Pedagogy
Posted: Thu May 08, 2008 6:38 am
My eyes trace slowly over the exam paper of Shizune Hakamichi, the red ballpoint pen in my left hand lazily waiting to mark any mistake that could've snuck past her sharp eyes.
It's in vain. Perfect score, as usual.
Not so with Miki Miura. Correcting the mistakes from her papers is doubly painful, but her dull-headedness is the lesser one of my problems. I wish she'd soon learn to write with what's left of her left hand legibly, but the girl can't help being born right-handed, can she?
It's after all the dominant variety of handedness, something like four of every five people, so the odds were against her. Actually, the issue is somewhat interesting, as there is no waterproof explanation as to why right-handedness is so prevalent. I recall some European, maybe Italian? could've been Hungarian too – biologist suggesting it has something to do with organ asymmetry, but I'm not sure if it's plausible to claim that…
Ah, but I meant to be correcting these papers.
The names of my students, inscribed in the upper corners of their papers, are going past my eyes one by one.
Hakamichi, Fukui, Takahashi, Mikado, Yoshida, Hiiragi, Ikezawa...
As a teacher, it's my job to teach and to guide them in the thorny path of education.
As a teacher of Yamaku Academy, it is my purpose to understand these children, to support them in the even thornier path of life.
That's right, the true purpose of education - oh, Misha (I like Mikado's nickname even though I am the only person in the school who doesn't use it) seems to have made a bad blunder in the fifth question. She should concentrate more and she'd be a star student.
The essence of being a human is social interaction. It took me more than a while to realize this myself. In here you can't avoid being more compassionate than usually, and we of the faculty end up being something more than just educators. For the students, the school is a special place.
Especially this school.
Here, the kids can find friends, people to relate to, they can feel the excitement of a math exam or the first love, eat lunch every day in the cafeteria, get scolded by a teacher, break the rules, dream of the future, everything and anything.
Even these poor children can live instead of being institutionalised somewhere where nobody remembers or cares.
Poor children…
Who am I to pity them? Many of them are better off than I was when I was their age. At least here they won't have to feel like the odd ones out.
They don't need my pity.
I lean back on my chair – it squeaks in protest – and ponder the essence of being a teacher.
The dark orange, almost brownish light refracting from the low-hanging clouds is slowly dissolving into the air of the classroom. The particle concentration in the troposphere must be just right for this effect. The physics of sunsets are quite intriguing, as the effect depends on a number of variables like the time of the year, the latitude, altitude from sea level and of course, the atmospheric conditions. I wonder if it'd be possible to model certain aspects of it by some kind of linear…
Oh right.
I've never had any formal education to be a teacher, and people often say I don't have the character to be a teacher. Maybe that's why I'm not the best teacher
Even the club I oversee has only one member. Not the minimum five required for the school to give some kind of funding. One. That's all right though, Nakai is fine with that and clearly enjoys going that extra distance. It's rare to meet a student with an actual desire to learn.
Then again, it'd be good to have more members in the club. It'd be nice to have these meetings be livelier, something I can't say they've so far been. Even today, we just discussed briefly about that Chandrasekhar book I borrowed him before I gave him an assignment to work on and started marking those exams from the other day while he was on it.
Somehow, I feel that a natural sciences club should be something else than giving him books to read and discussions, but with just the two of us our possibilities are somewhat limited.
I look at Nakai, who is working diligently. He is very studious. It's good. There are many good kids in the school. Maybe I should try to recruit a few more members. It seems I still have the charm, as I managed to seduce young Hisao so easily into this.
Heh. My word choice makes me chuckle inward.
"That's enough for today, Hisao."
"Time to get going."
Nakai looks up from his assignment, as if surprised that it's suddenly late and the club meeting time is over.
"Yes, sir."
I think that's what he says, as his words are quite muffled.
I push my chair back so Nakai can stand up from under my desk and stretch his undoubtedly stiff muscles. He shoots a yearning glance at my still pulsating member, but I ruffle at his hair, smiling, and he goes to pick up his bag without objections.
I look approvingly at his young, tender rump that is exiting through the classroom door along with the rest of Nakai, while I'm removing the nipple clamps and buttoning my shirt back up.
