classroom faux pas

I committed what some people will describe as “classroom faux pas” on Monday.. now, you must be wondering what this can possibly be.. especially in an “open”, “exploratory” institute like the one I am in now.. Let me explain:

you see, I tickled a cow.. yes, not just any cow, but someone’s “sacred cow”.. after months of studying in this place, I figured that since we were at the forefront of education and educational research, and with all this talk of critical thinking, necessity for changes in teaching, and being open and all, I could afford to be vocal in class and to express some of the real-life challenges I see for teaching. Deep in my heart, I believe that it is only with the open, honest discussions that we have in class, without fears and concerns, while we are in the protected environment that we have now, that we can “dissect the theories and models” we have in front of us. This is the time we can figure out which methods are practical and which are not, and finally bring our own learned conclusions to the classrooms and “mould” the future.

Although this thinking and vocalizing of my views was well-received in most other classes, little did I know that, along the way, I actually came close, in this particular Monday class, to being condemned as “slaughtering someone’s sacred cow”... you see, after my wonderful school experience last week, I came back with the feeling that some of the things that we were being taught now in the institute, had in reality limited practicality in a real-life classroom setting, for various reasons. After I vocalized this in Monday’s class, I was quickly cautioned, privately, by a few of my classmates that this teacher may not be pleased with what I said as I brought up one of her “pet” research topics in my sharing..

fearing that I may have offended her, I sent her an email and got a somewhat strongly worded reply back. In her own words, she said she was “taken aback” after hearing what I said. She told me that she was “rattled” by my remark, worse still because the class appeared to “give me much support” (err… did she try to figure out why that was the case??).. as a result, she felt that she “had fallen many steps back”.. I was shocked that she had taken my remark so personally, and in some ways, was disappointed that she felt that I was “attacking” what she was teaching rather than that I was just “discussing”, since that was the angle which most classmates felt I was coming from… an innocent remark meant to generate discussion.. i even thought this feedback and empirical evidence i had for her would have been invaluable for her own academic research in this area.. but i guess she didn't see it this way..

we managed to have a private chat today where I articulated to her more clearly where I came from. Hopefully, the message got through to her.. At the end of the day, however, I guess it left me thinking and slightly sad... I know there is a lot of work still needed to be done to move towards improving the education system.. and this single event could be the very first hurdle I will face, even before I step out there..

wow, this could be a big challenge after all.. :| .. lucky i'm not one to give up so easily..