Category: Reflections

On Identity

– Hem Raj Kafle

Hardly anything bothers human beings so much as the uncertainty about identity.  The question of identity tickles more acutely in a foreign land. A place is foreign not only because you don’t belong to it, but because it poses on you the challenge to prove that you really or somehow belong.

Estranged from the ancestral soil, whether by choice or compulsion, people regularly attempt to find ways of establishing the identity they desire, and the desire is largely to be what they originally are. In this regard, they rarely show readiness to spiritually submit to the culture of the host country. For example, orthodox Indians or Nepalis may find it difficult to cope up with the ways Europeans or Americans live. But the same does not apply to the case of Nepalis in India or vice versa. The reason is clear: the similarity of culture, and geopolitical proximity.

Cultural similarity and geopolitical proximity are complications in the process of identity formation. Cultural similarity is the cause of easy dissolution / assimilation into the host community and may result into the dissolution of originality itself. It will lead the emigrants to such extent of adaptation that a bit of intolerance from the host community puts existence at stake. This, facilitated by locational proximity, usually does not trigger retaliation because reporting back to the native land is a wiser choice. It is, however, easier for those who own properties and have relatives in the native land. Usually the native country is cooperative enough to allow the returning citizens. Nepal, for example, did not have much grudge to let escaping Bhutanese Nepalis enter and take refuge here. In Nepal’s acceptance, nothing but the recognition of their ancestry had worked. Rejection would have elicited national and international criticism for being cold and unfriendly to its earstwhile countrymen.

Living in marginalization poses a greater crisis in identity building. The Nepalis living in Jammu and Kashmir face a perpetual crisis of remaining Nepalis by political identity. Their problem is unlike that of Nepalis living in North east, where the question of being Indian citizens of Nepali origin reigns supreme. Nepalis in Assam, for instance, claim the rights for a status of first grade citizens retaining their own language and culture and taking part in the mainstream politics. The Nepalis of Jammu and Kashmir are not in a position to claim participation in the mainstream due to their minority. The majority is stronger in many respects. The Nepalis of Assam have a kind of mutual empathy which keeps them emotionally secure though they have perpetually undergone ordeals in maintenance  of Nepaliness. They have their Nepaliness intact for their success in keeping Nepali as a dominant medium of communication. They have made it possible by producing considerable bulk of literature and journalism in Nepali. On the contrary, the Nepalis of Jammu are in a condition to forget the Nepali language itself. Specially, the new generation do not even know the everyday Nepali, let alone the language of literature and academy.

Nexus between Law, Morality and Public Policy

 –Hem Raj Kafle

Introduction

This article discusses the nexus between law, morality and public policy. It shows that the three are complementary and interdependent factors, human society being the ground for each to emerge and operate. The first three sections of this essay present the mutual relationships between the three in this order: law and morality, morality and public policy and law and public policy. The final part concludes the discussion.

Law and Morality

The common function of law and morality is to regulate human behaviour so as to establish a congenial social environment for all humans. Law and morality help manage the relationships between individuals and the society, or further, between individuals, societies and the state. Morality encourages individuals towards ‘being good’ and ‘doing good’ for the sake of the well- being of the society as a whole. Thus law and morality come together — “… to complement each other, rather than compete with each other” because “human flourishing requires such complementarity” (Shiner 436).
The “complementarity” implies that law and morality rely on each other; one can be both means and end to the other. Certain legal provisions are directed by the need to respect existing moral norms. This can be seen in the way law prohibits and penalizes actions that are universally considered immoral. To quote Kent Greenawalt’s argument, “Murder, assault, theft and fraud are immoral. In any society sufficiently developed to have law distinguishable from its social morality, the law will forbid murder, assault, theft and some forms of fraud” (476). One of the ends of law is, therefore, to enforce morality in the society, especially when it comes to controlling the practices which directly or indirectly harm the society itself. Law, therefore, preserves the dignity of human life and brings “pleasure and satisfaction to those who live it” (Shiner 436). This indicates that dignity is a relative stage of human psychology and is realized as a source of “pleasure and satisfaction” in connection with the performance of moral duties and responsibilities.
There are arguments for and against the place of morality in the foundation and functions of law. Natural law theory holds that “there is a necessary connection between law and morality, such that an immoral law is invalid or not binding” (Smith 304). According to this school of thought, for law to be a just law, it has to be based on two sources: the law of the divine and the law of nature. But the positivists, in their fundamental “separability thesis” claim that “it is not necessary in all legal systems that for a norm to be a legal norm it must possess a moral value …” (Coleman and Leiter 241). Though such divisions exist, in contexts where law has to address the social, cultural, moral and natural needs of individuals and society, the interdependence between law and morality cannot be ignored. In the words of C.G. Weeramantry, “Just as moral standards have exercised a continuous and continuing influence on the law, so also legal standards can exercise an influence on morals” (132). Weeramantry highlights the inseparability and interdependence between law and morality and illustrates that such interdependence has worked throughout the phases of the evolution of the law. 