I wonder what the wife is going to make for dinner today.
It's in vain. Perfect score, as usual.
Not so with Miki Miura. Correcting the mistakes from her papers is doubly painful, but her dull-headedness is the lesser one of my problems. I wish she'd soon learn to write with what's left of her left hand legibly, but the girl can't help being born right-handed, can she?
It's after all the dominant variety of handedness, something like four of every five people, so the odds were against her. Actually, the issue is somewhat interesting, as there is no waterproof explanation as to why right-handedness is so prevalent. I recall some European, maybe Italian? could've been Hungarian too – biologist suggesting it has something to do with organ asymmetry, but I'm not sure if it's plausible to claim that…
Ah, but I meant to be correcting these papers.
The names of my students, inscribed in the upper corners of their papers, are going past my eyes one by one.
Hakamichi, Fukui, Takahashi, Mikado, Yoshida, Hiiragi, Ikezawa...
As a teacher, it's my job to teach and to guide them in the thorny path of education.
As a teacher of Yamaku Academy, it is my purpose to understand these children, to support them in the even thornier path of life.
That's right, the true purpose of education - oh, Misha (I like Mikado's nickname even though I am the only person in the school who doesn't use it) seems to have made a bad blunder in the fifth question. She should concentrate more and she'd be a star student.
The essence of being a human is social interaction. It took me more than a while to realize this myself. In here you can't avoid being more compassionate than usually, and we of the faculty end up being something more than just educators. For the students, the school is a special place.
Especially this school.
Here, the kids can find friends, people to relate to, they can feel the excitement of a math exam or the first love, eat lunch every day in the cafeteria, get scolded by a teacher, break the rules, dream of the future, everything and anything.
Even these poor children can live instead of being institutionalised somewhere where nobody remembers or cares.
Poor children…
Who am I to pity them? Many of them are better off than I was when I was their age. At least here they won't have to feel like the odd ones out.
They don't need my pity.
I lean back on my chair – it squeaks in protest – and ponder the essence of being a teacher.
The dark orange, almost brownish light refracting from the low-hanging clouds is slowly dissolving into the air of the classroom. The particle concentration in the troposphere must be just right for this effect. The physics of sunsets are quite intriguing, as the effect depends on a number of variables like the time of the year, the latitude, altitude from sea level and of course, the atmospheric conditions. I wonder if it'd be possible to model certain aspects of it by some kind of linear…
Oh right.
I've never had any formal education to be a teacher, and people often say I don't have the character to be a teacher. Maybe that's why I'm not the best teacher
Even the club I oversee has only one member. Not the minimum five required for the school to give some kind of funding. One. That's all right though, Nakai is fine with that and clearly enjoys going that extra distance. It's rare to meet a student with an actual desire to learn.
Then again, it'd be good to have more members in the club. It'd be nice to have these meetings be livelier, something I can't say they've so far been. Even today, we just discussed briefly about that Chandrasekhar book I borrowed him before I gave him an assignment to work on and started marking those exams from the other day while he was on it.
Somehow, I feel that a natural sciences club should be something else than giving him books to read and discussions, but with just the two of us our possibilities are somewhat limited.
I look at Nakai, who is working diligently. He is very studious. It's good. There are many good kids in the school. Maybe I should try to recruit a few more members. It seems I still have the charm, as I managed to seduce young Hisao so easily into this.
Heh. My word choice makes me chuckle inward.
"That's enough for today, Hisao."
"Time to get going."
Nakai looks up from his assignment, as if surprised that it's suddenly late and the club meeting time is over.
"Yes, sir."
I think that's what he says, as his words are quite muffled.
I push my chair back so Nakai can stand up from under my desk and stretch his undoubtedly stiff muscles. He shoots a yearning glance at my still pulsating member, but I ruffle at his hair, smiling, and he goes to pick up his bag without objections.
I look approvingly at his young, tender rump that is exiting through the classroom door along with the rest of Nakai, while I'm removing the nipple clamps and buttoning my shirt back up.
I wonder what the wife is going to make for dinner today.
The way Muto wryly says, "I wonder what the wife is going to make for dinner today," was like the finishing blow. This gets a star sticker.
