Seeds of Dissent
A few notes on biting the hand that feeds me:
Since I only meet with any one class once per week now, I get a week of mileage out of my lesson plans (if you can call an idea a plan). This week's lesson was about the perfect high school. One of my classes asked me to talk a little bit about my high school experience, which I would have to say, differs importantly from Imtiaz in several key ways:
1. Less memorization of the Qu'ran.
2. Less classes.
3. Less living at school.
4. More hippies.
5. Less hitting of students by teachers.
6. Less fish.
Given these differences I asked the students to take it upon themselves to design the perfect high school. It was an easy sell, since, as teenagers already enjoy criticizing things they don't know anything about, it stood to reason that they'd take even more pleasure in criticizing things they know a great deal about. Turns out I was right.
Likes:
The Qu'ran, English, Friends (probably their classmates, possibly the American sitcom)
Dislikes:
Mosquitoes, corporal punishment, uniforms (mostly), living away from from home.
Solution:
A religious school whose freedom would make an anarchist-hippie blush. No classes (except when you wanted them... with two girls going so far as to only offer History, Science, and Japanese), unlimited choices in clothing (except for the head covering for the girls and other modesty issues), and living at home. The cool thing about the exercise was that I didn't have to get them to work at all. They just did it. And the class had this great feel of a revolutionary meeting, like real change was happening, illicit and unstoppable.
Then the class ended and I had to sum up everything about questioning assumptions in 2 minutes.
"Now kids, Imtiaz calls itself the best school in the world. Is it true?"
(Everyone) "No."
"No, because you know some ways it could be better. And you know this because you spent time questioning and thinking about it."
"Yes."
"So questioning things can be very good," I said, suddenly remembering Socrates. "But sometimes questioning things can make the people in charge very angry... and they might kill you. But it's still probably worth it. Okay, see you next time!"
As is the case with all of my lessons, I can never be sure how much of it actually gets from my mind to the kids'. But if any of it did, there's a small chance I just inspired Malaysia's next generation of social activists, educational reformers, and small time revolutionaries.
Or blues musicians. Those kids have a knack for complaining if I ever saw one.
Since I only meet with any one class once per week now, I get a week of mileage out of my lesson plans (if you can call an idea a plan). This week's lesson was about the perfect high school. One of my classes asked me to talk a little bit about my high school experience, which I would have to say, differs importantly from Imtiaz in several key ways:
1. Less memorization of the Qu'ran.
2. Less classes.
3. Less living at school.
4. More hippies.
5. Less hitting of students by teachers.
6. Less fish.
Given these differences I asked the students to take it upon themselves to design the perfect high school. It was an easy sell, since, as teenagers already enjoy criticizing things they don't know anything about, it stood to reason that they'd take even more pleasure in criticizing things they know a great deal about. Turns out I was right.
Likes:
The Qu'ran, English, Friends (probably their classmates, possibly the American sitcom)
Dislikes:
Mosquitoes, corporal punishment, uniforms (mostly), living away from from home.
Solution:
A religious school whose freedom would make an anarchist-hippie blush. No classes (except when you wanted them... with two girls going so far as to only offer History, Science, and Japanese), unlimited choices in clothing (except for the head covering for the girls and other modesty issues), and living at home. The cool thing about the exercise was that I didn't have to get them to work at all. They just did it. And the class had this great feel of a revolutionary meeting, like real change was happening, illicit and unstoppable.
Then the class ended and I had to sum up everything about questioning assumptions in 2 minutes.
"Now kids, Imtiaz calls itself the best school in the world. Is it true?"
(Everyone) "No."
"No, because you know some ways it could be better. And you know this because you spent time questioning and thinking about it."
"Yes."
"So questioning things can be very good," I said, suddenly remembering Socrates. "But sometimes questioning things can make the people in charge very angry... and they might kill you. But it's still probably worth it. Okay, see you next time!"
As is the case with all of my lessons, I can never be sure how much of it actually gets from my mind to the kids'. But if any of it did, there's a small chance I just inspired Malaysia's next generation of social activists, educational reformers, and small time revolutionaries.
Or blues musicians. Those kids have a knack for complaining if I ever saw one.
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