I'm a teacher because I teach, not because I'm certified by the Ontario College of Teachers and fully qualified to teach. I want to teach people stuff, I can teach people stuff, and so I do. Thing is, when I look at the teachers who aren't any good (or me when I'm having a bad day), I see that they are thought of as teachers, not because they actually teach stuff and make sure learning is happening, but because they say they are teachers, because they are accredited (certified).
For their part, the kids are used to being asked merely to pretend to learn. "What did you do at school today?" "Nothing," they say. Actually they 'pretended they were people who were going to learn stuff at some point.' What would happen if they showed up and wanted to know a few things? What if they demanded we tell them some stuff, or made sure they could actually do certain things instead of just waiting until we left them alone, because we were satisfied that they showed up and sat there and so have done all that could be asked?
A friend and I were talking about why we can't seem to "get into" church activities and the bible discussions they purport to have. It's like enough of the Christians are thought of and claim to be Christians because they want to be seen as Christians because being a Christian is a good thing, not because they want to be anything particularly Christian, and certainly not to actually need to be able to do anything Christian. It's kind of an identity thing. They need to feel superior to, as said below, the people who "don't know the real meaning of Christmas." They seem to worship so they can claim to have worshipped, preached so they can say preaching took place and so on.
When they have what they describe as "bible discussions," there doesn't seem to be much discussion at all, and if there is, it doesn't go anywhere or result in anything. It's like they know that a bible discussion is supposed to have talking at it, and that if there isn't any talking, then it won't have happened properly, so they talk so talking will have occurred (most meetings I have had to attend for various jobs seem to involve first pointing out the fact that we have met, and then explaining why we have met, then outlining what we will be discussing, now that we have met (and that we are now at step 3 of the schedule, having 1. pointed out the fact that we have met, and 2. covered why we are meeting, so have moved on to 3. outlining what we will be discussing, which will be followed by 4. wrapping up the discussion and 5. planning when the next discussion will take place). What was missing? The part (it should have fallen at 3b) where we actually discussed any stuff, perhaps followed by 3c, where we'd actually decide things. The meetings seem to me to be place-holder activities. Quite often actual discussion is not welcome and we don't get actual say, and things are already decided (or, it has been decided, are not going to be decided) but we are required to have a meeting nonetheless, pretty much to show we care to some degree and are willing to participate by sitting in the chairs and all.
I badly want to be part of real stuff that matters. I want it in every aspect of daily life. Instead, we are policed by police forces staffed with people who became police officers so they could be police officers, rather than so they could police, and the like. Doctors, nurses, parents, husbands, wives and priests, mostly filling the places so they can be place-holders, and not really doing the stuff. We're surrounded by people holding the positions described in the jobs they applied for, the gaining of said position having been so challenging that they are now resting on their laurels, having arrived, and putting in effort which does little more than go through the motions most of the time.Whenever we encounter someone who is actually doing the stuff, it's like they're magic.
What would happen if we really did the stuff to get it done well, rather than just so we could say we kinda worked away at kinda doing it? What if we engaged?
No comments:
Post a Comment