Today is a good day, I used my pen until it was completely empty. Its not often that I accomplish this and I find it rather exciting. Too often I replace things before they completely die. Its sad that I do that and that kind of mentality is rather troublesome, so I thought I would celebrate the long and useful life of my pen. To all those pens that have properly ran out of ink!
In other news, I have decided that my uneasiness with understanding my students derives from teaching English in a private institute. It goes like this. I am concerned what my students think for a number of reasons: A) I want them to enjoy class because if they enjoy class, I will enjoy it and everyone will be happier B) I want them to learn English, if my students enjoy the class, it will create a more relaxed environment and hopefully they can learn English easier, and since learning English is the telos of my job, it is good if they learn a lot of English C) I want them to feel like they are getting their money's worth so they stay at Connexus.
This is the problem, I want them to feel like their money is well spent. Privatized education. I don't know how I feel about this yet. Besides the fact that it makes learning English a privilege of the rich, it creates an interesting power dynamic and understanding. Teaching and learning are reduced to dollar amounts and in Korea this is more than just giving schools enough money to operate. With so many language schools here, its a matter of fierce capitalistic competition. And while the Realist side of me says thats just how it is (how else could it work), I cant help but feel a little uncomfortable with teaching as a capitalistic enterprise.
I don't really know what I think, but if any of you have any ideas, let me know.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment