As we are approaching the end of the spring
semester, we are supposed to submit a final paper by April-end. My colleagues
and I chose subjects that are of interest to us to investigate. I chose to talk
about Practicum in faculties of education or teacher colleges. I will check to
what extent practicum is reflected in real class room practices. It is a very interesting
topic. While I was working on my seminars on Egypt and Singapore, I realized
the huge gap between the two systems with relation to the application of
practicum. And that was when I came up with a title for my paper "The
rhetoric-reality gap".
Yet, when I started arranging my thoughts
to write down the outlines of my paper, a thought flashed through my mind. I
will talk about the rhetoric-reality gap of educational practices but what
about OURS as INDIVIDUALS!!!
There are frequent stories of people who
did something which is the total opposite of what they said. Sometimes you meet
those people who make you startled once they open their mouths to talk. You
feel like "Wooow…this is truly inspirational. That is exactly what we need
to fix the society". Days, weeks or years later, their actions REFUTE
their rhetoric.
As educators, it is crucial to have what I call
"Self Reality Check". What you tell your students in class or
whatever policy you write down to be applied at schools nationwide, should be
what you originally believe in and do. I believe that our actions define to a
great extent who we are. Actions speak louder than words. So, be sure that if
you ran into your students in a store or at movie theater, they will see what
they usually hear from you. This practice shouldn’t only be adopted by
educators, it should be universal.
If you tell people that the rich should help
the poor then you should be the first one to do it. If you tell your students don’t
lie then you should be the first one to be honest. I am not saying that we are angels
or that we should be. We are humans and this is our saving grace. I am only
saying what I try so hard to remind myself with every time I start talking or
giving advice to someone "Practice what you PREACH".
This reminds me of Mahatma Ghandi, he followed this ideology. He did not ask people to fast with him or to support his cause, he just wanted to protest peacefully. He just did what he believed and because of it, people started to follow him and waited for his every word. They even called him Papu..
ReplyDeleteLovely, thought-provoking post Koboul. It made me wonder, if as time goes by how do we negotiate the changes in our concept of who we are and how we se ourselves and our role in society. Is that a constant? If that changes, will we change what we do, say, and how we act over time?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Koboull! You have made your tenth post. Good job! For your next post, I want to re-read your posts and comment on the experience of rereading your comments. I also want you to take the time and comment on other people's posts.
ReplyDeleteBy now, I believe that the only constant in life is change! How I see it is it is very challenging to keep the same attitude when found in different contexts or faced with different situations. It is part of that we face different people in different places with different backgrounds and perceptions. Accordingly, our reflexes and reactions should suit the place and the culture. And here comes the trick, while doing so, it is very important to keep our integrity and honesty. Yes, our actions, behaviors and outlook for life change while we grow up and being exposed to different ideas. Yet, we still need to keep our "self reality check" not to loose ourselves and who we really are in the process.
ReplyDelete