Morality and Public Policy

Morality forms a ground for the evolution and legal enforcement of public policy. As stated above, morality inspires people to be united and to care for the welfare of one another; it enhances the concept of collective well-being in people. Morality also helps public policy take birth. Public policy in a broader sense is a system that addresses the moral, cultural and economic values that maintain the unity of the society. A society accepts only those practices that have passed the test of the norms of morality it has consistently observed. This is why the issues like prostitution and homosexuality may not be easily be legalised in Nepal because majority of the Nepali citizens take them as immoral practices. Morality, like law, has norms “relating to the avoidance of interpersonal harms and the management of limited resources, … norms which regulate the distribution and holding of goods” (Shiner 437). When we talk about harms, we don’t mean the direct assaults or immolations alone. Practices that indirectly disrespect the moral sentiments of other people can equally be taken immoral. Law respects these sentiments and enforces the norms of morality to maintain public policy. Greenawalt highlights this concept saying that “in a country that is overwhelmingly Jewish or Muslim, prohibitions on pork eating would be acceptable” (484). If so applies, it is equally plausible on the part of the governments to impose restriction on slaughtering cows in a society dominated by Hindus.
There are limitations in the process of imposing morality in the name of the respect to public policy. In the context of secularism, it would be questionable if the government of Nepal imposed legal restrictions upon the cultural practices of other religious and ethnic communities in the name of respecting the sentiments of majority Hindus. Legal restrictions on the practices of minority, which are thought to offend the beliefs of the majority, may fail to materialise as a sufficient justification in liberal democracy (Greenawalt 485). The point here is that if people are divided in terms of religious beliefs, moral norms grounded upon individual religions do not form consistent public policy. However, morality supports and enhances public policy for the common good of the members of the society.
The relationship between morality and public policy can be seen in the way both are connected to law. Natural law theorist Lon Fuller asserts that law is a particular means to an end, “the enterprise of subjecting human conduct to the governance of rules” (qtd. in Bix 231-32).  Fuller’s proposition clearly binds morality and public policy, as law’s means and ends are “human conduct” and “governance.” Both morality and public policy commonly deal with the regulation of human conduct for the governance of the society. But, where law has been absent (or ineffective) in its service, moral values and social conventions encourage people to maintain peace and harmony, thereby making the society a good place to live. Here the role of morality and public policy as a companion and complement to law is inevitable. 

Law and Public Policy       

Law and public policy contain and complement each other. In the first place, law is a part of public policy. This means that obeying law and helping in its effective functioning is the duty of the people in the society. Law can play its part only when people obey it or realise its efficacy in giving them the service they need. People expect from the state a “full extent of the legal guarantee of freedom of expression … of a right to life, liberty and security … and equal treatment …” (Shiner 438).  In this sense, respecting the natural rights of citizens and guaranteeing impartiality in its treatment are at the root of a state’s public policy. Moreover, the state has the duty to enforce morality as a part of its policy. As stated earlier, the cultural values of a community in majority have an influence in the mechanism of the state, and it has the obligation to protect and respect these values. Apart from being the saviour of cultural practices, the law is entitled to enhance the political norms of the state. In a democratic event like an election or a referendum people do not usually make inquiry into the “objective soundness of the winning side” provided the victory follows fairness, because the fact that “the side secured the majority is sufficient” (Shiner 439). This is possible because people respect the policy of the state and give utmost value to the results of processes in which they are directly involved.
The public policy of the state authority — both administrative and judicial — is to act as a legal guardian of all the citizens. The first duty of the state is to make citizens aware of the law itself. The famous maxim “Ignorance of the law is no excuse” maintains that citizens should be aware of the law. With this view, the governments print books of law and make them available to the public, or make law a part of higher education. In addition, authorities run awareness campaigns through the media with a message that every adult citizen, because law influences their everyday life, should have minimum orientation on their country’s legal system. For instance, Nepal Bar Association publicised its awareness programmes through television and radio channels in order to provide legal assistance to the needy Nepalis. As a result of such campaigns, people take it as a requirement to know about the uses of law in their lives, and refrain from violating law and disturbing the values of the society. Moreover, as a guardian, the state has the responsibility to protect the citizens’ rights to observe traditions related to birth, marriage and death, and equally to prevent unpractical and collectively harmful traditions from taking place. This is why the practices like early marriages, forced marriages, desecration of graves, mutilation of human body and racial discrimination are made illegal in all countries. 
Public policy is also an important source of law. Certain laws emerge out of the policy of the contracts. This means the state allows citizens to enter into individual contracts. Because of this provision, many social issues do not reach the legal court for an official settlement. For example, individuals run monetary transactions and buy and sell properties without law interfering in these affairs. Even many of the disputes and anomalies related to these contracts are settled within the society itself. But, when these issues reach the court, they may form a basis for a law. They are settled with reference to an existing provision. New cases, on the other hand, evolve new policies which later get incorporated in the legal system. Both positivist and realist schools of thought commonly value these real social conventions as the reliable grounds for law to evolve and operate.  

