Chinese Teacher Sits on a Pile of Kindergarten Children

From People.com.cn:

Changsha Teacher strikes a pose atop pile of kindergarten children

This photograph appeared in the parent/guardians’ QQ contact group for the No.1 kindergarten attached to Changsha Normal University: a female teacher on the very top of three rows of children with mats separating them, striking a dance pose and doing the splits with a smile on her face.

A parent exposed this matter through the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald’s official Weixin account, saying “Teacher, you are really happy, but have you seen from their expressions how they are bearing it? How can we parents endure this? Our hearts all sank [on seeing the picture]!” The kindergarten explained that this was merely a training/exercise activity.

Parent

“Hamburger” game has left me stunned

4 year old “little Fei” (pseudonym) is a student at the No.1 kindergarten attached to Changsha Normal University. Little Fei’s mother Wang Hui (pseudonym) said that at noon on the 27^th she received a phone call from another parent telling her hurry and look at a photograph which had been uploaded to the parent/guardians’ QQ contact group.

“At the start I didn’t notice anything, but the final photograph left me stunned.” Wang Hui said the photograph was taken by the teacher on the morning of the 27^th during PE class. The first few photographs didn’t show anything out of the ordinary, but the final picture unexpectedly showed a female teacher sitting atop the bodies of the children piled into three layers.

Wang Hui said the female teacher in the photograph is this class’s daily teacher, the children underneath her all have their heads lowered with expressions of pain, “The teacher is so heavy, how can those children underneath her stand it.”

“The most unlucky are the children on the bottom layer, and what if an accident really happened?” Wang Hui really cannot comprehend it, she can’t get how a teacher could have that kind of idea. She thinks, according to the standards of public kindergartens, children should be given more love and affection, rather than being looked upon as [objects for] amusement, with scant regard for the children’s safety.

Wang Hui said, most of the children in the middle class are only four or five years old, and that a dangerous activity like makes them very worried.

Kindergarten

This is a training exercise/activity, it is within the bounds of safety

On the afternoon of the 27^th of November, a reporter from the Xiaoxiang Morning Herald arrived at the No.1 kindergarten attached to Changsha Normal University.

With regards to the concerns of parents and guardians, the person in charge of the kindergarten, surnamed Xue, said that this training exercise/activity called “the hamburger” that the middle class were playing wis “taken from national health education training materials, and is very common in Shanghai as well as other places.”

The person in charge surnamed Xue stated that this activity was made to be interesting for the class and that through this they could warm-up. Exploring the different ways mats could be played with, and using them to stack into “the hamburger” game, together they tried their best to make it more challenging. At the same time the teacher joined in, “primarily to exercise the children’s determination, resilience and spirit of working as a team [team-building]”.

“This activity is done in accordance with the principles of mechanics, and is controlled within the bounds of safety.” Teacher Cao, the one responsible for Physical Education at the kindergarten said the students in the school are very positive and happy, “during the activity, matters of safety are important, for example the children’s head should be sticking out etc.” After he finished speaking, he showed the reporter other photographs from the activity.

The person in charge surnamed Xue said that this female teacher is a dance teacher. At the time, she was completing the final arrangement in “the hamburger” activity. She expressed that this course was the main topic for this week, and would be taught in the other classes as well.

“Safety measures were taken throughout the whole process of this activity.” Xue said perhaps the parents and guardians do not understand and they will hold a parents meeting to explain everything.

Expert

Relatively dangerous, must have safety staff supervision

Mao Mo, a teacher at Xiangtan University Faculty of Materials, Optoelectronics and Physics, says from the point of view of mechanics, the children are not under a large amount of pressure. According to reason, having mats is better than not having them as the mats can spread the pressure, so the pressure being borne by the children is relatively equal. However children’s bodies are fragile and there is a limit to how much they can bear and so he suggests avoiding this kind of risky activity.

“It’s very easy for the children on the bottom level to become short of breath, with the consequences unimaginable.” Ma Mo said that with this kind of rough-and-tumble stacking game it would be easy for an accident to happen to those in the middle or lower layers, and furthermore it would be difficult to discover. There needs to be a specialist member of staff present in charge of safety, and furthermore safety prevention measures must be put in place in advance.

[Voices from Weixin]

@宁乡宁： Others I don’t know about, but if it was my child, I would not want him to be under there being squashed.

@Frankeenstein： The children are still small, their bones haven’t yet finished developing, so what happens if a problem/injury happens from being squashed?! Talk about not caring when it isn’t your own child.

@悲喜剧： What spirit of teamwork? Has the team been compressed into a “sandwich”?

@豹纹-小女人： This is so terrible! Teacher, why don’t you let the children pile on you?

@Bessie: Teacher I’d like to ask you please, has your child also been through this kind of exercise in this kindergarten?

@三丫谁也不信： I really want to know which person came up with this activity, and how is this considered exercise? It looks more like children using their fragile bodies to create a gymnastics platform for the teacher.

@灌水也是生产力： I think, if I was one of this country’s children I would lose my appetite all because of this “hamburger”.

@山颠玫瑰： There are many methods of education, change to one that most people can accept and at all times places the children’s safety first.

@小琼： Just because the teacher is very happy doesn’t necessarily mean the children aren’t happy. This is just an exercise, a game, and if the kids don’t want to take part, would the teacher force them to? Since it was the teacher who shared the photograph, this goes to show that from the outset the intention was absolutely good, was absolutely for the children. Don’t always assume every time that the teacher is mistreating their students.

@跟着逸伦走： It’s just a game you play when small. After class lots of small kids go to places with soft mats to roll around. I don’t understand what there is to criticize/attack.

@秋香： It seems the kids are all pretty happy to me, it’s no big deal, and there are even some striking poses.

—— Taken from Xiaoxiang Morning Herald official Tencent Weibo

Reporter- Zhang Shubo, Changsha

Comments from NetEase:

网易广西桂林市网友 ip：182.91.*.*:

It seems to me the kids’ expressions are even happier than that of the teacher’s.

网易陕西省西安市网友 ip：113.200.*.*:

I want to be on top of the teacher.

网易广东省东莞市网友 ip：119.147.*.*:

Although it looks like the kids are all smiling happily, it’s very easy for accidents to happen in this kind of activity.

网易河北省衡水市网友 ip：211.143.*.*:

Why are there always this kind of SB teachers pretending to be cool?

今晚你湿了几次 [网易甘肃省天水市网友]：

Why not throw the teacher under, and let the children pile on top of her?

What do you think? Harmless fun or would you be worried as a parent?