Friday, July 18, 2003
As an aside.
I dedicate this moment to The Lost. The lost are the various people out there who have happiness within their grasp, but can't seem to find the strength to close their hands. Time, unfortunately, is not the friend of the Lost. I can attest to that.
I pray that He will grant you all the insight, to Find the courage to close those hands.
And back to our main feature.
More on The RJ case. Apparently, according to hearsay from assorted websites, said teacher loses her temper often and is not the most popular of educationists. I'm disturbed that most contributers appear to want to crucify the teacher and support the courageous student who dared to make his post public.
Well, I'm sorry, but no. The teacher may or may not have been provoked into her tirade. (In Good English too! Maybe we should promote her and put her in the ministry) We don't have the facts at hand and yet we're all ready to condemn her, based on a three minute video clip. What about the "last week" she mentions? OR the countless other "last weeks" she doesn't? And I'm disgusted that we're trying to elevate a student - who HAS confessed to questioning his own ethics - into something of a local hero for daring to challenge the system and expose the "truth". (which for fecks sakes, we ALL already knew. We've all been students once...)
That's not how it happened at all. It was a moment's thoughtlessness, apparently, that led to the student posting the video on the internet. MrBrown caught a scent of it and everything snowballed from there.
Since then the student has humbly confessed that he hadn't forseen the consequences. His own web server restricted his access! Oh deary me.
Well, to "bw", there's more at stake than your hide, and your web server (although, I suppose it's regrettable that you didn't see this coming, and you have some of my sympathy) - the teacher's employment history is going to be irreversably altered. She may well, unofficially, suffer for this in the long run. She may not be your teacher much longer - are you happy now? And all because... she took the time and effort to care about a student's poor performance.
And what's all this claptrap about teachers having to nurture the young in the gentlest, most caring way? I'm sorry, but again - No. It's the role of the parent to nurture a child. It's the role of the teacher to educate the child. Isn't it often said that Life is the Hardest Teacher? (And I'm not referring to the Strait's Times either). Education has to be tailored to suit the child. If tender encouragement will do the job - I'm sure most teachers would take that route. Far less stressful. If it takes a bit of pyrotechnics to break through a "bad" kid - so be it.
The "Bad" teacher, in my books is the one who doesn't care. Who's too jaded to care anymore about the student's he or she is teaching. Who just sticks a random grade on stuff, and runs off home. The Bad teacher doesn't educate, she fulfils her job requirements and nothing more. In fact, I recall a biology teacher I once had, who spent all her time crying in class. Over her unborn children, in fact. A miscarriage from years ago, became our fault. And biology... was a mystery to us.
You tell me. Is a bad teacher someone who rants loudly to make her student wake up and smell the bovine excrement he's immersing himself in? Or the teacher who doesn't care if he's mired in **** and going down, baby, down.
I dedicate this moment to The Lost. The lost are the various people out there who have happiness within their grasp, but can't seem to find the strength to close their hands. Time, unfortunately, is not the friend of the Lost. I can attest to that.
I pray that He will grant you all the insight, to Find the courage to close those hands.
And back to our main feature.
More on The RJ case. Apparently, according to hearsay from assorted websites, said teacher loses her temper often and is not the most popular of educationists. I'm disturbed that most contributers appear to want to crucify the teacher and support the courageous student who dared to make his post public.
Well, I'm sorry, but no. The teacher may or may not have been provoked into her tirade. (In Good English too! Maybe we should promote her and put her in the ministry) We don't have the facts at hand and yet we're all ready to condemn her, based on a three minute video clip. What about the "last week" she mentions? OR the countless other "last weeks" she doesn't? And I'm disgusted that we're trying to elevate a student - who HAS confessed to questioning his own ethics - into something of a local hero for daring to challenge the system and expose the "truth". (which for fecks sakes, we ALL already knew. We've all been students once...)
That's not how it happened at all. It was a moment's thoughtlessness, apparently, that led to the student posting the video on the internet. MrBrown caught a scent of it and everything snowballed from there.
Since then the student has humbly confessed that he hadn't forseen the consequences. His own web server restricted his access! Oh deary me.
Well, to "bw", there's more at stake than your hide, and your web server (although, I suppose it's regrettable that you didn't see this coming, and you have some of my sympathy) - the teacher's employment history is going to be irreversably altered. She may well, unofficially, suffer for this in the long run. She may not be your teacher much longer - are you happy now? And all because... she took the time and effort to care about a student's poor performance.
And what's all this claptrap about teachers having to nurture the young in the gentlest, most caring way? I'm sorry, but again - No. It's the role of the parent to nurture a child. It's the role of the teacher to educate the child. Isn't it often said that Life is the Hardest Teacher? (And I'm not referring to the Strait's Times either). Education has to be tailored to suit the child. If tender encouragement will do the job - I'm sure most teachers would take that route. Far less stressful. If it takes a bit of pyrotechnics to break through a "bad" kid - so be it.
The "Bad" teacher, in my books is the one who doesn't care. Who's too jaded to care anymore about the student's he or she is teaching. Who just sticks a random grade on stuff, and runs off home. The Bad teacher doesn't educate, she fulfils her job requirements and nothing more. In fact, I recall a biology teacher I once had, who spent all her time crying in class. Over her unborn children, in fact. A miscarriage from years ago, became our fault. And biology... was a mystery to us.
You tell me. Is a bad teacher someone who rants loudly to make her student wake up and smell the bovine excrement he's immersing himself in? Or the teacher who doesn't care if he's mired in **** and going down, baby, down.
