Me talk pretty - Power Balances - Teacher or Student
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 inflicted bodily punishments.
My first thought was, "Wow, this teacher's got an unusual personality". Her eccentric behaviors and corrosive comments ravaged them, but also ignited fire in them that would continue burning to fuel their purposes. Some of them shared they had cried alone and others went through similar ordeals and they often comforted one another by saying "one day they will be able to talk pretty". The author shared that at the end of the course, he smiled and wanted to listen more and more of the teacher insulting him because he could for the first time understand every word she was speaking.
Teachers whether they like it or not are always affecting their classes positively or negatively. Therefore, teachers can impress righteousness, integrity, patience and many other virtues on our students and like our pastor says "should look for opportunities" to train our students. Unscrupulous, unprincipled and false teachers also have power to make the good students bad. I want to remind my fellow teachers to train your students as you would train your children.
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 inflicted bodily punishments.
My first thought was, "Wow, this teacher's got an unusual personality". Her eccentric behaviors and corrosive comments ravaged them, but also ignited fire in them that would continue burning to fuel their purposes. Some of them shared they had cried alone and others went through similar ordeals and they often comforted one another by saying "one day they will be able to talk pretty". The author shared that at the end of the course, he smiled and wanted to listen more and more of the teacher insulting him because he could for the first time understand every word she was speaking.
Teachers whether they like it or not are always affecting their classes positively or negatively. Therefore, teachers can impress righteousness, integrity, patience and many other virtues on our students and like our pastor says "should look for opportunities" to train our students. Unscrupulous, unprincipled and false teachers also have power to make the good students bad. I want to remind my fellow teachers to train your students as you would train your children.
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