I hate to come across as a miserable grouch, but complaining anonymously on line is indeed an effective way of reducing stress, especially when neither reality nor myself can be changed. That is, you can't reconcile the old habits and the changing world.  If my last blog marks a beginning, then this one might be labelled as  No.2 complaint.

    My life is complicated because I have to please a lot of people. I've already had family members to please and my efforts are always rewarding. The people-to-please list grows when it comes to my occupation as a teacher. I have to please the dean, the head of our teaching office and those in administrative offices. Nevertheless, I am still able to cope. But my students pose a big challenge to me, as I seem never to have learned how to deal with them, or, to put it more bluntly, to please them. I remember the old days when we respected teachers and worshiped knowledge they possessed. It simply never occurred to us to question teachers' motives. We visited them with questions and left with answers contentedly. We were told that teachers are like books in a library: you read books, not the other way round(只有你读书， 书是不会读你的）. So we regarded our teachers' knowledge as one valuable resource and made good and active use of it.Those days are forever gone. Todays' students have a good theory: they pay for their schoolings; therefore, it's just natural that education is commercialized and teachers are consumed like hamburgers in KFCs. If they find them not tasty enough, they have every reason to ask for a change or even throw them into a rubbish can. In the middle of each semester, students give teachers ratings. And that's where my problem lies. Students want to have fun in English class, they expect teachers to tell jokes every minute, whether those jokes are English-related or not. As they see it, entertainment always precedes everything and knowledge is no more important. However, not everyone has the makings of Zhou Sisi, a teacher in New Oriental English School; moreover, knowlege and fun doesn't always go hand in hand. Well, since I am unfortunately such a product, I have to be consumed the way that satisfies my customers. After all, "Customers are God", which also applies to campus. I tried my best to make English more "interesting" than it should be, though usually to no effect. To my disappointment, that's not all. If I am strict with my students and call the roll in each class or dictate new words of every unit, some students are unhappy. If I turn a blind eye to students cutting class or not give  dictations, other students are unhappy and think of me as irresponsible. Either way I get low ratings. Since it's hard to strike a balance and please all, I decide not to bother with ratings. However, the dean  insists that ratings be a major criterion in determing salaries and other incentives. I am really at a loss as to what to do.

   Sometimes I just indulge myself in imagining wildly. What if I timetravelled back to my college days? Would I act up in each class and become my teachers' worst nightmare? I laugh at those silly thoughts.