My circumstances have changed. I no longer lecture but am back practicing. But let me say the aspiration remains the same: to be that well-oiled cog in this system we refer to as "fair", "just" and "the backbone of a civil society". Let it not break on my account. Let me move it in the right direction :)
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29th August 2008
Boisterous happy laughter floats from the foyer below as I type this note. The graduation ceremonies at UI's Faculty of Computer Science just finished, and whilst families, friends, well-wishers and the new graduates mill about the Fasilkom complex, the happiness (and perhaps relief?) of reaching this milestone in one's life is undeniable.
I've always been ambivalent about graduations. From kindergarten to elementary, all the way up to law school. I've even skipped two graduations because after a while all one really wants is the assurance that one truly can move on after spending time learning theories. I suppose I am not so much a lover of theory as I am an eager supporter of putting theory into action. Seeing how the theory holds in the real world. But I acknowledge as much that one needs to learn the theory well enough to critique it.
This is not to say I thought going to school, university or even pursuing my postgrad was a horrible experience. At its worst, I found the classroom regimented and a place where ideas - ironically - went to die. (Rote memory was never a favourite exercise, but it did instill discipline and taught one to remember.) At its best, under proper tutelage, the classroom was *the* place to exchange ideas and challenge the status quo. It was the birthplace of fresh notions where the pursuit of the truth was practiced. But it wasn't all that bad. When the classroom became too stifling - or worse too dull - school and uni life offered alternative fora for intellectual stimulation.
Now the tables are turned, and I find myself the lecturer, not the student any more. I am learning a number of lessons as I handle my students both inside and outside the four walls of the classroom. I realise now, more so than I did before, that the process of learning is two-way . A lecturer can prepare way ahead of any lesson and devise all manner of entertainment to keep one's class engrossed and the discussion lively. But the most fertile of ideas die in the wasteland of a lazy brain; and it is counterproductive to let the majority of one's class suffer on behalf of the solitary slacker.
Still, finding one's self a cog in the wheels of several lives that turn and shift from one point to another - affecting your students' lives simultaneously - is enough to make one stop and think how a not-too well oiled cog could disrupt one life. Or many. Perhaps not too badly that one could recover from it or seriously that the whole wheel is permanently broken.
Doubtless, one aims not (or strives not) to be that erring cog. So endings such as the ones I partook of tonight would remain the rule for many, and not the exception.
29th August 2008
Boisterous happy laughter floats from the foyer below as I type this note. The graduation ceremonies at UI's Faculty of Computer Science just finished, and whilst families, friends, well-wishers and the new graduates mill about the Fasilkom complex, the happiness (and perhaps relief?) of reaching this milestone in one's life is undeniable.
I've always been ambivalent about graduations. From kindergarten to elementary, all the way up to law school. I've even skipped two graduations because after a while all one really wants is the assurance that one truly can move on after spending time learning theories. I suppose I am not so much a lover of theory as I am an eager supporter of putting theory into action. Seeing how the theory holds in the real world. But I acknowledge as much that one needs to learn the theory well enough to critique it.
This is not to say I thought going to school, university or even pursuing my postgrad was a horrible experience. At its worst, I found the classroom regimented and a place where ideas - ironically - went to die. (Rote memory was never a favourite exercise, but it did instill discipline and taught one to remember.) At its best, under proper tutelage, the classroom was *the* place to exchange ideas and challenge the status quo. It was the birthplace of fresh notions where the pursuit of the truth was practiced. But it wasn't all that bad. When the classroom became too stifling - or worse too dull - school and uni life offered alternative fora for intellectual stimulation.
Now the tables are turned, and I find myself the lecturer, not the student any more. I am learning a number of lessons as I handle my students both inside and outside the four walls of the classroom. I realise now, more so than I did before, that the process of learning is two-way . A lecturer can prepare way ahead of any lesson and devise all manner of entertainment to keep one's class engrossed and the discussion lively. But the most fertile of ideas die in the wasteland of a lazy brain; and it is counterproductive to let the majority of one's class suffer on behalf of the solitary slacker.
Still, finding one's self a cog in the wheels of several lives that turn and shift from one point to another - affecting your students' lives simultaneously - is enough to make one stop and think how a not-too well oiled cog could disrupt one life. Or many. Perhaps not too badly that one could recover from it or seriously that the whole wheel is permanently broken.
Doubtless, one aims not (or strives not) to be that erring cog. So endings such as the ones I partook of tonight would remain the rule for many, and not the exception.
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