Teachers vs. Students
Nicole’s most recent article really interests me a lot by touching on how a student should properly judge his or her teacher in their ability to teach. Because
I myself, as an inexperienced young college teacher, have so frequently been confronted with the same problem---students are so likely to ask the teacher so many knotty questions that they reckon he or she will make neither head nor tail of.
I remember one of the questions that my students once asked me about with a cunning frown: “if the plural form of mouse which is the mammal is mice, how about
the mouse linked on our computers? What is its plural form? ‘mice’ or ‘mouses
’?” I was dumbfounded indeed. For I seldom thought about it and never used two
such things at the same time. But I soon responded that I didn’t know for sure
at the moment and had to go back and check it out and if you really press me rather urgently for an answer then it must be “mice”, for I could not think of any other possible answer to it through tight logic and sound grammar rules. Later on I found out my timid guess was right. I was so happy. My students’ attempt
to bring me down with their smart-devised question was thwarted. I claimed the
victory in such a clever manner that my students rewarded me with their nodding
and after-class admiring chat among themselves. I won another battle of wit. But
surely I knew this was not going to be the end; there was going to be more ones
harder to crack, coming pouring onto my face like waterfalls as soon as I saw my students again. It was a nightmare.
I have long realized my limited knowledge of English, if not based on frequent recharge, would soon be running short and fail me as a teacher giving lessons to
college students, smart, intelligent and eager to challenge the miserable authority a present day teacher has so poorly established in an age of information explosion. If you are a teacher of English, who is not an English native speaker and has never gone abroad in person, the challenge could be more threatening and more often
form your seemingly respectful students. Students’ mouse in their hand could immediately turn into a monster so vicious and tempted to blush your face and tear it into pieces. Yes, they have the Internet, where a textbook is compared next
to nothing. There are also millions upon millions of books out there in the library or a bookstore to arm themselves to teeth in order to take a delicious bite
on you, the pathetic chalk guy in front. And look at these eyes staring at you!
They are sizing you up and down, up and down, for the entire two hours and what
is worse, there is still another two afterwards. You feel yourself never yourself again, but a ready-to-fight soldier defending his own land of dignity and trustworthiness. You are never at ease with your students whether they are well-intentioned, or just curious about you. You start to doubt and become offensive too
, at least mentally. You build up a solid wall in front of you and always beware
there is danger among your students. Someday, you will suffer from it if you do
not tread your line carefully. The freedom of being a teaching is gone; the rest is composed of bitterly-won battles of honor and ghastly memories of humiliation. Horror!
If you happen to be such a teacher, then I sure outsmart you with more wisdom on
this students-challenge-teacher issue. Now I have the habit of simply telling the truth to my new students or any students in my first class of a new term that
in certain area of knowledge I am as ignorant as a woodenhead. But I will try to be more knowledgeable and give them a right and satisfactory answer or solution to their question or problem. It takes some time and will not be long. What is
more important is I will tell them how to follow my way of thinking and the methods I make use of in approaching different questions and problems and let them
learn to search for answers and solutions independently, with more practice and
hopefully more effective training.
After saying all this to my students at one time, I found fewer and fewer students came to me for an answer to the question they thought even the teacher would
take some time working on it. This time they would go to the library again, to the Internet in search of an answer of their own, maybe something the teacher would be so eager to share with them.
In my most recent memories of teaching, I used to give my students the authority
to judge what I had been talking about in class true or false. I let them pick
faults at my spoken English sometimes. I made them do presentations or give lessons on anything that they thought worth their try at. It is so rewarding that I
helped my students develop a critical eye for the knowledge they had learned and
never be a dumb log in my class. It is even more disappointing that it did not
last long for my teaching schedule was too tight to take more time on this interesting activity. In this part of memory I see lovely eyes hungering for knowledge instead of doubt, the eager hands of showing that they could provide another answer instead of questioning for the only sake of questioning. They did ask me knotty questions from time to time but they would always do so with understanding
, not for me, but for really a deeper touch of the immense sea of knowledge.
Charlie
