Because some men aren't looking for anything logical like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn. - Alfred, The Dark Knight.
I feel like sometimes, we try to rationalize too much with our students. We try to say, hey maybe that kid is just going through something. And yes, many times, that kid is going through something. But maybe, just maybe, sometimes there are kids that cannot be reasoned with. They just want to mess around, for the sake of messing around. And we end up stressing ourselves, or condemning ourselves for not being good enough, not being able to get through to the student, and we wallow in that spirit of helplessness.
I’m not saying that we don’t try to reach out and show love to the problematic kids of the world. But I feel like there’s times where we have to just let go, and realize that we can’t fix everything, and as long as we did our best, that is the only thing the world can demand from us. Our best.
Other times, I just look at my kids and say, “Do better.”
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I remember back in primary school, when we wrote essays of Vision 2020, or the futuristic world, and often times we would paint images of a future with robots everywhere. Robots to help us do things, robots in our factories, robots in our homes … robots, everywhere.
Once upon a time, that seemed like a great idea. Until we started watching dystopian movies like Eagle Eye and I, Robot which made us think that robots may one day try to wipe us out. Some days, thinking about robots ruling the world gives me the creeps. But now, I think it might just happen. And not in the cool techy way the movies envisioned it to be.
This is my greatest fear.
We are producing these robots every day. Not in factories, but in schools. We have successfully created a system to produce mindless robots with no self-initiative to achieve anything. Yes, there will always be THAT kid that breaks the system. But more often than not, we are building robots that will take over the world. And again, not in the cool techy way, but more of in the “there’s gonna be a clueless bunch of clowns running the status quo without innovation, without pausing to think – Why am I doing this?”.
Why the pessimism?
Last year, there were these bunch of supposed “Higher Order Thinking Skills” questions in the students’ workbooks, and I tried my best to tell them to try to think for themselves based on the information available in the textbooks as well as what I’ve taught them. And they refused to think for themselves. They said I wasn’t teaching them seriously. That I was just lazy to help them.
Few days ago, one of the kids from that class (now under a different teacher) came up to me with a really wide, self-satisfied smile proclaiming that he had now learned how to answer such questions. So I said, give me your best shot. And he proceeded to list down facts based on rote-memory, which I’m pretty sure the teacher drilled into their heads during class.
What can I do to break the cycle, when the entire system is built upon the principles of instilling obedience and the destruction of creativity? We build a system to create robots, and we celebrate the achievement of robots every year (straight A students), and we condemn the ones that try to break off from the status quo as sampah masyarakat that will never amount to anything.
My greatest fear: robots everywhere.
---
Upon starting the fellowship, I came to an understanding that I may not be the superhero in everyone’s lives. I also thought that it would be sufficient if I made a difference in just one person’s life in my teaching stint. Just one.
I would be satisfied with that single person who would call me later on in life and said to me “Teacher, I made it because of you”. I also joked in the school magazine that I hoped that I would then turn to my wife and said “I think someone dialled the wrong number”.
I call it “The Audience of One”. That I try my best, and do my best, and if it turns out that I only impact one person’s life, it would be worth it. Maybe that one person would end up changing the world.
I also struggled and accepted the fact that I have to be prepared to die not seeing the fruits of my labour. And this is the most demotivating fact to accept. But then I look back at history (#historyteacher), and remember that Martin Luther King Jr. never saw Barack Obama become president of USA. But that didn’t stop his struggle for equality and civil liberties. Moses led the people out of Egypt and headed towards the Promised Land, but could only see the land from afar, never setting foot on the land where he suffered all his life to bring a bunch of ungrateful grumblers to.
Maybe that is my teaching career. I try to teach them to be independent and critical thinkers and they reject me every day. I might never see them succeed in life before I die. But maybe that’s not the point. The destination cannot be reached without the journey.
And maybe I have to start thinking about “The Audience of One” differently. “The Audience of One” cannot be one of the people that I might encounter in my life. The Audience of One is God. And I am doing what I’m doing because He called me to do it, and because He has he has the blueprints. The brick doesn’t question the architect why he is placed where he is placed. He just sits tight and plays his part in completing the building.
Complete submission and removal of pride and self-reliance. Success, failure, it’s all part of the plan. It’s hard.
