A Chinese primary school teacher has been praised online for coming up with the idea of creating special “jobs” like book administrator, and windowsill director for her students to compete for.
The jobs include traditional school positions like class monitor, study committee leader and sport committee leader, but there are some more exotic sounding jobs such as light director, towel director, desk director, water dispenser director, corridor director and umbrella director, the Beijing Evening News reported.
There were also positions on the list for a book administrator, desk goods supervisor, flower and grass administrator, windowsill director, front door administrator and back door administrator.
The 53 jobs outnumber the 51 students in the class and will be decided by the pupils themselves who vote for which students they would like to see in each role.
The name of the school and the teacher in Sichuan province, southwestern China, were not mentioned in the report.
The list of jobs was shared online by the mother of one of the students earlier this month after her son’s teacher announced the jobs were open for students to apply for.
The mother, surnamed Chen, said her son’s teacher gets along well with her students who are motivated and enthusiastic about learning.
Chen jokingly said that faced with so many “job” options, her son now has “choice phobia disorder”.
She said he had been a team leader last semester responsible for supervising classmates who memorised and recited class texts.
His initial goal this semester was to apply for a more senior leadership role as he hoped to supervise more students.
“But now his teacher has offered so many jobs to compete for. He has changed his answer each time I’ve asked him which role he’d like to take,” Chen said.
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“The day before yesterday, he said he wanted to be the water dispenser director and yesterday, he said he wanted to be the discipline committee leader.”
However, she said she appreciated the teacher’s efforts in creating the roles for the students.
“Therefore, every child can participate and have a chance of being voted in. The activity can cultivate the kids’ collective consciousness,” said Chen.
The job list has resonated with many on mainland Chinese social media, with parents sharing their children’s “little class cadre” experiences.
“My daughter is responsible for cleaning the blackboard. It is a highly-pursued position and my daughter won in the election,” one person wrote on Weibo.
“My kid has been appointed as ‘light ambassador’. I got to know that it’s a position to turn on the classroom light,” another person said.
While some criticised the teacher for catering to a cookie-cutter mindset of pursuing conceited titles, the Workers’ Daily argued that the roles help prepare the students by teaching them about responsibility and diligence.
“Every child has different talents and abilities. If they are appointed to serve in different roles, their talents can be seen by more people.
“It can help build students’ confidence and enhance their desire to make more progress,” the newspaper wrote in an editorial on Monday (Sept 12).
This article was first published in South China Morning Post.
