This morning, I required my students to make a simple reflection on the topic we discussed in the past few days. We were talking about the Human Person and the Embodied Spirit. Part of the discussion was what made the human a person, and what traits does one have that separates him from all other creatures.
At the back of my mind, the students have this realization about what made them “person”. I was expecting to read papers on how they deal with life, and how do they see themselves.
Instead, what I read is simply about what they learn – definition of terms. It was all about “what is”. I know there is something wrong around here. I used to handle students of different levels, from Grades 1-6, and now 11 and 12. In the past, I know my techniques were working and were effective because of the output. But this time, I no longer know what to do?
It is all in the art of questioning they say. And I couldn’t agree more to it. I have presented a lot of questions, and it worked quite well with some of the students. What I do not understand is, there are “with high honors” and “with honors” students who never made it to the mark. I mean, their writings were simply whatever is in their notebooks. Too shallow ideas…
I am hoping that one day, as I ride my boat in the stream of ideas, I hope that I will be a better teacher. You know, when the river is too shallow, you’d dig up and remove all other hindrances to make the water flow smoothly. And maybe, I will be travelling in a river, in deep rivers… and never again in shallow waters.
Teacher Jared 