Yet another random stranger has gotten me rolling my eyes so I’m just gonna be upfront and say this: It kinda irks me when people grumble about our state of affairs.
I’m no saint. I have definitely whinged about our politics, and goodness knows I’ve done more than my fair share of bitching. But I also hold my tongue on plenty of matters because I know I don’t know anything and I can’t won’t do a damn thing about it.
There’s nothing wrong with voicing our concerns and expressing dissatisfaction. There’s nothing wrong with having high expectations. After all, we can’t ever hope to achieve anything if we don’t even dare to dream. Yet I have found that too many men in the street are not being objective enough and are quick to slam the government about everything. Look, we all know they’re not perfect. Heck, they really oughtta start earning back brownie points with us, but seriously, if we ourselves can’t come up with a solution, shouldn’t we be more constructive?
Perhaps these complainers have a model government in mind? To which, I’ll ask: Who exactly are you looking at? Europe? The Americas? Africa? Admittedly, the nordic countries seem to be hitting home runs in many aspects, but $10 says they have something to complain about too.
I’m not saying we should all stop grumbling. We need to constantly raise questions to keep our government in check. I’m just hoping that more of us will adopt a more even-handed approach to complaining because I can’t even begin to imagine the indecent amount of pressure they have making decisions on behalf of an entire nation. Which is probably why they make indecent amounts too, eh? ;)
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Song of the Day
Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow), by Bon Iver (John Prine cover)
Another weekend coming to a close, another rant about work.
I should be grading papers. Instead, here I am, blogging. Such is the reluctance I have to spend my Sunday doing something that has become vexing.
Grading papers has become such a chore. I keep seeing all these errors made by my students and I wonder if a) they have been pretending to understand my lessons, or b) I have been that incoherent. Surely, after five years, I would have gotten out of the “inexperienced teacher” ditch? I have tried almost everything within my means. Peer teaching, group work, churning out plenty of study notes… Why do I still feel so inept?
Plenty of people tell me I’m a good teacher, that I’ve been doing a great job with my kids. I’m humbled. Because honestly? I’m not so sure if I agree. Perhaps I am good at connecting with them. I do usually manage to build a pretty strong rapport with the kids. And it does appear I can easily get their support to participate in school events. But what else quantifies me as a good teacher? Have their attitudes changed for the better? Have their results improved? Sadly, I’ve never been able to tell.
I think it is the lack of visible results that has gotten me so disheartened that I’m all ready to call it a day. It’s highly frustrating to do something year after year with nothing to show. I don’t need to produce straight-A students – I’ve actually never quite believed in that. All I’ve ever wanted to achieve is to instill a sense of self-belief and self-motivation, so that these young ones can learn that they can find success as long as they are willing to work hard enough to maximise their potentials.
Am I being too idealistic?
Perhaps I’ll only see the results 10 years down the road, when I bump into ex-students and see how they’ve done good for themselves.
What if I never bump into any of them though? Can you see how frustrating this has become for me?
What I need most right now is faith. Faith that the seeds have been planted, and that work has been done. Whether or not I’ll ever see these fruits should be the least of my concerns.
One of my students told me yesterday that it was “weird” for me, a teacher, to have a Twitter account. Apparently, teachers are not supposed to even know what Twitter is. They are supposed to embrace everything that old fogies represent: conservative, bookish, and hating/not understanding everything that teenagers do.
I didn’t know if I should feel insulted or laugh at their ignorance.
Firstly, teachers aren’t relics y’know? We’re normal human beings who also work, eat, play and surf the Internet. And yes, we certainly know how to have fun. I don’t know when and how this skewed image of teachers came about, but the fact that students see teachers in this very foggy light is ludicrous, to say the least.
Then, there’s that matter of teens today not quite realising that people from my generation popularised the Internet. We were blogging before the term was even coined. We established the need for social media. And because we had to learn how to use it to our advantage, I feel we are a lot more adept. I’m not saying that all digital immigrants like myself are Internet-savvy, but we are certainly in the know. So, really, these so-called digital natives who were born into the Internet-age shouldn’t be thinking that this cyber domain belongs to them. If anything, they’re actually kind of invading this space we have created.
