Education or Customer service

 Teaching profession is considered and IS more a vocation than a career.  There are very many teachers who treat their work more as a service than a timed-duty which they fulfill merely for the remuneration. These are the teachers who go over and beyond the mere classrooms and exams and marks.  They see students more as children... at times, like their own!  

However, with the shift in market trends and culture in the society at large, education is more seen as a ladder to prosperity than a moulding of character. In such a context, it is often the teacher who ends up at the receiving end.  Parents demand that teachers 'teach' their children, convinced that having paid the fees, it is now the responsibility of  the school and teachers to 'educate' their children.  Their role as primary educators is easily forgotten and passed on to the teachers.  

I came across an article which aptly described today's education scenario as a 'customer service' enterprise, where parents and students are out to demand from the teacher.  The wrong notion that the parent or the child is a customer is at the root of it all.  The worst is to misunderstand education as a commodity; rather than a value based skill to improve one's character, personality and convictions.  

The teacher, like stated by Socrates and Aristotle, is only a facilitator who assists the student to become wise (not merely a basket of knowledge or information).  The teacher does not 'pour' or 'fill' the student with knowledge - that would be an insult to the child/student itself! 

Digital privilege

 I met one of my mentors after several months. He has been one of the few gentlemen I have esteemed much for years now, primarily for the integrity of character and critical thinking. 

The latest meeting however was a kind of reversal of roles: he needed my help to figure out something about the internet and email. He was never good at tasks involving technical content. So I have lent him a helping hand very many times in the past as well. 

Now as a 'tutor' it occurred to me, how is it that he does not know such simple and easy things. But as an educator I am also aware that what I today consider 'simple and easy' was not what the older generation was born with. The digital playground has been the given-privilege of my era - greater still of the younger guys. 

Formation and apostolate

What is the major difference between formation houses and houses of active apostolate?  Or in other words, between formation and apostolate?  

I know I'm splitting hairs.  I am also very aware and conscious of the fact that the two are not different or segregated.  Nonetheless, there is a difference.  There should be a difference.  

During the discussions about getting familiarised with the GC29 documents it occurred to me that perhaps one thing that distinguishes formation from active apostolate is the degree of accompaniment.  While formation is all about accompaniment, during the initial years of formation, the young Salesian is offered a greater possibility of being accompanied.  During apostolate in full-fledged active communities, the level of accompaniment is significantly lower.  Of course, no accompaniment at this stage is bad; the fact is that the luxury formation settings provide for the type of accompaniment offered is not possible in communities with multiple sectors and works.  

Blessed are those who realise that formation is all about accompaniment; helping the young Salesian personalise the formation process so that no matter where he goes or does, he makes that an opportunity for learning and growing.  Just like Don Bosco who did not treat his seminary years as years of formation;  his whole life, every incident, every achievement and failure; every task and challenge, he turned it into a formation experience!  

AI workshop

I have been attending an Artificial Intelligence (AI) workshop at the Provincial house since three days. I opted for participating in it to learn and explore the possibilities of the technological availability of the AI. The biggest challenge I personally feel is the shift from moving to being a user to creator. Even being a user is something not mastered by me, yet! 

Secondly a shift in mentality, from the traditional means of operation to a more technological based process to facilitate efficiency and save time. 

Next is a lack of clarity of what to do with it?  But I see it only as an initial hiccup. 

I personally would like to explore it for analysing data, utilising networking tools for greater and efficient collaboration with other offices in the Provincial house, and finally for the communication network of the Province. 

Finally, a pic generated through AI...

Formation and knowledge

Reading this particular article on Aeon about walking and applying the philosophy of Gilbert Ryle to it, I was wondering if this can be applied to the whole process of formation and that particular phase of intellectual formation too.

Just a handful of us formators back in the province believe that a student discerning his vocation to priestly or religious life ought to have a rather meaningful and sensible intellectual capacity.  Lacking in which he or she will make things and life miserable for others and themselves - the exact opposite of what ministry seeks to do in service of the people! Most formators feel that intellectual capacity should not be a major factor to be considered when deciding whether a person continues being a religious or priest or not. 

Ryle seems to suggest that if self-teaching is activated, that would suffice for improving a skill. 

