EPISODE X: LIFE

 

GOODNONSENSE SERIES, SEASON II

An avid educator explaining a concept/ Credit/ThisIsEngineering

EPISODE X: LIFE

You can see so much in a short span of time. Life changes quickly. A lot has changed around me. I not only successfully finished my investigations but also documented my findings. They revealed a lot too. I thought I knew people. That I had mastered the game. However, I have a long way to go. There are a lot of dots that need to be connected. And I have so much that also needs to be figured out. A lot of good things have happened to me. The business program I took in particular has had a positive influence on me. The program cemented my life in the right place. My mind is in a good place and I am taking in life quite positively. The experiences I have gained in different corners of the city are shaping me in the right direction. I have gained wisdom. My life is not the same. It has changed for the better. I love my new self and the many works that I have invested in the self.

Every effort that I took to help me make progress is paying off. I am headed in the right way. Work and school have intertwined in the best way possible. I am effortlessly doing each one of them. Classroom in particular, has become so interesting. I am not sure what is exciting in the classroom but I love being there. And I am working hard. Maybe, I can pin my excitement in the classroom to a certain goal in my mind. The goal is built around being outside. When I have learned what I was supposed to learn. Being outside will enable me see my education. I would like to see the kind of person I will become after finishing school. The things that I will do and how I will do them. The concepts in the classroom have suggested many things. They have explained how things should be done in the eyes of a professional. Outside will let me know whether I have grasped the concepts or not.

That part is stimulating. Finding opportunities that will let me test my skills is exciting too. However, there is a third layer of this excitement. It is how some of my professors are instructing. There is one particular professor who seems to be chewing more than she can handle. She is actually good at her instructions. Her lessons are attended by the highest number of students at the University. She is teaching a common course. Her class is usually full. And she seems to have bad jokes too. The professor has taken notice of a certain student. I am not sure how she noticed the student and formed an opinion. Isn’t she supposed to pay attention? She has a huge class to handle. The professor has work cut out for her. Her energies should be directed at equipping the learners with the right information. Her instructions are supposed to help learners open up their minds. 

And I am not sure about the last part too. Because on a certain day, the professor made a comment. The comment was directed at the student she had taken notice at. The student did not know that the professor was monitoring her little activities. The student’s fashion choices belonged to her. In fact, the University was not interested in what students wore to class. Students were supposed to be decent. And they were trying. Most of them had just found new freedom. They were experimenting with some clothes. Some students  were wearing what their parents could not approve. They were exhibiting the power of being independent. And they were trying out things they could not do at home. Some students had taken their independence to a whole new level. They were exploring their fashion choices radically.

The student that the professor took notice of was decent. She dressed in a certain way. But the student was clean. However, the professor was having too much fun with the student’s choices. She made a derogatory comment. On this particular day, the student had changed her signature fashion styling. And the professor took notice again. The class was just beginning when the professor made the comment. Other learners heard the comment. It was not good. The student was furious. The comment that the professor made suggested that the student could be unhygienic. The professor arrived at that conclusion based on the mere fact that she always sees the student wearing the same piece of cloth almost every day. The comment was ignorant. It was shame. The professor had a lot of work to do. She was also supposed to know better. However, the class got the treatment of her pettiness.

A happy female enjoying life/Credit/DarkShade Photos

Common sense suggests that when a person prefers a certain style. Chances are, the person has many pieces of clothes, which look the same. The person in many occasions, focuses on establishing a certain recognizable identity. I think that was what the student in the common course was doing. She was trying to create an identifiable image. In fact, she was the most unique and recognizable person in the classroom. What made her stand out was a piece of cloth she liked wearing on her head. Her head was always covered. Nobody had actually seen the student without a head covering. That was how she loved living and learning. And life was good in the classroom. No one bothered the learner. People were in their own worlds. They were having fun learning as adult students. So you can imagine the surprise the class got when the bad joke was uttered. 

What even aggravated the matter was not the unkind words. It was the place. The classroom where education is supposed to take place. In the classroom criticism and correction are limited to specific subjects in the course. Issues of character development or personal choices have nothing to do with the classroom. Unless they are impacting the classroom directly. But that was not the case. The professor was neither in charge of character development nor fashion. The professor's responsibility was to teach students how to communicate in the marketplace. That was her job in the classroom. And she was deflecting. I have no idea how her behavior influenced other students because she was okaying a bad practice. A practice that she was in position to correct too. In my experience. It is students who make bad jokes. Their excuse could be that they are inexperienced and still learning. But a whole professor was totally out of place. The professor occupied the position of privilege. She had power to correct and direct.