I feel like sometimes, we try to rationalize too much with our students. We try to say, hey maybe that kid is just going through something. And yes, many times, that kid is going through something. But maybe, just maybe, sometimes there are kids that cannot be reasoned with. They just want to mess around, for the sake of messing around. And we end up stressing ourselves, or condemning ourselves for not being good enough, not being able to get through to the student, and we wallow in that spirit of helplessness.
I’m not saying that we don’t try to reach out and show love to the problematic kids of the world. But I feel like there’s times where we have to just let go, and realize that we can’t fix everything, and as long as we did our best, that is the only thing the world can demand from us. Our best.
Other times, I just look at my kids and say, “Do better.”
---
I remember back in primary school, when we wrote essays of Vision 2020, or the futuristic world, and often times we would paint images of a future with robots everywhere. Robots to help us do things, robots in our factories, robots in our homes … robots, everywhere.
Once upon a time, that seemed like a great idea. Until we started watching dystopian movies like Eagle Eye and I, Robot which made us think that robots may one day try to wipe us out. Some days, thinking about robots ruling the world gives me the creeps. But now, I think it might just happen. And not in the cool techy way the movies envisioned it to be.
This is my greatest fear.
We are producing these robots every day. Not in factories, but in schools. We have successfully created a system to produce mindless robots with no self-initiative to achieve anything. Yes, there will always be THAT kid that breaks the system. But more often than not, we are building robots that will take over the world. And again, not in the cool techy way, but more of in the “there’s gonna be a clueless bunch of clowns running the status quo without innovation, without pausing to think – Why am I doing this?”.
Why the pessimism?
Last year, there were these bunch of supposed “Higher Order Thinking Skills” questions in the students’ workbooks, and I tried my best to tell them to try to think for themselves based on the information available in the textbooks as well as what I’ve taught them. And they refused to think for themselves. They said I wasn’t teaching them seriously. That I was just lazy to help them.
Few days ago, one of the kids from that class (now under a different teacher) came up to me with a really wide, self-satisfied smile proclaiming that he had now learned how to answer such questions. So I said, give me your best shot. And he proceeded to list down facts based on rote-memory, which I’m pretty sure the teacher drilled into their heads during class.
What can I do to break the cycle, when the entire system is built upon the principles of instilling obedience and the destruction of creativity? We build a system to create robots, and we celebrate the achievement of robots every year (straight A students), and we condemn the ones that try to break off from the status quo as sampah masyarakat that will never amount to anything.
My greatest fear: robots everywhere.
---
Upon starting the fellowship, I came to an understanding that I may not be the superhero in everyone’s lives. I also thought that it would be sufficient if I made a difference in just one person’s life in my teaching stint. Just one.
I would be satisfied with that single person who would call me later on in life and said to me “Teacher, I made it because of you”. I also joked in the school magazine that I hoped that I would then turn to my wife and said “I think someone dialled the wrong number”.
I call it “The Audience of One”. That I try my best, and do my best, and if it turns out that I only impact one person’s life, it would be worth it. Maybe that one person would end up changing the world.
I also struggled and accepted the fact that I have to be prepared to die not seeing the fruits of my labour. And this is the most demotivating fact to accept. But then I look back at history (#historyteacher), and remember that Martin Luther King Jr. never saw Barack Obama become president of USA. But that didn’t stop his struggle for equality and civil liberties. Moses led the people out of Egypt and headed towards the Promised Land, but could only see the land from afar, never setting foot on the land where he suffered all his life to bring a bunch of ungrateful grumblers to.
Maybe that is my teaching career. I try to teach them to be independent and critical thinkers and they reject me every day. I might never see them succeed in life before I die. But maybe that’s not the point. The destination cannot be reached without the journey.
And maybe I have to start thinking about “The Audience of One” differently. “The Audience of One” cannot be one of the people that I might encounter in my life. The Audience of One is God. And I am doing what I’m doing because He called me to do it, and because He has he has the blueprints. The brick doesn’t question the architect why he is placed where he is placed. He just sits tight and plays his part in completing the building.
Complete submission and removal of pride and self-reliance. Success, failure, it’s all part of the plan. It’s hard.