We can think about Ryle’s view as a middle way between the just-do-it view and intellectualism. Intellectualism claims that skilled action requires thought, and gives a picture of thought as deliberate, conscious internal activity. The just-do-it view observes that it is not plausible that skill requires this kind of conscious thinking, and concludes that thought is the enemy of skill. Ryle agrees with the just-do-it view that conscious thought is not a requirement of skill, but offers an alternative view of thinking as engaged problem solving, claiming that this kind of thought is a requirement of skilled action.

If I'm reading it right, Ryle would say that just because is a person is kind and considerate, does exempt him or her from engaging in a very intellectual exercise of thinking. Nonetheless, to actually continue being kind and considerate and develop it as a skill rather than blindly repeat certain kind actions and utterances, a particular kind of thought is essential. 

One need not be an expert in oceanography to be a priest or religious but if one is not competent to reflect on ones own ministry and willing to make sufficient effort to learn from it, even if already 'good' at it, then one certainly is not worthy of becoming a priest or religious. Openness and humility to learn, require a certain kind of thinking to actualize and bear fruit.  

Reading sentence

Came across the following article this morning:  A judge 'sentencing' a bunch of kids with a 'reading list' rather than a normal custodial sentence.

Graffiti punished by reading

The sentence I gave was harsher than what they would normally have received. Normally it would just be probation which would mean checking in with a probation officer once a month and maybe a few hours of community service and writing a letter to say sorry. Here they had to write 12 assignments and a 3,500-word essay on racial hatred and symbols in the context of what they'd done… It was a lot of work. (Alejandra Rueda, the judge, who drew up the list of 35 books). 

Children learn fast.  And depending on what they are taught, they become that!  Teach them to share and care, to value life and respect everyone, they become exactly that.  And teaching does not mean a classroom mode of lecture.  It is about helping them learn and form convictions for life.

And here's a list of the 12 (of the 35) books the teenagers were told to read and write about, one per month:

1. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
2. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou
3. The Tortilla Curtain - T C Boyle
4. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
5. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6. 12 Years a Slave - Solomon Northup
7. The Crucible - Arthur Miller
8. Cry the Beloved Country - Alan Paton
9. My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok
10. Exodus - Leon Uris
11. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
12. Night - Elie Wiesel

Feel a bit guilty and ashamed to state that I've read only 2 of these!  

First day class

Some lessons (inspiration) for the first day of class...
Good first day class

1. Build curiosity 
2. Help build a community
3. Learning: begin with what they already know; learn what helps them best as individuals; begin the content (without actually making them feel the burden)
4. Clarify expectations (theirs and yours): assessments, policies, deadlines, materials... Give space for their aspirations, prejudices, fears and anxieties... ("What's the one thing that helps you learn better and that I can help with?"

Engaged teaching

A good resource about classroom engagement and learning, especially from a teacher's perspective...
How to make your teaching more engaging...

• Use emotions 
• Students learn better when the DO things.
• Mix up activities and teaching styles
• Engagement is different from entertainment
• Plan chunks of the duration, rather than the whole lot
• Make learning relevant to their daily lives
• Your persona matters
• Help students fall in love with the subject... you need to love it first of all! 
• Take risk, freshen up your material
• Know your students, help them build a rapport with one another
• Tell your own stories, use humour...

Green mangoes

Children have a totally different perspective of the world than we adults. They see things and the world in a totally different light than most of us. 

In one of my casual conversations with my 5 year old niece I asked her what colour are mangoes.  I only thought of yellow.  She, on the other hand, started with "Green, red and some are yellow!" At first I was prompted to 'correct' her and say mangoes are yellow.  But then I realized she was right.  Mangoes are green and red too!  

Silence

Experiencing silence is akin to floating in outer space.  The legs which are so accustomed to supporting the body to be upright have nothing to stand on.  In normal circumstances, the hands 'kick in'.  When the feet are not able to find a hold, we start seeking support using our hands.  However there is nothing to hold on to.  It is something that makes us feel odd.  It is not something we are ready for or honestly long for - perhaps a rare brief moment is all that we ask for.

A moment of silence can be more educative than a large book or a lengthy discourse.  In silence, to learn is not to stabilise or gain control but to surrender.  It is a very humbling and enriching terrain and experience, but very few willing to learn first hand, leave alone explore.

