Teaching, a year on.
If the frequency of postings is any indication of what my teaching life has been like, it probably wouldn’t take more than a kneecap to realize that I had been busy. Really busy.
In fact, my admin page for this blog is practically filled with incomplete drafts – great ideas and stories that came at that moment of epiphany (no I did not take political science in the university, if you know who I’m talking about), yet the inability to fully sit down and finish any of them in a coherent manner.
So a year on from the moment I entered my current college as an educator, well, I guess I’d be in some sort of position to finally make some comments about what I’ve learnt, amidst the current piles of marking that I have to do.
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Ideals are but self-gratifications of one’s soul.
You see, most people entered this business of education because they held certain ideals, certain dreams about how their classroom would be like.
I did.
Well, that’s perfectly fine. In fact, when everybody goes through pre-teaching training, and practicum, the mentors, lecturers, and even the system, actively encourages one to chase these ideals. Practicum is the best time to try out all your pedagogy! The common myth ensued.
Some time afterwards I threw it all away.
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No, I’m not trying to be the anti-thesis of pedagogical approaches. In fact, I do agree with them, and I do utilize them from time to time. What, however, that I realized was that to some end, the utilization of these approaches to satisfy my absolute want of some form of idealized classroom situation was nothing but self-gratification.
In short, “ideal” is what we define it to be. But when one is in the business of education, the notion of “ideal” has to be something agreed upon by not only just the educator, but also by the students.
To that end, “ideals” are not what we need. “Shared visions” are in fact more powerful, and well, practical.
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A year back I was adamant that I would make my students love Economics. I would do my best to let them understand the linkages between topics. I would build understanding. I would push them all to greater heights. Blah blah blah.
Not that it did not work – to some extent there was greater interest in the subject.
That’s great, you say. But that, unfortunately, did not reflect well when it came down to what mattered most – grades.
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Grades?
This is the point where the idealist in you and I would shake our heads in disbelief and disagreement. No, it isn’t about grades!
Well, a shared vision is only powerful when it is clear that everybody has a common goal, and the objectives – the steps taken to reach a goal – are defined and agreed upon. Over time it became clear – sure, they would like to love Economics, but they must first do well at the subject.
Rewind my memories to some ten years ago when I was but an Economics student in class – I never did my tutorials, I could not understand the course. I never did well for the subject, not even at my prelims in year 2. I couldn’t understand it. And therefore, I disliked it.
Fast-forward to today – I love the subject because it tells me about the world. It tells me about human behavior. It is intellectually challenging, and I love all these scientific theories and how they applied a la an art form to the faintest of human social behavior.
But my students will not be able to see this, they probably will not love the subject as I do. Why? They simply don’t understand it!
(Well, not yet!)
But grades are a powerful motivation. They are the very thing that push the best among the best to strive harder for greater understanding (let’s face it, top students from top schools do go for lots of tuition), all in that chase for higher grades. And that’s when your vicious cycles becomes a virtuous cycle.
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So a year of teaching has taught me this – ideals are but self-gratifications of one’s soul.
It’s not how good your lesson is, it’s not how interesting your lesson is. It’s about effectiveness, it’s about building confidence, it’s about getting them to really like the subject… well, after they start to score better for it.
At the end of the day (and everybody who has had graduating students would agree), nobody is going to remember you for your teaching. They will just remember you for how much – and how strongly – you have journeyed on with them.
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You may disagree, I may be wrong.
But at least for this year, I probably am correct.
(Well, don’t argue with someone teaching a graduating batch! It’s not good for health! 
)
