Did You Ever Fall Asleep in School?

So today I was going to post an interview with Bablingua co-founder Álvaro Mediavilla, a teacher from Madrid. Álvaro has taught in Spain, the U.K., and the U.S., and has recently started a company that creates authentic Spanish-language videos for language students.

(Álvaro also wrote up a School Snapshot about one of the schools he teaches at in Madrid – you can read it here.)

I was going to post my interview with Álvaro but I encountered a wordpress issue that will take me a little more time to solve. So I’ll post the interview with Álvaro early next week.

Today We Return to Sleeping in School

I’ve been wanting to point you to an article we posted way back in February – Sleeping in School – A Cultural Thing? – due to readers’ comments about this topic.

Here are a few snippets – you can read the post and comments about sleeping in school in their entirety here.

In Argentina it is also be considered something really disrespectful. If a student decides to fall asleep in class it would probably be done on purpose, as a sign of disrespect and a challenge to the teacher, defying their authority… – Pamela

In the US, I think it’s a matter of home discipline, as well. Parents don’t make kids go to sleep at a reasonable time and they don’t feed them properly in the morning…- John

Yes American students sleep in school. ALL THE TIME! It’s not uncommon and it’s not looked at as disrespectful…-Laura

In England (where I go to school) you can’t really get away with sleeping in most lessons…It’s not seen as a sign of disrespect,just a lack of sleep… – Lee

Today our 9th grade literacy class read and analyzed Anamaria’s article and one of the accompanying comments (the one by Laura Kaplan)… -Adolescent Literacy Lab

Take a look – it’s really worth reading the comments in their entirety.

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Tagged as: classroom, culture, culture learning, curiosity, education, Go to Culture School, kids, photos & video, Reflections, Resources & Activities, School Culture, students, teachers, world

{ 3 comments }

Bettina Hansel December 12, 2009 at 9:44 am: I remember the comment of a Japanese exchange students in one of my studies, who noted that she frequently would “nap” in class in Japan, and was surprised that she never saw anyone sleep in class when she was in Germany.
Cate December 13, 2009 at 10:08 pm: Hi Bettina, thanks for your comment!

I never saw any of my German classmates fall asleep the entire year I went to school there. We spent a lot of time drinking coffee at a local cafe…that may have had something to do with it…

You studied abroad in France, right? Did you see students snoozing there?
Kamon January 5, 2010 at 2:59 pm: It is widely believed that it is easier to graduate from most universities in Japan than to gain entrance and in the U.S. it is the opposite – easier to gain entrance than to graduate. I think this may be why Japanese students are more likely to sleep during university lectures than in high school or jr high school classrooms. In a sense, if they have gotten into the university of their choice, they have already ‘made it’. At least this was the feeling among my Japanese classmates when I studied abroad in a Japanese university. When I went back to teach English in K-12 , I never saw anyone sleeping in class.