Concluding Remarks

The above discussion shows that law, morality and public policy function in complementarity, as is the case between each to each. Each contributes to the formation and evolution of the other. But this does not mean that one is the only means or end to the other. Law respects, contains and enforces morality. In the same way, morality directs, supports and enhances law. Similar is the nexus between morality and public policy. Morality directs, supports and enhances public policy. Like law, public policy respects, contains and enforces morality. Law and public policy exist in the same relation of interdependence. Law contains, respects and enforces public policy. Like morality, public policy directs supports and enhances law. Thus function law, morality and public policy together as fundamentally intertwined factors working for the accomplishment of human flourishing within a systematically functioning society. To conclude, law, morality and public policy, functioning in correspondence and complementarity, promote the welfare and development of human society under a systematic state mechanism.

Works Cited

  • Bix, Brian. “Natural Law Theory.” Patterson 223-40.
  • Coleman, Jules L. and Brian Leiter. “Legal Positivism.” Patterson   241-60.
  • Greenawalt, Kent. “Legal Enforcement of Morality.” Patterson 475-87.
  • Patterson, Dennis. Ed. A Companion to the Philosophy of Law and Legal Theory. Massachusetts: Blackwell, 1996.
  • Shiner, Roger A. “Law and Morality.” Patterson 436-49.  
  • Smith, Patricia. “Feminist Jurisprudence.” Patterson 302-10.
  • Weeramantry, C.G. An Invitation to the Law. New Delhi: Lawman Pvt. Ltd., 1998.

