Teaching students who are older than me has taught me one thing: no matter what their level of English, bring activities and discussions that are age appropriate (i.e. singing "Twinkle, twinkle little star" will only make your 30-year-old students resent you).

So what did I do in class recently? I ignored my own advice and brought crayons, markers and blank paper so my students could draw.

Using an idea I stole from a colleague, who stole it from someone else, I had my students draw their idea of education. I didn't give them any other ideas. When they were finished, I told them they would have to explain their drawing to the class.

Here are some notes I took from that class:

* A girl who often talks in phrases lifted from communist party propaganda (to the amusement of her peers) presented us a picture of a duck swimming and told us about when she learned to swim.

"I tried to learn to swim by reading a book," she began. "Then I tried to learn to swim by watching a duck."

She continued with the saga, explaining how she finally just jumped in the water, even though she was scared.

Her conclusion to the presentation, lifted directly from a famous Mao Zedong quote: "We must learn to swim by swimming."

(I later told her that I've read Mao's Little Red Book too).

* A student who gave himself an unforgettable name, Forrest Gump, and who, based on his gregarious and outgoing personality, would make a great salesman, drew a picture with five restaurants on it and one black building on the right side of the paper.

"In China, you can get many typed of food. Sichuan food, Hangzhou food, Xinjiang food, Starbucks and McDonalds," he said, adding the last two as if they are a normal contribution to the new Chinese diet.

Then he pointed to the black building on the right, sitting alone, surrounded by the empty-whiteness of the page.

"But, you can only get one type of education."

* Samuel, in my Thursday postgraduate class, drew a double-sided picture. On one side was a picture of a plane taking off and a stick figure running after it.

He explained that the plane is the university and its teachers, and they are all rushing forward while the students are on the ground running as fast as they can to catch up.

On the other side of the drawing is a picture of a man on a path with a fork in it.

"This is what I wish education could be like," he said, a relaxed walk where students could choose their path and go at their own speed.