The Phoniness of Huainan No. 1 High School
Translated from Chinese by Claude. Read the original
I’ve been in high school for two years now. Over these two years I’ve kept growing, figuring some things out, and getting a taste of some things.
Today was another so-called show day, a day of putting on a show that made life hard for us. Putting on a show, that’s no exaggeration. The so-called Open Teaching Day is all fake. On this day we wear school uniforms. On this day no messing around is allowed. On this day we have to be polite. On this day we have to listen carefully in class. On this day classes can’t go over practice problems, only new lessons. On this day you can’t be late, and if you’re late you’re done for. Everything on this day is the opposite of normal. The day goes by both fast and slow. All of it fake, and tomorrow everything goes back to the way it was!
Our vice principal’s face, really, it’s the face of someone who sucks up to his superiors and looks down on those below him. I guess all Chinese officials have that face~ Sleazy & filthy!
Let’s leave our principals a little dignity~ Principals, because our high school has four of them, one principal and three vice principals, and the actual principal is never at school. Most of the time he just has his name on the title~
As for so-and-so, the teachers are good people, good by nature, but after being egged on by the so-called leaders, they start getting into “illegal business,” drilling communist ideology into us. Heh~ what a tragedy~
Let me talk about our vice principal some more. What I remember most is him sucking up to one of our alumni who had retired, a former vice governor of Shanxi Province, when he came back to visit the school. When the old man was about to speak, our vice principal said, “Let us invite XX to deliver an important speech.” Then the old man got up and said, “First let me say this isn’t an important speech, I’m just sharing a few thoughts…” Heh~ Right then I thought the vice principal was disgusting. So used to licking his superiors’ asses, huh? This time nobody wanted him to, and, heh, awkward, right? So fucking disgusting~
Open Teaching Day~ that’s China’s formalism for you, heh~ You know, it’d be great if they charged admission for Open Teaching Day. That would boost revenue and boost motivation at the same time~
Why teach just for the sake of Open Teaching Day? Huainan No. 1 High School is despicable~ All surface work~ All formalism~ Is there hope for Chinese education? No~ I hope I’m right about that~
A bunch of principals plus a pile of teachers, what’s that? A pile of dung heaped up over there? I’ll stay away from them~ so they don’t pollute my mind~
Wen Song, the head of our junior-year group, heh~ acts like he’s such a big deal every day~ high and mighty, never letting go of anything we do wrong~ What a tragedy~ Wen Song, oh Wen Song, Huainan No. 1 High School’s “teacher” Wen Song, how can you be like this as a human being? You’re a tragedy of the human race~ A moment of silence for you~
All hollow and fake. No. 1 High can’t compare to No. 2 High~ But then schools can’t really be compared, because schools aren’t the same kind of entity to begin with~
We live in an environment where a hundred schools of thought contend. No. 1 High says our mindset is to get into a second-tier university, No. 2 High says our mindset is to get into a first-tier university, No. 3 High says our mindset is to get into a third-tier university, and No. 24 High says we’re just here to have fun~ pass through and say we went to high school~ Heh~ just joking~ don’t take it to heart~
The hypocrisy, phoniness and hollowness of Huainan No. 1 High School can’t be described in words. You have to experience it all yourself. All of it disgusts me, so I’ll stop writing~
Finally
Today I’m ashamed of Huainan No. 1 High School; tomorrow Huainan No. 1 High School will be proud of me!
That’s my guiding principle!