Self-taught faith journey

The feast of the three kings, that Epiphany celebrated, post-Christmas has a very different touch to it than the rest of the Biblical history preceding it.  In a way it is a foretaste of the Acts of the Apostles, wherein the message of Christ is not restricted to the Jews or the land of Judah but begins to spread across the whole world.  (Or is it?  There have always been non-Jewish 'interpolations' in the Biblical history, right since the origin of the Jewish race. The story of Ruth, for example.)

Of the many things interesting in the narrative of the three kings the one that caught my attention yesterday was the part where the kings come to know of the birth of the messiah from their knowledge of astronomy.  There is no mention of an angel appearing to them and announcing the birth of Jesus, as in the case of Mary, or the shepherds.  There is no 'God-telling-them' as such!  However, they read the signs of nature and infer and based on this knowledge they come to experience the child Jesus.

This has an important lesson for us all: one's faith journey need not necessarily be strewn with divine revelation!  If one is open to the other, and willing to be led by signs other than ones approved by men, there is a great possibility that one encounters the divine along the way.

There is no mention of the kings prior to the event nor after their visit to the child Jesus.  Some wish to believe that they went back as different men, just as they took a 'different route' back home - I doubt it!  They would not have been very different from what they initially were.  They already were good, they only continued working on their goodness.  

Person or document?

When in a dire situation and would like some help, to whom or to what will I turn to?  A document or a person whom I trust?  I'd surely turn to the latter.  Perhaps in leisure when nothing else to do, then I'd like to flip through a document.

Even when I do turn to a person, who would that be?  certainly not any random person.  It will be someone whom I trust, perhaps someone who's been through such a situation and I've known him or her to have handled it well.  What will certainly count is my rapport with him and the amount of trust I have in that person.

Contrary to my own present state of conviction, perhaps there will come a time when a document will  be formulated from the collective experience of those who've been through situations, and based on their suggestions and recommendations.  But how effective will that be?  ... the same as personal experience enriched sharing/learning?

But again, that is in time of 'crisis'.  

Rorty, sentiments and human rights

Richard Rorty, speaking of human rights, believed that reason was not an effective means of communication in a human rights discourse. Anti-foundationalist that he was he did not believe in human rights being founded on some moral or eternal principle, which everyone ought to recognize and admit.  He rather preferred to speak of a 'human rights culture' something that we socially have agreed to.  And the best means of building this culture? Through sentimental education, not rational argumentation.

I see a very valid point in what Rorty is trying to build.  The sentimental appeal is much stronger than any rational argument. We are affected more by our sentiments than our logic and rationale. The idea is to make people see that others are not "like us", but "us".  However, there seems to be a sort of drawback lurking just round the corner in this argument.  Am not really able to pinpoint it, but I can feel it.

• Is it that convincing someone of human rights using emotions is more of a blackmail than a real conviction? 
• Would I be using the suffering of others as a 'lesson' plan? If no suffering or pain with which I can appeal to the sentiment of others, do I not have a valid means of conveying the worth of human rights? 
• Seems more like claim-rights... only when 'we' agree to something.  What if 'we' agree to what is convenient for us?  Slavery and dowry was very convenient once upon a time.  Even to those who were burdened by it, because it was a 'socially accepted norm'. 
• What of those who 'understand' the language of reason?  Learned men and women who know what is being said and discussed?  
• Can international and national policies ride on the strength of emotions and feelings? 

Growing in knowledge

Plato has this interesting thing to say about knowledge and growing in knowledge.

Isn’t it by learning and study, which are motions, that the soul gains knowledge and is preserved and becomes a better thing? Whereas in a state of rest, that is, when it will not study or learn, it not only fails to acquire knowledge but forgets what it has already learned? [Plato, Theaetetus, 153c]

No wonder he was called wise!

Motivation and Success

Extracts from 'Williams driven by a deeper purpose' by Matthew Syed in The Times of February 1, 2017 (p. 60)

We are motivated to do amazing things not when we are within our comfort zone, but when we seek a wider purpose, often (but not always) discovered in adversity. As Orson Welles put it in the Third Man: "In Italy, for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had fiver hundred years of democracy and peace - and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." 

As Frankl put it: "Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one's personal dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one's surrender to a person other than oneself."

Read the full article here.  

Learning from St Francis de Sales

Today we commemorate the feast of St Francis de Sales.  Besides being the founder of the MSFS, he is venerated as the patron of the Salesians of Don Bosco.

