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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

AN EDUCATION



No, this is not about that movie which was released some months ago.This is about students struggling to make a presentation. This is about blurred PowerPoint. This is about Posture, reading instead of presenting the project, and so on. Have you ever seen this scenario before? So did I. The thing is, I am not talking about my students or English students at all...I am talking about other students, students from universities, students who will be teachers, students who will be graduating in a few months.
I had the opportunity to watch a presentation today at a certain university, and I can tell you that I was terrified by the way they presented that project. They were definitely not prepared. They did not have any clue of what they were doing there.They were struggling to make eye contact with someone in that classroom. No techniques, no methods, no approaches, nothing! Is it their fault? Future teachers trying to impress everybody with cliche sentences! Trying to motivate other students but they themselves were unmotivated! Where could they learn those techniques, methods and approaches? University? Yes, I also thought so...but, actually that is not true. Students who were supposed to be prepared for classroom, leave university unprepared and with little or none experience! The presentation was related to the English Language and "theoretically", it should be presented in English, but that did not happen. Not a word! (Except for reading material). It is not their fault, I know...But I also know that we should change how "system" works in Universities, schools, and in most places around the world, and I also know that if we do not change the curriculum for students of English , there will always be unprepared teachers. 
The way things are taught at those places is not right. Manipulation, Fees, unnecessary subjects, and I cannot see any effective nor positive result of anything. Those students are "products" made by that, or other universities, and so are thousands of people around the globe. Education became a market and if you pay more, you get more.  
Poor students, I do feel sorry for them because "life will teach them" and most of the times it is really hard going through all this. This is not a movie. This is the real deal. This is not an education...anymore.

2 comments:

  1. Hi Mario,

    I feel your pain ;-) Reform in education seems to be needed everywhere. We have to adapt to new realities and requirements. For me the worst is to think that these poor students will soon be teachers. So what can be said about their students?

    But I'm optimistic and think they will strive and find ways to overcome the gaps and become good teachers. Didn't we after all?

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  2. Hey Cecília,
    Thank you for your comment!
    Yeah, I was really upset that day, but you are right, they will find their way and we must keep teaching and doing the best we can to make it better!
    Cheers.

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