Given that I agree with most of this: … I am asking myself: what next? It’s not just problems in education that have me wondering this, of course: there are other things afoot that have me checking the escape hatch to this orbital sat, making sure my suit doesn’t have any leaks, because hard vacuum is a bitch. But for the record, I think the problems are systemic to education everywhere, but the parts that are exacerbated in Korean education are especially hard for me to reconcile myself with. A colleague in another department I was talking with told me …
Tag: teaching in Korea
고드 교수
Yesterday Miss Jiwaku had fun searching for references to me on the Korean internets. She found a lot of stuff about my relationship with SF, and participation in various events in Korean fandom (including a blog connected to the new Fantastique website that apparently was translating some posts of mine about Korean SF), but the only reference she found to a student writing about me was this one. Something about a student asking me the difference between thesis and hypothesis, and telling a student, “No, you don’t have a thesis.” The funny thing is, I swear I remember the inquiry, …
Like Magic
I had a student in my office last week who said something rather saddening. She was, of course, one of an endless parade of students who don’t know how to formulate a thesis, don’t know how to ask a fundamentally interesting question about the world, or rather, who haven’t been taught how one does so, but is now being required to demonstrate such skills… or so I thought. And I thought, it’s not their fault, but it does make me wonder and worry about how useful what we’re teaching them. We’re, in the collective sense. How coherent our curriculum and …
To the Guy Who Presented Before Me at the Conference Yesterday
The thing about your presentation is that, well, it depressed me. It depressed me mainly because nobody seemed to realize it was a salesman’s pitch, peppered with little bits of personal experience. No, I don’t believe you actually made that gorgeous powerpoint. No, I don’t believe you’re a serious academic. No, I didn’t hear one revolutionary idea about teaching in your talk. I heard lots of interesting things, and indeed, the technology you’re trying to sell probably has some use. But it was obvious from the outset that you were out to sell something. As soon as you posed your …
What Are We Fighting For?
Joanna Russ, the feminist critic and SF author, penned a book titled the same thing as this post. Complete the sequence: 20th… 21st… 22nd… Anyone whose English is reasonable–to the point where they are in a position to be holding forth on how to teach English–ought to be able to complete that sequence. Say, the organizers for a conference on new techniques in TEFL? When I see “Oct. 23th” as the date given on the webpage for such a conference, I pause and say to myself, “What are we fighting for?” On the bright side, I’m on at 5:00pm, so …