taught to death

Or at least that is how it feels. Today in the lessons we had a new instructor who seems hell bent on boring us to death with jargon. The machine gun style of delivery combined with a voice so harsh it could qualify as a weapon makes the three hours we have here seem like ten.

You know the kind of thing; the teacher who prides themselves on covering the requisite amount of material whether the students have learnt it or not.

"Who cares if they don't understand the important thing is that we covered three chapters."

If nothing else this person is a wonderful inspiration to me. Now I know why I teach the way I do and not like this. It reaffirmed the faith I have in not blindly following any kind of curriculum, irrespective of whether students can absorb it or not. This may sound obvious but far too often teachers come under pressure from the administration, parents and students themselves to "finish the book" As if reaching the final page was any guarantee of increased awareness.

This is especially true of language learning where skills are evaluated not simply a body of knowledge.