On Being A Teacher; On Being Sick and Tired
It best describes how I'm feeling: "Sick and Tired." There's no need to argue with me why the "s" and the "t" are capitalized because they are much more than just adjectives; they are emotions personified.
I have perennially been dealing with tonsilitis and influenza. These are the two known diseases that biannually remind me that I am a chain-smoker and a stupid perpetuator of bodily hubris (aka sadomasochistic fatigue). Since Friday last week, I wasn't able to hold classes, stand in front of class, and facilitate discussions or whatever's in store for this overtly excruciating and monotonous life of teaching. Add that my loss of vigor for continuing with my thesis. I am a certified pessimist nowadays.
And I have let things snake their way in my mind's alleys: To teach is more than just a jostle to the brain; or a wanting to impart knowledge or know-hows or whatever it is you want to call this means of economic production. For some, it is a calling, an alternative to a consumerist or capitalist-induced job, a reason to wake up everyday, a therapeutic recourse, a socio-psychological groping for an undisputably existential hunger, a gustatory want or desire, and most of all, or most of all, an altruistic rendition of human and humanitarian epiphany. But in all these aspects, there is a truck-load of shit hovering over one's head.
There is no need to argue that teaching is a formal relationship between teachers and students. In fact, this educational structure relies basically on the fundaments of tradition and parochial politics. Tradition because historically, education has been perceived as a tool for "enlightening" the young by the old and the leader. It seems to be trailing the track of passive learning while the old and the respected "actively" tutor their students and hedonistically impart in what are and what aren't true, good and beautiful. This same tradition lives side by side with an elderly's (teacher's) parochial politics -- from egotism and self-centered agitation to that mammoth term for love of self and people: nativism.
Of course, like anything and anyone in an "unevenly developed society," pedagogy (the theory of learning and the practice of teaching) is heterogeneous. While of course, there is the fact that the state or the government maintains its own hegemonic pedagogical methods to inculcate in our students a neo-colonial and neo-liberal education these days.
So, the task of teaching is more than just a worrying of whether students actually "dig" what the teacher shares or explains. It is more than just squeezing for juvenile happiness; of connecting with the young and of healthily expressing what the teacher has learned when s/he was still a student. It is more than just smiling at the end of the day knowing that a heart or two has understood a lesson, or when students participate actively in a popular culture discussion or a creative writing exercise. Because the metathesis of these all is that a student is a person and a person is a political animal.
Even Aristotle and Plato have discoursed, in their own time and own terminology, that a student is as political as his/her mentor/teacher/lecturer. The whole grand narrative of epistemology lies in a student's utterance of his/her own political belief -- and how the student -- and the teacher -- interpellate each one's political discourse. From the selection of names, the formation of subjectivies such as wants, dislikes and favorites. From the choice of food to the choice of language utilized. From the selected readings to the teaching styles and activities employed such as blogging, library work, group activities, field trips -- everything is both on a linear and a vertical plane, waiting for a three-dimensional understanding.
Because teaching is more than just a dialogue of sorts. It is dialogic and discriminating. How to discern these is a teacher's task -- the bleeding and the scarring of the superego -- the self-flagellation of the ego.
Having said this, I rest my case in an undaunted fashion. Fuck you narcissists, self-preserving, self-gratifying juvenile teachers whose only concerns are to be published, to get an ego boost, to go up the corporate-academic ladder. Fuck you MA and PhD holders who've gotten their graduate and post-graduate degrees because of nepotism and parochialim. Fuck you teachers who don't have the humility to accept your own faults. Fuck you teachers who don't actively engage in real needs of society, who choose to be silent, who go with the flow, who pretend to be progressive. Fuck you slave drivers! Fuck you sick men and women who suck out of the young their energies and abilities and use them for their own Machiavellian needs.
But most of all, thank you to all of you who have made stronger and more-willed teachers. Because of your sheer arrogance and demented politics, a young teacher or two have grown weary, angsty, sad, mad, and most of all, enlightened.
