Before I talk to you folks about what happened to me today in religion class (yes, I'm forced to take this crap) with my teacher AKA the Religion Department Head Ms. Fernandes, you must bear in mind that I go to a Catholic school.
Let me tap into my memory...
I was in religion class. I was finished my work. My teacher finished talking about recycling. Things got quiet. I started a conversation with her.
I started talking to her about my group, Aftermath, and I told her about an event with Linda McQuag, an author. We talked about one of her old books, Shooting the hippo : death by deficit and other Canadian myths. I talked to her about a book of hers that I was going to discuss with Linda, which is Holding the bully's coat : Canada and the U.S. empire.
Then, I eventually mentioned that I couldn't get to the first-mentioned book because I had to go through The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki and Prescription: Medicide by Jack Kevorkian. If you don't know who Jack Kevorkian is, click here. She told me how sick Jack made her, and then we got into the whole euthanasia and assisted-suicide thing. As we went along talking, she acted as if I was a little child and said, "I know what it's like to be fascinated with ideas." She also said, "But I'm 10 years older than you and I have 4 degrees." She also ticked me off when she said this: "You may not present these ideas in my classroom or in the school." Because apparently, Catholic school students ain't allowed to do no learnin'.
Baloney. She has no right to act like she's better than me since she is a sorry excuse for a teacher anyway, and she has no right to dictate what I talk about in the school with other people. I don't care if I can't talk about it in class, but what I say out of her supervision is none of her business. What, does she expect me to report on my conversations to her so she knows what I've talked about?
4 degrees, years wasted studying at college, and still a sorry excuse for a so-called educated person. I won't even start conversations with her anymore so as to not offend her weak, poor and fragile soul. Hell, not talking to her at all would be the best step.
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The time has come to call a halt to Buffalo’s Ruminations. I have
absolutely nothing to say that is worth the energy expended to read it. Meaningless
ja...
12 years ago
7 comments:
A degree doesn't mean that someone is learned person, it doesn't make them well read, it doesn't make them intelligent and it certainly doesn't make them right.
Being excited by ideas is an incredible thing. It is one of the things that make life worth living.
None of your teachers have all the answers. That doesn't make them bad, only human. A good teacher will help you find those answers.
You certainly don't have all of the answers - but as long as you ask questions and seek knowledge you will find the answers to a lot of the questions.
Well, considering she wasn't helping me find answers, she's not a very good teacher, is she?
One fallacy embraced by the faith-over-science crowd is that credentials trump understanding. I earned a couple of degrees myself, back when I was beginning to learn. In the process I learned that most college students aim to get a degree, rather than to attain knowledge or understanding.
Now, even more than in previous generations, it is imperative that students learn to evaluate competing answers and ideas to find something approaching "truth"; the dreaded principle of critical thinking.
It is too easy to look online for answers that agree with preconceptions. The trick is to develop understanding of how to discern the answer that best matches the objective world.
Hah Dan, according to my brother who's a university student, that's quite true. He says that, in order to succeed in university, you must avoid learning anything else other than the material taught to you "just so you can get better marks." Aye, I hope that's not what I'm going to be aiming for specifically when I go to college (or university. I'm still undecided, which is quite sad).
So your teacher, who is presumably still not yet 30 and has never lived outside of an academic environment (judging by the 4 degrees thing), is disparaging you for being "fascinated by ideas" in the real, non-Catholic, non-academic world?
It's sad that someone who hasn't hit 30 has already ceased to be "fascinated by ideas." Ideas are all we have. This woman should be patronized to the extent that you need to get a decent grade and not kicked out of school and pitied in all other context.
Good luck with that.
Bullet: This woman also won't let me take a religion textbook to finish religion work at home because she wants me to feel the presence of God in her classroom Lol
haha! i would love to see what she looks like.
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