News of some students dozing off during a class lecture recently prompted some to say that the traditional system that pulls in the willing and unwilling into the academic field is to be blamed for that. But there is another perspective to this embarrassing show that I discovered when I started teaching in China 10 years ago.

Walking past several classrooms on a college campus in Hunan province I was struck by the litter, students' lack of attention and the number of "dozers" in classrooms. I started observing how teachers encountered such situations and discovered that they were simply plowing ahead with their lectures, head buried in their notes or backs turned to the class, never once attempting to engage the students in any type of interaction.

After almost three years, I moved to a university in Jilin province and found similar classroom profiles. In the front rows of the classes were students who were involved in the teacher-student experience. At the back, however, were the less involved: novel readers, cell phone addicts and various informal chit-chat groups who cared less about the goings on in class. Worried, I brought the issue to the notice of a few colleagues, who set me straight: "Some of the students are from influential families, nothing can be done"; "You are in China, if students give a teacher a negative evaluation this could cost him/her the job"; and "Of course, you can make demands on your students, you are a foreigner ... they will listen to you."