Stained glass arcade of St Francis de Sales at Saint Paul Catholic Church (Westerville, Ohio)

When Don Bosco founded his congregation for the youth at risk, his natural choice of St Francis de Sales was not an impromptu decision.  It was out of a personal and historical resonance with the Saint that made Don Bosco propose St Francis de Sales as the patron.  Of all the virtues of St Francis, what attracted Don Bosco and something which moulded his own life, was the virtue of self-discipline.  St Francis is renowned for his gentleness and meekness. However, he was not 'born' with those virtues.  He had to strive to excel in them.  Don Bosco was much worse.  He was short-tempered, rebellious, hard-headed and as stubborn as a mule.  Don Bosco himself acknowledges these vices in his life.  And with this baggage he could not have done much for the kids to whom he was keen to reach out to.  For they too were of similar character!  Don Bosco then makes the difficult choice: to change himself in order to be useful to the boys whom he loved most. In this arduous task of working on oneself, he chose St Francis de Sales.  Though, honestly speaking, he did not have as much a success as did St Francis, but there was considerable change.

A story

As I was rummaging through my collection of books at home I came across this particular book, which I had in my collection only because of one particular explanation or presentation of ethics.  Most importantly it was not a book about ethics at all.  However, during my first year of Practical training when I choose to teach Philosophy of Morality, this particular narration put things in perspective, primarily for me and for most of my students as well. Besides the last para about the aspiration of a 'teacher' somehow found a resonance within me.

The context is the value of a story!

For instance, almost every student will admit - at least in theory - that love is more important than sex. But when it comes to actual practice, it's a different ballgame.  For example, "Why can't my boyfriend and I sleep together?  We really love one another." Well, I argue, in the first place you can sleep with him. Short of chaining you in the cellar, who can stop you? The real question is whether it's the best gift you can give one another.  Now that response usually makes them raise their condescending eyes toward heaven and wonder if my insanity can ever be cured.  "Of course it's the best gift you can give someone you love!" 

Well, I rejoin, you love your parents; you love people of your own sex; do you give them that gift too?  More groans. "Father, you're really dumb! There's only one person - at least one person at a time - that you give that gift to." Backed into a corner once more, I go for my last weapon: I tell a story to illustrate what I mean, in this case a true one. 

When I was born, I was a breech birth, which means I came into the world folded in half, not headfirst but rear-end first. (Usually there are some wits who capitalize on that, but I continue undaunted.) As a result, my mother was so torn by the delivery that she had to have a great many stitches.  The doctor told my father that he should stay out of bed with her for about three months. But my father, who was the kindest man I have ever known, didn't want to take even the slightest risk of causing my mother even the slightest pain. So he stayed out of bed with her for a year.  That raises the question: Which way did he show more love for her - by getting into bed with her or by staying out of bed?  Is it possible that there is an even greater way of showing love than sex? 

Perhaps not everyone in the class immediately understands what I'm getting at, but it's rare that the story doesn't make everyone of them think, make them wonder if perhaps there might be an aspect of love they haven't thought about.  As a teacher, that's my job: to make people think, to make them reassess, to make them grow - which often means leaving behind opinions that are comfortable, reassuring, self-serving.  

William J. O'Malley The Living Word: Scripture Myth  Vol. 1 (New York: Paulist Press, 1980) 30-31.

Shut up!

When does one say "Shut up!" to someone else?
When I realize that I have nothing more valuable to say and the other is just getting started to share something valuable!

Involved reading...

Fr Jose Mathew, while animating the discussion on different documents, asked the participants to do an 'involved reading' of the text. Read slowly, mark important sections, write down any questions, clarifications, try to see connections and all that.  Quite a few of the participants were amused about this.

I guess this whole process of reading itself is that:  involved.  Of course, one can also speak of it as opposed to cursory glance.  I also guess he must have picked it up during his teaching experience, wherein unless told to do so, the students would 'read' but know nothing about the text!!  That's because they have 'read' - run their eyes over the printed letters - but not really read.  

Presence and Witness

Another angle from which the stress on witness was felt was that of Jesus' life. He spent 30 years of silence and three years of preaching.  But those three years were impact filled primarily because the apostles and disciples SAW Jesus live his life, in all transparency, simplicity and truthfullness.  That was the lesson in itself, besides what he said. The latter only made verbal what was already being lived out.