Teachers sometimes have a gift. It involves more than just lecturing, questioning, or preaching. The instructor brings the lessons alive.
Here is one brief example, which is troublesome due to the way the lesson is delivered.
Nonetheless, it is powerful and relevant to the student in all of us.
Everytime I see that video. I feel instantly for the student. Maybe it’s the empathy in me . . . but I can’t help but think how would I feel in her shoes. I’m not sure I’m in love with the way the message is given, but he really does bring the lesson alive.
Agreed, Brian. The instructor justifies his action by referencing that the class would not have understood their responsibility fully unless they had lived through the “disappearance” of their classmate. I can say that a couple of the most humiliating events in my own student life turned out to be instructive.
Still, the young lady was sacrificed, in a way, no question. It would have been nice if there was an apology. In real life, I doubt that he the professor would have been allowed to deliver his message in the way he did more than once, if that. Thanks, Brian.
A wonderful example. As to the comments that part of the lesson should be retrieving the student…most of the time, that is not what happens. Yes, perhaps the video is staged for this powerful lesson – but happy endings are the outcome much more rarely than we see in entertainment.
Thank you, Greg. You are right about what happens and does not. The ending leaves the students being told they failed, but I wonder what their reflections might have revealed in private. As it stands, they were given a chance to learn an important lesson. In real life we might have learned if they did.
The most important lessons in a classroom are not found in books. It also demonstrates how it’s harder to speak up against an authority figure.
Very good points, Pete. As researchers would say, there is an experimental confound between the presence of an intimidating authority figure and the removal of the student. Unfortunately, that presence is required in a situation such as this. A policeman might have produced the same effect. Or would he? The teacher is not a stranger and could be a man who had already earned the students’ respect. A police officer type person might not have that respect.
Thanks for sharing, Dr. Stein. There’s just so much wrong with this teacher’s method. Had I been the chosen victim, and not warned ahead of the lesson, I would not have returned to his class. Shame on the other students for remaining silent in the face of such behavior from their teacher.
Yes, Rosaliene, it is complicated. It demonstrates an important point, one relevant to we humans in general, and one specific to our times. It does so at the cost you describe. The instructor says his students would not have internalized the lesson unless he did what he did. That might also be true.
It’s very relevant, indeed, Dr. Stein, and being put to the test right now across our country. It warms my heart to see the numerous ways in which white American neighbors across LA County are stepping up to help immigrant families in distress.
Indeed, they are brave souls. Cheers and best wishes to all of them!
May they be blessed!
Yes!
This is a lesson many of us will learn too late, however, there are some who are speaking up on the behalf of others, thankfully.
Agreed and thank you, Tamara. I think you and Rosaliene are on the same page. As she commented, “may they be blessed.”
I’ve seen that video before, and it’s a powerful one. What I’m struggling with, regarding what’s happening in our country, is why people, knowing the person running for office, decided to vote for him. That’s something I think about on a weekly basis. What does justice (or injustice) mean to those who voted for the current environment we’re living in?
I have many ideas about the answer to your question, certainly too many and too long to write here. Here is a start.
I will say that it is not simple, but if we think of how the average person has been disadvantaged financially since around 1980 or so, a large portion of the population was ripe for the message of a savior, someone who also validated the pain and sense of unfairness that was present in the same group.
When the savior also stated that the “others,” were responsible for all that was unfair in the lives of the same people, their rage found an easy and satisfying target.