Written by Taoan, 2022 Cohort
I want to share a fable from my country.
Bianque was a famous physician in ancient China, both him and his two brothers specialized in medicine. One day a king asked him which one of them is the best physician. Bianque answered that his eldest brother is the best, and his second brother is the next, he is the last. The King was confused why Bianque is not the best but the most famous. Bianque replied that his eldest brother treats the disease when it is just beginning to show symptoms, but people could not see the truth. His second brother cures the disease in the early stage, so people think he can only treat insignificant illnesses. As for himself, people saw him use acupuncture, apply ointments on the skin, so he became the most famous.
The reason I share this story is that we got an announcement that we need to start in-person learning on January 24th, which is a few days later (this journal entry is written on January 22nd). I totally understand it is abnormal that we had online courses for such a long time and it could not be forever. However, I do not think it is a wise decision. There are still a lot of people who get sick every day, and it seems that testing is not restricted now. Maybe some have to be face-to-face, but it has been a year of online learning, and we have enough experience of online teaching operations. As a foreigner, I have no intention to criticize Canada’s epidemic prevention policies and the government, but I think our school should have autonomy. I wish our school could let us (both students and teachers) choose if we want to have in-person courses individually. The reason I talk about this is that now we still have classmates who are not in Vancouver and they have to take the class remotely, and our class has to be a combination of online and in-person. I know people who do not live in Vancouver have no choice but to take remote courses, but I do not understand why people in Vancouver could not have the option even if the courses have students who are joining remotely.
In conclusion, I hope our school can consider individual’s opinions. I have heard some SFU students are signing for continued remote classes this semester, and I also heard UBC delayed the in-person classes to February 7th. I know I can not give any useful solution, and I have to follow the rules because I am a student, but I still wish our school can take care of our concerns about the in-person courses, before it is too late.