before leaving, the local students were reluctant to give up on Xiao Liu, and Xiao Liu thought that this volunteer teaching experience was very meaningful. Not only did he receive 35 hours of volunteer service, but he also received an international volunteer certificate from the agency. This 5-day and 4-night trip was almost all about eating and staying at the homestay, and the meals were made by local restaurant chefs.
Long Jingjing, a master of Columbia University, has won the title of "The Most Beautiful Volunteer Teaching" for ten years of continuous teaching activities, and has become a model for many college students. However, recently, it was said that she only visited the rural school during the winter and summer vacations every year to take simple check-in photos, but did not really teach local students, which eventually led to the damage to her image.
Generally speaking, volunteer teaching activities should be of a public welfare nature, but the volunteer teaching group in which Xiao Liu participates needs to pay fees. Due to the relatively high threshold of the formal three-support and one-support project, not all students are eligible to participate, so this kind of volunteer teaching activities organized by non-governmental educational institutions has a short time limit, is free from suffering, and is more cost-effective.
For students who are interested in accumulating volunteer teaching experience, regardless of age and educational background, they only need to pay a certain registration fee to join. In the actual activity, there is no need to seriously teach the students, just play with the students for a few days there. This has evolved into a kind of check-in trip in the name of volunteer teaching, but the organizers have packaged it as a two-way interactive public welfare trip, without realizing that this has turned the public welfare project into a commercial behavior, which has completely changed the essence of the volunteer teaching project.
The beneficiaries of the commercialization of volunteer teaching are not rural students, but urban students. Rural schools were already short of teachers, and a front-line teacher might need to be responsible for teaching multiple grades and subjects. They had longed for a volunteer teacher to come and ease their burden, but now the travel has put them in an even more troubled situation.
The original teaching plan was completely disrupted after the arrival of the teaching team, and they did not prepare for the lesson seriously, either sticking to the textbook or just talking about it. Although they claim to be to broaden the students' horizons, in fact they make the rural students feel confused.
The frequent comings and goings of the teaching group made the students' emotions fluctuate repeatedly, and later it seemed to evolve into a drama. It is no longer a sincere welcome to the volunteer teachers, let alone reluctant to let them leave, this has evolved into a cliché in their mouths, and each volunteer teacher has become an "old drama bone", caught in the self-touching of traveling teaching and difficult to extricate themselves.
Although this kind of commercial volunteer teaching can promote the development of local tourism, it is not significantly helpful to education. On the contrary, the biggest beneficiaries are the volunteer students from the towns. After all, the experience and length of time you have as a volunteer can add a lot to your CV and help them broaden their horizons and make them more competitive in their future studies or employment.
Originally, the intention was to reduce the disparity in education standards, but instead of narrowing this gap, traveling to teach has deepened inequality in various places. Education in towns has improved further, while education in rural areas has become more scarce and chaotic.
We must not let the essence of public welfare education change, and protect the rights and interests of rural students in education. Formal official volunteer teaching activities usually ensure that volunteer teachers enjoy the same treatment as local teachers, including food and accommodation in school dormitories and canteens. In some areas, even the conditions for bathing are not available, and the volunteer teachers should try their best to improve the education level of the local school and improve the educational environment, which is the real meaning of the volunteer teaching activities.
While rectifying the activities of the support groups that operate in violation of regulations, the relevant departments should also examine the loopholes in their work. It is not that some students are reluctant to teach, but because they lack more ways to participate in public welfare education activities, which provides opportunities for some institutions to take advantage of. If the government can organize more standardized volunteer teaching activities, it may be able to avoid treating volunteer teaching as a business.
Volunteers who participate in volunteer teaching should go through systematic training before they can take up their posts, and the actual teaching time should not be less than one month, and the time on the road to and from the country should not be counted. Only through such requirements can the volunteer teaching activities truly play their due significance, and the volunteer certificate can have real gold content. Otherwise, if you have an international volunteer certificate, it will lose its original meaning and will further increase the cost of education.
Today's topic: How do you think about the phenomenon of "traveling teaching"?