What Rhetoric Means to Me

– Hem Raj Kafle
My academic standing as an M. Phil. in English and a teacher of English language, literature, technical communication and media studies in Kathmandu University has largely shaped my inquiries into different domains of rhetorical scholarship. My entry in this field began with a limited understanding of rhetoric as an embellished discourse where literary tropes played major role in eliciting certain emotional responses from a reader/auditor. Poetry featured most in this understanding, with fictions and persuasive essays to complement at times.
When I studied the classical system of rhetoric, with Aristotle, Cicero and Quintilian as focal resources, my perception broadened from rheotric’s aesthetic dimension to more practical contextual dimensions for its being a system of organized, persuasive discourse. The practical sides, basically the three genres (forensic, deliberative and epideictic), three modes of proof (ethos, logos, pathos) and the five canons (invention, arrangement, style, memory and delivery) guided my teaching of English and media studies and helped shape my own researches, presentations and writings.  
My work has not been unidirectional, as is common in a qualitative inquiry. If I had chosen to be registered full time, with rhetoric at hand, and was not teaching at the university, I would be more focused to the task of clearing methodological and analytical arrays now. But I might have been in disadvantage in two respects. I would not adapt to the pedagogical value of the classical system of rhetoric through practical applications in everyday professional activities. Nor would I consciously improve my sense of discourse embellishment through the awareness of embellished arrangement and style. Allowing myself open channels of learning and practice, I have helped myself to experience my subject in its multiplicity. 
I am trailing through two rich territories of rhetorical scholarship. The first is Rhetorical Studies, which helps scrutinize the social, historical, political dimensions of the April Movement and its representations in the editorials. The second, scholarship in English studies with Rhetoric and Composition as a disciplinary category, teaches me the nuances of discourse structures, figures of speech and overall aesthetics of editorial writing. Unlike a general trend in rhetorical scholarship in the west where a researcher/candidate is formally confined to only one of these disciplinary terrains, and where the two hardly combine or “cross-pollinate”, I have enjoyed the freedom to draw knowledge from both. This may ultimately lead me to a third territory, that of Rhetoric in its fundamental classical sense, where the study directs me to recognizing a particular system of rhetoric characteristic to a non-western, Nepalese context. To be more specific, this is where the inferences might help explore a pattern of Nepalese media rhetoric reflective of a social movement. 
Fantasy Theme Analysis (FTA), a method of rhetorical criticism underpinned in Ernest Bormann’s Symbolic Convergence Theory, which I aim to apply in the study of about 400 editorials, blends the aforesaid lines of scholarship. It merges aesthetics (for its emphasis on performative/dramatic qualities of discourse) and politics (role of time, space and actors). Symbolic Convergence Theory which takes that any communication helps construct a rhetorical vision, a symbolic reality which underlies the convergence of a cumulative number of people who identify with the reality and participate in transferring it further.  Fantasy theme analysis systematically examines how rhetorical visions are constructed from communicative artifacts. It takes communication as a form of drama with characters, actions and settings where realities are dramatized in the form of fantasy themes (shared narratives). FTC accepts the notion that shared narratives accumulate as fantasy types which constitute rhetorical vision, the symbolic reality with which the participants of communication identify. 
I have internalized rhetoric in three dimensions. Whether it really can be of practical, pedagogical value is my first concern. And it does have. The classical system of rhetoric, which involves three genres, three modes of proof and five canons, is useful in the practice and teaching of oral presentation and written composition. I have conceptualized two classroom approaches/activities with the help of the five canons.  The first is what I have introduced as “The Eight R’s of Presentation” involving the steps of preparing an effective oral presentation. The second concerns a blog entitled Rhetorical Ventures intended to facilitate and archive student compositions. I presented this blog in two International conferences of English teachers in January and February 2010.
Besides, I have included fundamentals of rhetoric and rhetorical criticism in the syllabus of Text and Audience, which is taught in the third year of Bachelor in Media Studies, Kathmandu University. This helps complement a small section of the syllabus of Public Relations for the second year, which contains rhetorical strategies as communication strategies for public relation campaigners.
Subsequently, as a second dimension, rhetoric functions as an important tool for the creation and critique of everyday communication. I am conscious of using effective means in all forms of communication, be it meant for persuasion, information, invitation, identification or settlement of conflicts. I have been more conscious seeing the same means critically in the communications of other people. One achievement in this direction is the development of the habit of what Wayne Booth calls “listening rhetoric”. This helps me make clear sense of any communicators’ intentions, weigh the extent of truth and lie in their words, and trace a ground for devising appropriate forms of response. Rhetorical awareness saves me from potential relationship crises because it helps me decide when to force an argument and where to withdraw it in the lack of adequate modes of proof. 
The third and the most crucial dimension of my present study on rhetoric involves critical scholarship. First, it drives me more towards my research through the painful and pleasant moments of losses and finds — my journey of oscillation across disciplines and approaches, and of the moments of serious discourses with the supervisors and potential readers. While the actual analytical journey stills remains in a bulk, I have been trying to feel the adventure through shorter writings, presentations, editing, reviewing, and supervising student projects.
Overall, with two years’ intense involvement in rhetorical scholarship, I have learned that in research the process counts as important as the product.  The process helps me grow along with the concept, and gradually ensures the reflection of this growth in everyday professional adventures.  I am equally conscious that the product has the potential for adding some dimensions to the field of scholarship where I have so far trailed and toiled. The work is ongoing. I feel the growth every time I encounter a new rhetorical challenge.

