Wednesday, May 31, 2006
johansson is out. oh well. i guess he stands a greater chance at wimbledon. ganbatte!!
i went to school today to meet up with tkm. finally had a nice chat and lunch with him before he leaves for oxford by the end of this week. frankly speaking, i really dont know what i have done to deserve the confidence he has in me, but i can only be eternally grateful. it really helps when there is someone who believes in your abilities even though you dont really have much to show for yourself. the impact he has had on me for the past 4 years has really been immence. from tutor to lecturer to urops supervisor to honours thesis supervisor and now to my masters thesis supervisor. and at every step, when i faltered (and i faltered many a time), his confidence in me never seemed to wane. i guess this really is what i think i should strive to achieve in my comming days as an educator: to be someone who is a pillar of support for his students. to understand that failures of a student dont make him/her any less than another. and most importantly, to truly believe in the abilities and uniqueness of my students, whatever they may be. this i believe is perhaps is the most difficult and challenging thing in the life of an educator. so often, educators try to influence and change the way their students think and behave by altering likes and supressing dislikes. but every so often, when a student fails to react positively to the educator's plans, he/she loses hope in that student and the student becomes little more than a burden. one often has to come to decide whether to give up on that child or to press on. i say whatever the choice in this case, the outcome is just as bad.
i strongly admire individuality, and people who behave the way they want to, unfazed by the current trends, or by peer pressure (of course within the constraints of the law). and that is what i believe what an educator should strive to enforce rather than to impress his/her ideal upon his/her students. to be able to understand that every individual is different and should be given the same space to develop in the way that they want to. i mean, so what if my future students dislike math? is it necessary for me to rid them of such negative thoughts? in fact, is that dislike necessarily a bad thing? what i really hated most for a very long time is the way some people over-enthusiastically try to change your view on certain issues in life. in almost every case, the reasons are just. but i feel that every one of our preferences makes us more unique. it's almost as if each like or dislike forms a ridge on our thumb, all in all creating the thumbprint that really is truly ours. and as educators, we should strive to embrace such differences rather than to try and suppress them.
so what should a math teacher do when he/she has students who really dislike math? the way i would approach it would be to understand that some people take math because it is a stepping stone to their goals in life, like studying business or even engineering. rather than spending time trying to change their mindset towards math, i feel that it would be better time spent encouraging their like in their respective interest because in the end, an engineer who hates math isnt any lesser than an enginner who love math. so by drawing links in class to their respective interests or by dropping subtle hints that cetrain areas may be more important to certain individuals interested in say business, one would be able to create an enviroment where you could allow their interest to develop rather than to try and overhaul their preferences. maybe this sounds a bit hazy, but i like to think of it in something you would say/hint (subconsciously):
"hey i know you dont like math, and that is fine. i also know you would like to study business and you will need a small degree of math involved. for instance, this area of math has certain applications in business which you may want to take note of. and isnt it interesting that this area of business could be described using this set of mathematical tools? this is how you go about using them."
rather than saying:
"i realise you dont like math much. why is that? you know, math is very important in business, and in fact, in all of life. just look at how this can be used in describing this are of business. isnt it just amazing? you see math isnt so bad once you get the hang of it."
of course i'm not saying that this is the best way to educate an individual. if i did then it would be rather paradoxical wouldnt it? but i would just like, at some point in my life, to fully be able to appreciate and celebrate the choices that other poeple make and the preferences in their lives that truely make them a person. for i certainly do not need another 1000 people with the same likes and dislikes to converse with.
anyway it's time for roland garros viewing again! ciao!
{4:58 PM}
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