‘i think we should be slaves’
so my students are giving mid-term presentations now. the topic: any story about something they experienced over national day holiday. basically, my students are a boring lot … and they readily admit it. i heard over and over again how they slept, watched tv, played computer games, surfed the internet and ate “some delicious foods.”
a few students stuck out, though. one in particular. her father is a history professor, so she spent part of her time reading chinese history books that were lying around her house. her presentation was about the fact that she couldn’t trust anything in those books, thanks to the chinese government’s habit of rewriting — or just erasing — messy bits of history.
“maybe only god knows the real truth,” she lamented.
maybe. only god … and the millions of people in parts of the world where book and newspaper editors aren’t federal employees. (fox news would be the exception here.)
“the information is out there,” i said. “it’s up to you whether you want to look at it.”
you have to understand that even a two minute presentation about something like this — something that is likely obvious to most people who view this site — is a major breakthrough in a freshman conversational english class. especially because she could have just as easily decided to talk about fireworks or karaoke instead. it’s hard enough to get students to express opinions, and almost impossible to get them to express opinions about anything that matters.
so i was even more pleased when a wiry little guy who looks like he’s about 14 years old raised his hand from the back row, eager to comment on his classmate’s speech.
“a group of slaves works much faster than a group of clever people,” he said. “i think we should be slaves.”
“what do you mean?” i asked.
“we do not need to know everything,” he said. “we should put our nation above everything else.”
all the natural questions followed … and surprisingly not all of them came from me. conversations in a conversational english class! what a concept! now we’re getting somewhere.
well, i’m not sure about that wiry kid in the back row.
10.13.2003, 11:33 PM · Observations, Politics, School
1 Comments
The superficial modesty always works.A pretty wise and safe stragety ! It seems that you’re unaggressive and you’ll never make an exhibition of yourself.