I have perennially been dealing with tonsilitis and influenza. These are the two known diseases that biannually remind me that I am a chain-smoker and a stupid perpetuator of bodily hubris (aka sadomasochistic fatigue). Since Friday last week, I wasn't able to hold classes, stand in front of class, and facilitate discussions or whatever's in store for this overtly excruciating and monotonous life of teaching. Add that my loss of vigor for continuing with my thesis. I am a certified pessimist nowadays.
And I have let things snake their way in my mind's alleys: To teach is more than just a jostle to the brain; or a wanting to impart knowledge or know-hows or whatever it is you want to call this means of economic production. For some, it is a calling, an alternative to a consumerist or capitalist-induced job, a reason to wake up everyday, a therapeutic recourse, a socio-psychological groping for an undisputably existential hunger, a gustatory want or desire, and most of all, or most of all, an altruistic rendition of human and humanitarian epiphany. But in all these aspects, there is a truck-load of shit hovering over one's head.
There is no need to argue that teaching is a formal relationship between teachers and students. In fact, this educational structure relies basically on the fundaments of tradition and parochial politics. Tradition because historically, education has been perceived as a tool for "enlightening" the young by the old and the leader. It seems to be trailing the track of passive learning while the old and the respected "actively" tutor their students and hedonistically impart in what are and what aren't true, good and beautiful. This same tradition lives side by side with an elderly's (teacher's) parochial politics -- from egotism and self-centered agitation to that mammoth term for love of self and people: nativism.
Of course, like anything and anyone in an "unevenly developed society," pedagogy (the theory of learning and the practice of teaching) is heterogeneous. While of course, there is the fact that the state or the government maintains its own hegemonic pedagogical methods to inculcate in our students a neo-colonial and neo-liberal education these days.
So, the task of teaching is more than just a worrying of whether students actually "dig" what the teacher shares or explains. It is more than just squeezing for juvenile happiness; of connecting with the young and of healthily expressing what the teacher has learned when s/he was still a student. It is more than just smiling at the end of the day knowing that a heart or two has understood a lesson, or when students participate actively in a popular culture discussion or a creative writing exercise. Because the metathesis of these all is that a student is a person and a person is a political animal.
Even Aristotle and Plato have discoursed, in their own time and own terminology, that a student is as political as his/her mentor/teacher/lecturer. The whole grand narrative of epistemology lies in a student's utterance of his/her own political belief -- and how the student -- and the teacher -- interpellate each one's political discourse. From the selection of names, the formation of subjectivies such as wants, dislikes and favorites. From the choice of food to the choice of language utilized. From the selected readings to the teaching styles and activities employed such as blogging, library work, group activities, field trips -- everything is both on a linear and a vertical plane, waiting for a three-dimensional understanding.
Because teaching is more than just a dialogue of sorts. It is dialogic and discriminating. How to discern these is a teacher's task -- the bleeding and the scarring of the superego -- the self-flagellation of the ego.
Having said this, I rest my case in an undaunted fashion. Fuck you narcissists, self-preserving, self-gratifying juvenile teachers whose only concerns are to be published, to get an ego boost, to go up the corporate-academic ladder. Fuck you MA and PhD holders who've gotten their graduate and post-graduate degrees because of nepotism and parochialim. Fuck you teachers who don't have the humility to accept your own faults. Fuck you teachers who don't actively engage in real needs of society, who choose to be silent, who go with the flow, who pretend to be progressive. Fuck you slave drivers! Fuck you sick men and women who suck out of the young their energies and abilities and use them for their own Machiavellian needs.
But most of all, thank you to all of you who have made stronger and more-willed teachers. Because of your sheer arrogance and demented politics, a young teacher or two have grown weary, angsty, sad, mad, and most of all, enlightened.
posted by mykel andrada @ 3:56 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home