On 2 May at a school assembly at Yang Gongmiao Elementary School following the May Day holiday weekend, students and faculty were shocked to see their principal get down on his hands and knees and plead for them to put more effort into their work.

As all students and teachers, totaling around 700, sat watching their principal press his forehead into the ground he began to plead with them to “please study well” until his eyes welled up with tears.

An uncomfortable silence hung over the crowd with isolated laughter from a few students. The kowtow is considered an extreme gesture of humility that should be only used to show the utmost respect to superiors and ancestors.

As such this display drew the scorn of teacher and student alike. Criticisms came pouring in with similar complaints of “keeling on the ground like that compromises the dignity of the principal and shows a lack of confidence.”

According to students who go to the school, the principal’s prostration was in response to poor scores in recent tests and the fact that some pupils were displaying a bad attitude.  The vice principal of the school came out in support of the gesture saying “the students have become more serious than before and it was directed at the teachers as well.”

On 21 May the principal made a statement explaining what could have been interpreted as a mental breakdown.

“It wasn’t because of test scores. It was an attempt of new teaching methods. I don’t want these children to go down the same path as ones before them.”

The principal is referring to the fact that about 70 percent of the students enrolled at the nine-year program of Yang Gongmiao are known as “absence children.” These children have both parents working in far off locations and as a result can easily fall into patterns of delinquency.

In that context, the principal’s behavior is perhaps understandable, but one has to wonder what kind of effect an authority figure going into hysterics has on young children. We’ll just have to wait and see how this crop of impressionable minds turns out.

Source: Searchina (Japanese)
Title Image: Wikipedia