Saturday 14 February 2015

A Valentine Letter to Self:How far are you now?

Dear teacher,

If you think something is not accordant to what you think must be practiced, you try to change it. If you think something is unbreakable yet you have to take out a bad piece of it, you try to break it. If you think someone is not stepping on the right path, you try to walk with him and lead him. However, if you think you have done enough and, still, nothing happened, you should stop.
What’s unaccordant, what can’t be taken out, and what can’t be led rightly are actually part of the culture—a culture is what Hoebel describes as an integrated system of learned behavior patterns which are characteristic of the members of a society and which are not a result of biological inheritance (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture). That is, i
f the student doesn’t greet you as respect, it’s part of the culture. If the student doesn’t empty the bin without being told, it’s part of the culture. Thus, if the student hears but doesn’t listen, can it still be part of the culture?
When you are a very idealistic teacher who wanted to achieve a change in the classroom culture so much, you do everything with your magic wand to get that change so abruptly that not everybody may understand; because, again, a culture is an integrated system of learned behavior patterns. It is hard to change. When you realize that you have done it so harshly that led to your frustration, you then take it slow, so slow that almost everybody could still not understand; because, again, it’s in the culture. When you have achieved a little of it, you exhale and say, “Hold on. There’s still more to change.”
You can stop students from charging their phones in the classroom. Through this, you can stop them from texting while class is going on. You can ask students not to shout. You can ask students to maintain cleanliness and orderliness in the classroom without putting down their chairs on the floor. Bins can be emptied without scattering the trash on the floor intentionally. These little classroom practices make a good classroom culture. These little  classroom practices make members respect, love each other and grow together. On the other hand, you can’t force a student to go to school if he doesn’t want to. You can’t go to his house to wake him up and bring him to school early in the morning. Most of all, you can’t do his homework and you can’t study for him. Those things you call ‘self’ culture can’t be in your full control. You can teach; you can lead; you can advise; you can command; but you can never work for them.
Teacher, on this Valentine’s day, keep on aiming for a better culture—a culture of imperfection but full of righteousness, a culture that may not compose genius individuals but aiming for excellence, a culture of teamwork, not in words but in actions. Keep the idealism alive!

Love,

Self

1 comment:

  1. A culture is a way of life. What took generations to build cannot be changed overnight and easily. It is a process that requires consistent passion to drive if a better version of that culture is desired. And yes, it can take place slowly, one classroom at a time.

    This letter speaks so much of the passion of an idealistic educator. Keep it burning!

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