Most often, I play the Devil's advocate in class. This helps me assist my students in seeing the flaws in their thought or argument and forces them to reconsider or rethink at another deeper level. This strategy works very well with me.
At Kondadaba, for the past four years, it was me playing the Devil's advocate, literally. Brothers were truly 'pietistic' and therefore had to wake them up with some jolts of reason. Basically they were living a blind faith, but willing to acknowledge their state of life and at least open to a contrary view than theirs. From the little time I've spent here at Karunapuram, I'm yet to gauge my students. Quite a many of them are still mute spectators in the class. So I know not what their stand is. But of those who speak up and ask questions, I sense that they are very eager to move on. They consider most of orthodoxy a mere waste of time and are all set for praxis. But truly they haven't even grown one inch of roots! Some others are slowly waking up to the fact that I don't have formal and linear notes for a 45 mins continuous lecture.
One thing I can be sure of (from my past experience): there will certainly be some sizeable number who grasp nothing; and even if they did grasp, it would be something so insignificant and out of context that it would not be worth discussing. Let's see how things proceed.
At Kondadaba, for the past four years, it was me playing the Devil's advocate, literally. Brothers were truly 'pietistic' and therefore had to wake them up with some jolts of reason. Basically they were living a blind faith, but willing to acknowledge their state of life and at least open to a contrary view than theirs. From the little time I've spent here at Karunapuram, I'm yet to gauge my students. Quite a many of them are still mute spectators in the class. So I know not what their stand is. But of those who speak up and ask questions, I sense that they are very eager to move on. They consider most of orthodoxy a mere waste of time and are all set for praxis. But truly they haven't even grown one inch of roots! Some others are slowly waking up to the fact that I don't have formal and linear notes for a 45 mins continuous lecture.
One thing I can be sure of (from my past experience): there will certainly be some sizeable number who grasp nothing; and even if they did grasp, it would be something so insignificant and out of context that it would not be worth discussing. Let's see how things proceed.
No comments:
Post a Comment