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Published: October 1st 2006
tombstones
These are pictures I took on a tour of the necropolis close to where I live.I thought it would be nice to do an entry on an inspirational teaching story. Unfortunately, the course so far has been very uninspiring (to say the least). It seems the course was designed for people who have never used a computer before, don’t understand the common sense reasons for why teaching is important, and have no ambitions of forming ideas outside of the ones the lecturers have pushed on us. I had no idea there would be so many people who would fall into that category, but apparently there are. With that said, this strange twilight zone of teacher’s education is standard all over the UK it seems, and maybe over the world? How is it, then, that I keep myself from saying “fuck this, I’m going home!” Well it’s the children. This is just one of many stories that I’ve heard so far from talking to other student teachers. This one comes courtesy of “The Chilly Guy” (Ryan).
During our first two days of placement, our main job was to get a feel of the class and school for future placement days. Classroom teachers usually point out to us the children that stand out in class at this
time. You find out about who the “bright” one is, who the “chatty” ones are, and who “the bad kids” are. You also find out about who has learning disabilities and who comes from a “bad” home and so his learning in class is an ambiguous function between nature and nurture. In class, these children seem to incite the sympathy of a child with disabilities but receive the attitude of apathy saved for “the bad kids”. Ryan engaged himself in a conversation with one such child. He came from a bad home and he also seemed to have a learning disability resulting in very poor reading/writing and math skills. He was telling Ryan a story about his home and how he loved Spiderman. He said at home his mother and grandmother use the “F” word a lot and give each other the “bad” finger. His older brother also used the bad finger a lot in conversations with him and his family. He said he knew sticking out the one finger was not nice so he would stick out three fingers like Spiderman does when he is shooting his web.
It had never occurred to me before that these superheroes
symbol of the urn
I think they said if there is a sheet draped over the urn it means the person died young, like in this one. created for capitalistic consumption could play such a role for a child. I’m sure for this child to beat the odds and rise above the socio-economic status of his family is almost impossible. Even if he were to have the ambition to, societal ideals and standards in skills and achievement will always inhibit his value to the world. It is nice to know that at least right now, before he understands and accepts these societal ideals that he can envisage an alternate way of being. Ryan, of all the people I know here, is the most idealistic and positive about the world. He isn’t so in the “I’m so happy, life is great, lets hold hands and sing kum-bi-ya” sort of way. He’s just not into complaining and would rather get the job done and try to see the good in it even if it seems like a waste of time. Maybe something amazing and wonderful will come out of this time he spends in that class and with that boy, maybe not. I have to believe that it won’t be some revolution of social attitudes that will change this boy’s and Ryan’s life but somehow the day-to-day interactions between
these two, with the class, and with the larger society as a whole will make a difference.
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Marky
non-member comment
Great tale
This is inspiration in it's self. Keep an eye on J for me. M x