glimmer of hope?

i'm going for my 2nd day of work pretty soon.

Yesterday, i felt saddened by the teachers. They were too pessimistic to be anywhere near inspiring. They seemed to have lost their joy in their job, it's so bad i wonder whether they ever enjoyed teaching. They seemed to lost every bit of hope in most of their students. It was a bleak picture. Before every class, they would ask me, which class are you teaching? And it was always responded with a super-negative sigh, or a depressing shake of head, or horribly bad remarks.

Of course, they are not all to blame. After all, times have changed. During their time, students appreciate education. They know their parents work very hard just to make sure they get a good education. And even if they don't realise that, discipline was tough. So either way, students will still do whatever is right and whatever they are told. Well, most students la. The results? Extremely manageable students in class, but maybe not the most expressive and creative students i would supposed. I mean, you don't get creative by doing everything others tell you and not questioning them a single bit right??

But times have changed. Students nowadays have everything. Well, at least students in cities have. They have so many more interesting things to do apart from studying. While in the past, interesting might mean anything more interesting than just throwing marbles around, now its whether u can beat a PS3 or Wii game, fashion magazines with their juicy gossips, American Idol and the likes.Their parents can pay for extra tuition so students don't necessary need to study hard in school alone to excel. And no, parents are defensive of their children, so disciplining them physically is not gonna work, while if you choose to discipline them a bit too hard verbally, nah, they just won't listen. They have much more interesting things to think about than listen to you ramble.

So really, the teachers have seen the problem. The current problem is, instead of facing it and solving it, they just continue moaning, groaning, ranting about it. On and On. like the whole day long. It's so bad, i feel even more tired in an air-conditioned staff room than a hot sweaty classroom. Except when i have to do sit-ins lah. Sit-ins are horrible. I wonder why teachers actually prefer to let students do their own thing. It's horrifically boring!

The bell rang, and it was time for one of my sit-ins. I got up, saying 'oh no, i'm late'. But the only response i got in the staff room was 'relaxlah, students won't be there, later you get angry'. The way i see it, this will only cause more disrespect from students, and the students will learn to say the same thing. And these students will possibly never learn bout punctuality.

I realise i'm not a great teacher myself. Perhaps not even good. But i wanna choose to see the positive side of the students today. And perhaps encourage them a bit. These students have lost their hopes in their teachers, the same way their teachers have lost their hope in them. It's only natural, and sadly, this message of hopelessness is the clearest message imparted these days.