The professor stands in front of the class. At the front, her eyes can see many things. She has authority as the professor to purge wrong notions in the classroom. She was in a position to help students that she thought were struggling. She could either connect them to the right departments or direct them herself. But the professor was not doing that. Instead, she was being careless. The student did not commit any mistake that warranted defamation. She was just affirming herself. The student was preparing herself for the marketplace. The student was gravitating towards identity. It was a good thing. At least, this student knew something about the marketplace. Standing out matters. Corporate image matters. The professor should have known that too because she was teaching a related subject. However, through her carelessness she hurt a good student and was not keen to apologize. Some students who sat close to the defamed learner shared in her displeasure with the professor. The remark that the professor made was not fact-checked.   

The professor arrived at the observation after seeing the same thing for some time. And her conclusion was that the student never finds time to clean up. The professor did not ask the student why she loves dressing that way. The professor did not know the meaning behind the student’s choice of style. She just made the utterance as a joke. She did not think about the consequences of the comment. She did not even think about the student or other students in the classroom. After all, she likes making bad jokes with minimal thought. The professor did not think about the impact of her behavior towards other people.  Perhaps, the professor thought that her students were ignorant too and will not take offense with the statement. Of course students at the back might not have heard the bad joke. However, several others in front and closer to the front heard it.

Enthusiastic kids enjoying life as learners/Credit/Naomi Shi

The student never felt comfortable again in the common course. The professor took fun out of the course. And she was the first person I ever heard at the University make such a thoughtless comment. Other professors conducted themselves professionally. They taught their respective lessons with dignity. There were no complains other than from the common class instructor. These never-thought off behaviors have consequences. They lower dignity. They destroy life. In the case of the student.  Her self-esteem was affected. She was a jovial person who loved her classes. But the comment dampened her mood. The professor knowingly or unknowingly hurt the good intentions of a well thought out learner. The student was on the right path with her fashion choices.

She was building her brand as a student. She was communicating something using her certain color and outfit. But the teacher destroyed her highly-focused brand-building strategy. The classroom was good without bad experiences. I personally was having a great time learning. And I was not looking forward to hear certain things. At least, I can conclude that there was modesty in the classroom until the professor spoiled the mood. Anyway, you cannot prevent life from happening. Further, you cannot prevent people from being themselves. The professor was being her typical self when she made the comment. She is used to making careless remarks. And she did not make an exception for the classroom. She did not process the meaning of being an instructor. And the privilege of standing in front. She was supposed to nurture. However, the professor was destroying while teaching. Attacking an image of another person without facts is absurd. If the professor was in doubt, she could just ask. But she was not asking. She was using assumptions. Flawed assumptions for that matter.

This is not why we were in the classroom. Students were in the classroom to learn. I wanted to learn what builds and nourishes my mind. I only discovered the third layer of being in the classroom after the bad joke. Everything else was flowing as anticipated. And I was determined to graduate at the top of my class. It did not matter what else I was doing. My education was still a priority. And my head was in a good place. It was not betraying my lessons. The various in-class tests proved it. I had a good head. That was something I wanted to build my education around. I wanted to harness the power of a good head and use it to get to the top. That is where I drew my excitement. I was banking on my good head to also perform well in the marketplace. But the bad joke, was gradually scathing my happiness matrix. 

Life is not done with me. The city still has so much to reveal. And stereotypes seem to be still deep-rooted among people. We will have to work hard all of us. If, we must win certain battles. Adults in the city still have a long way to go. My findings have so much to prove about adults in the city. They will have to work hard too. Achieving self-determination requires sustained effort. To that end, adults who are looking to rescue themselves from certain battles have huge amount of work ahead of them. Cases of irresponsibility do not end by merely mentioning them. Real people must be willing to overcome them. Adults must fight them. The behavior witnessed in the classroom is not practiced by the professor alone. There are other people out there who come short in the eyes of their students or children. And nobody knows when these issues will be faced and corrected. However, the fact remains. Careless talk harms.