Teacher's Thoughts

Often-times we English teachers adopt mentality that manifests in "students first", "customers are kings", "student friendly classroom" etc. kind of motto. Any teacher who favors teacher-centred approach is called old-fashioned, inflexible, slow to grasp new technologies. All the English Teachers' conference seem to be buzzing with different student-centred methodologies and ideas. Are we actually going in the right direction? How did our fore-teachers view themselves in the power balance of students and teachers? When I read an article "Me Talk Pretty", the instructor in narrative gave me new revelation about teaching. She taught French at language institute in Paris to learners who come from different parts of the world to study French. The teacher started insulting and belittling students from Day 1. After she had the students to talk about their likes and dislikes, she mercilessly demeaned them, shamed them, and threw chalks at them, or