Growing with English

–          Hem Raj Kafle
I am a learner throughout. I have been a teacher for more than seventeen years. I am self-trained, or trained by time and exposure.  It has never occurred to me that I could have done anything other than teaching and would have been better elsewhere. I do not have a big name, neither do I aspire to assume one, but believe that I have not been too small where I am. 
I have taught in all levels from Nursery to Masters at different places and different odd times of my life. This gives me some confidence to assert that my life as a teacher embodies the lives of many teachers in Nepal. Most of the past years have been filled with a kind of activism for updating myself against many inconveniences, both as a person and a professional, with English at the center stage. English came to my life without a conscious plan, and naturally long before I happened to decide to become a teacher. 
I don’t clearly recall if anyone ever told me (not) to become a teacher. The cliché that one comes to teaching after failing elsewhere does not apply to my life since I did not explore other areas. Moreover, I don’t think a teacher’s responsibilities and achievements are comparable with those of others. In fact, the cliché does not either apply to any real teacher’s life even though they choose teaching after exploring different jobs. It is my first choice and now an instinct. I began to teach as soon as I learned to read and write. I had three brothers more than two classes below me. When I was in grade two, they began to learn the alphabets. So, I would be asked to teach them. Well, this does not sound big, does it? But in a traditional joint family the elders – big or small – naturally teach the younger. 
When I was in grade four, I already was the “first boy.” This meant that in the succeeding years there would be more kids around me during exams from the same class and below. Thus, our house became an unregistered night school all the year round. Sister’s classmates, brothers’ classmates, my classmates, and those “grown-ups” who would like to be literate belatedly, flocked in our veranda. They were brahmins, chhetris, magars, limbus, rais, and dalits. My parents and grandparents were ever appreciative of this learning community. Father acted as the head teacher of a sort. And there was not only study but singing and dancing till late. The “first boy” had the responsibility to teach mathematics, English, and songs. We had more than a dozen village kids to sleep in our house every night. I passed my childhood in such a semi-dormitory house. Having grown up with a multi-ethnic company, I did not learn to be an orthodox ‘bahun.’
When I was in grade seven, some villagers including my father decided to begin a tuition class in the morning. I was to take turns to teach there. Later, they decided to register it as a primary school, and someone with an SLC took it over. The school, begun as a tutorial in a hut, runs today as a lower secondary school in the middle of the village. I was one of the founders! I contributed in two ways: first, by sparing time to teach the kids in the morning, for a long time, and second, by taking part in the fund-raising deusis every Tihar. In fact, four of us – father, sister, elder brother and myself–helped it grow till it found some eager SLC-qualified teachers.
I first entered a formal classroom in 1992, the year I took my Intermediate Second exams and was left free to explore things. Someone temporarily vacated a post in the school from where I had graduated, during his B.Ed. practice teaching. I was invited to share his classes for two months. I taught everything they assigned. I taught Maths, English, social studies, moral science, science etc. etc. This opportunity instilled in me the zeal to choose classrooms. 
I became an English teacher because I studied English in the university. I studied it as my major subject and gradually acquired it for life skills. To me teaching English is not limited to teaching it as a foreign language, but helping human beings to broaden the perception of the world through communication, creativity and discourse.  This submerges the general notion of teaching into my understanding of life as a constant alternation of learning and unlearning. And the following lines from one of my articles in The Kathmandu Post may suffice to sum up my experiences so far:
The fact that teaching is of value as long as human beings live in the earth with their naturally inquisitive minds always underscores the existence of teachers. The fact that you are needed and respected must keep you attached to this pious job and social service. Teaching is not a thankless job, though the rewards are not immediate and obvious. The real reward lies in being useful to the society. A teacher is an adventurer; a person who seeks novel spaces in every adventure as a test of his/her strength to persevere odds of life in the mission of helping minds to thrive. (“On Teaching and Teachers” 1 August 2007)
There is a simple condition for becoming a teacher: that you must be able to teach. It is not the question of having high intelligence, but of being able to use whatever intelligence you have so as to impart at least some portion of your knowledge. Anyone with this ability can come to teaching and become successful in course of time. What matters is your desire to update. Teaching and stagnation do not go together. When they do, teaching fails. To teach is to know: to know is to be able to teach.

It’s already seventeen years since I first stood before a few dozen curious eyes. I am still struggling to emulate myself. I am thirstier everyday – enjoying it for being able to do it.

Is Teaching Art or Science?

