I’m in search of serenity these days… to accept that there are things which will take a whole lot more than 2 months to change. My work with the schoolkids in preparation for Model United Nations has been at best a string of character-building moments.
It isn’t so much that they have no idea what they’re doing; taking a disntinctly foreign concept of independent work into a Malaysian school is a sure recipe for chaos. It’s the lack of initiative or whatever it is on their part — to come forward and admit that they do not understand certain concepts. And my frustration level grows from week to week when I see that their work hasn’t progressed because they don’t know what to do and they couldn’t be bothered to come ask for help. Stabbing in the dark, because blindly searching the internet is about as productive as that.. they give up on the task at hand and perhaps hope that I will spoon feed them information.
And the parents. The crazy ass parents who filter their kids’ communication with me and who think nothing is more important in the world than examinations. Way to go to provide children with a well rounded education; woe to the kid if she scores a B.
My admiration for teachers continue to grow even as I find myself wondering how I survived post secondary school years having been so ill-equipped for everything in life – no computer skills taught, no research skills to speak off and certainly nothing, *NOTHING* resembling critical thinking.
It sounds like I’m hating the kids I work with, but I don’t. I only wish I could do better for them. I’m super grateful, however, that my future career as a librarian frees me from classroom frustrations. I could never hack it as a teacher. (And the world breathes a collective sigh of relief).
Hey, G.
Any suggestions on how to get some traffic flowing into my site?