Please Vote For Me

[Anonymous]

I started watching this documentary a couple of weeks ago! So interesting to see the students' behaviors towards each other, and the teacher's idea of "classroom management." I would die if my students acted that way and treated each other in that manner. You are spot on with your comments about he "little prince" mentality and their style of education in China.

[Anonymous]

Please Vote for Me is a Chinese documentary that shows class monitor elections in a 3rd grade class. I found this documentary very interesting to see how students behaved in their classroom. The interactions between classmates and the candidates were much different than what we see in our classrooms. It was interesting how the teacher allowed the class to taunt one of the candidates as she was playing her flute, and made her cry. Coming from a teacher’s standpoint, I was shocked that the teacher did not do much to stop it. She let the students continue and only scolded them when it was over. As a teacher, I spend a good amount of time teaching students how to positively interact with their peers. It seems as if this is not much of a focus in the Chinese classroom.

I believe this would be an interesting movie to show to my class. My goal would be to give my students a glimpse of what life is like for elementary students in China. With such a strong focus on writing in 4th grade, I would have them write a compare and contrast essay that shows the differences and similarities between our classroom and the classroom in the movie.
edited by lpalmer on 1/14/2013

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

This documentary takes place in Wuhan, China. Third grade children are learning about democracy in the classroom. They are given the opportunity to have an election to chose their classroom monitor, which is usually chosen by the teacher. The three candidates must perform one their talents in front of the class and prepare and give a speech as to why they should be chosen. It is comical to watch the children use dirty politics to outwit one another. They pit classmates against each other, ridicule each other, and even use their social classes to their advantage. I showed this in class a few years ago to show the Communist perspective of democracy. Watching it again since taking this class I can see many different facets to this documentary. The "little prince" mentality of parents, the modernization of China, and even their style of education. Students can easily connect to this film because it simplifies democracy. This would be a good tool for teaching government.

[Author]

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