–        —  Eak Prasad Duwadi
Is teaching an art?  Well, I think teaching is a complicated network of acts, a verity to which anyone who stands in front of learners can readily verify. In his renowned book, The Art of Teaching, Highet (1989) argues teaching is an art, not a science. He also claims teaching is like painting a picture and that it cannot be thoroughly evaluated. 
One distinguished teacher takes the neutral stance. He believes the systematic study of teaching over the years supports the notion that good teaching is as much a science as an art. However, many people still regard knowledge of the subject matter as the major prerequisite to effective teaching. On the other hand, various researches report about faculty members becoming more aware that successful teachers are knowledgeable in their subject matter, teaching strategies, and learning theories and are committed to individual learning.
There is no consensus on what good teaching is, and how to best evaluate the goodness of it.  Probably there never will. For instance, In Nepal, especially in private schools, one’s capability to maintain absolute silence in the classroom is regarded as the mark of his success as a teacher. This is to say, the notion of effective teaching is expected to involve more than a teacher’s command of the subject matter. But one eminent educator opines that teaching requires as much the knowledge of content as the awareness of general pedagogy, core curriculum, learner characteristics, educational contexts, and educational ends and values. In fact, the general practice of maintaining classroom silence does not feature anywhere in the literature of effective teaching. 
Good teaching is the ability to make particular concepts of a discipline/subject perceptible to a group of learners. A common argument is that good teaching should be defined in terms of student learning. And there are cautionary remarks as well, such that the teacher’s role must not be minimized. However, the most teachers assert that effectiveness should be based on “learning-centered evaluation,” where teaching is evaluated in the context of the learning goals of a specific course. This focuses on the relationship between teaching objectives, actual teaching practices, and the actual learning outcomes.
In his book The Courage to Teach, Palmer (1997) suggested that “good teaching cannot be reduced to technique: good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher.” Identity and integrity will develop when teachers attempt to eliminate academic debates and speak about who they are as teachers. Only at this point will an emphasis on good teaching become part of a departmental culture. One way to engage faculty members in discussions of “who they are” as teachers, are course portfolios. 
One thing most teachers all over the world agree is that “good teaching is a matter of hard work, discipline, determination, and the intense moments or hours of glee.”
References
Highet, G. (1989). The art of teaching.  London: Vintage.
Palmer, P. J. (1997). The courage to teach: Exploring the inner landscape of a teacher’s life. Toronto: Jossey-Bass.

Why I Am Teaching

 – Ekku Pun

Teaching just fell into my lap and I took it up as a profession some nineteen years ago. Whether I had natural flair for it or not, whether I needed to take training for it or not, whether I could be a good or/and successful teacher never crossed my mind. So, when my colleague Hem Raj Kafle requested me to write something on teaching experience, my initial reaction (to be honest) was of total loss. My head crowded with questions like: What to write? Can I produce a piece worth reading? Do I have something inspirational or beneficial to share with a large audience?

As I started to grope for answers, I was bound to retrospect the years that had slipped without my realizing what they made me. I simply wanted to judge myself as a teacher. I had never done this before and it was a daunting task.  What I have realized after such retrospection is this: I have managed to come so far without even once thinking seriously of changing the profession; I don’t recall any noteworthy complaint from the students and my administrators about my teaching (If any which I am unaware of, then let me continue to be in bliss of ignorance!); so, I can regard myself as a fairly successful teacher.

I am not an exceptional teacher to stand out in the teaching community, exceptional in the sense that some students would pick me up as the type ‘who changed my life’. I go about my job quietly. I perform my responsibilities as sincerely as possible. I believe in simplicity, so I try to keep things plain and accessible. Common and basic values of punctuality, regularity, honesty figure in my conduct of class and treatment for students.

However, now at least two episodes keep flashing across my mind like films clips. The first concerns the beginning stage of my career. It was during the lunch-break in a conference. I was with some of my old classmates and professors. We were zealously narrating our experiences of being teachers, pointing out our students’ general apathy towards studies and their failure to meet our expectations. Hearing our ‘hue and cry,’ one of our gurus remarked, “Fresh out of the university, filled with all the isms of great philosophers and scholars, you young lot are too idealistic. Do not expect things to come perfect as in the books. There is a vast gap between the world of books, university classrooms and the real world outside.” I was a little taken aback to hear this. I thought: “Is it wrong to expect perfection, expect the students to do exactly what I want them to, and how I want them to? I know whatever I am imparting to them is right and useful to be competent and successful in life. I do so because I have only the best interest for them in my heart.”

The second episode relates a student. I came to know about this through a colleague during a gossip about our past students. At one point he casually told me that ‘this student’ had said I was little too unfair with him. He had said I used to pick on him even for a small mistake all the time; I had sent him out or humiliated him by making him stand in the class throughout the period, etc. etc. It made me uncomfortable. I kept quiet in acceptance of what the student had complained. I wished I had known this while I was still teaching him.

These episodes, I accept even now, led to the change in my approach and attitude towards teaching and dealing with students as my journey progressed. Growing up under the strong influence of a strict and disciplinarian soldier father, I sometimes tend to show streak of sternness and demand discipline from students. This is what I realize now, but take these qualities as the gifts from a parent. I may have demanded discipline and perfection in my pupils, but, I am sure, these qualities are prerequisites for addressing the demands of genuine learners.

Furthermore, these two episodes have made me realize these: first, to be idealist and to seek perfection is desirable but not practical. One has to firmly plant the feet in reality and accept it, desirable or not. If the effort you put in to make the reality desirable yields otherwise results, the effort is more meaningful. What we read and find in the books are the products of  the best minds. They are developed in supposition of ideal conditions where all the pieces fit with one another in harmony.

Second, as a teacher, your aim has to be to motivate students towards finding their own voice, their potentiality for creativity and self-exploration. By this, they will find what they are good at and will feel good about themselves. They will realize their worth, which will provide a solid foundation for their growth and success in life. To achieve this goal the teacher has to less emphasize on rules, discipline (mind you not to forget them altogether). And, sometimes you should reasonably bend the rules if it helps. You should allow them to feel free to be themselves to work constructively. They need to feel respected for their effort and contribution. Then the instructions, textual knowledge, and good results will follow suit.

I do not know how far I am successful in implementing what I have realized. We all know preaching is easy compared to practicing what one preaches. I love to remain ignorant about how much impact I have made in this profession. I just want to value being able to help young people grow, and continue the profession with the best of my sensibility and diligence.

[Courtesy:  Nelta Choutari]

 

 

 

Reading for Assimilation

Hem Raj Kafle
I have been teaching “Four Levels of Interacting with a Text” (Literal Comprehension, Interpretation, Critical Thinking and Assimilation) for ten years. It is a part of the course in English communication skills for Kathmandu University’s science and engineering freshmen. We English teachers sometimes share what each of us has been teaching in addition to following the guidelines from Adventures in English (now replaced by Flax-golden Tales). We make passing remarks about such cases that students copy readymade ‘levels’ from guide books, or mistake one level for another, or write the same thing for all levels.
I have tried hard from the beginning to give my freshmen the correct sense of the aspects of reading and writing about a text. The success still is scanty regarding student presentations during the in- and end-semester exams. The one reason, which all of us may readily accept, is that teaching of these skills starts long before students have learned to own texts and got sense of the value of serious reading. In my opinion, one who hasn’t learned to read with purpose and passion hasn’t learned to own a text, or vice versa.
With this conviction as a guiding principle, from last year I decided to modify my earlier approach which was to make students read guidelines from the text, see the editors’ sample on “Yudhisthira’s Wisdom,” lecture on the texts, and ask students to produce their versions. The modification involves four important components. First, I assign students to ask questions in emails on any of the four levels, and answer them with examples and explanations. These emails are forwarded to all the class members so that everyone gets my version of the reading/writing. I also make a point that my version need not be final and that they can still work on it. Second, I familiarize students with diverse kinds of short texts and check their level of comprehension in each, especially the level of internalization, skills in summarizing or retelling, and critiquing.
Third, I tell them real stories of how people own texts and reading. This occasionally draws my own passions and prejudices for certain writers, books, texts including those in the syllabus. I emphasize that personalization of texts and reading culminates in better understanding and critical thinking. Fourth, I ask students to create a complete “text profile” of the texts,  which they are required to put in their journals. The profile contains all the fundamental elements of a text:  title, author, genre, setting, tone, main themes/arguments, main characters, main events/actions/scenes, important paragraphs/lines, important excerpts, and a brief summary. A complete profile functions as a rich resource for writing the four levels.
I hope my reading classes now fare better than two years ago. I have kept myself alert to check the outcomes.
Of the Four Levels, I find assimilation the most pertinent and interesting. To me assimilation means personalization of reading. But how does one personalize it? How do you know someone has done this? So, in the past, I always looked for samples of assimilation so that I would understand it myself and teach students more substantially. I did not realize my own experiences with certain books could prove a sample. I might be waiting for a chance or a coincidence or an exposure to realize this. And I did not get it until June 2008.
Early in the morning on June 28, I joined a queue in front of the counter of Northwest Airlines at Suvarnabhumi Airport, Bangkok. It was my first transit point towards Japan on my way to University of Florida, Gainesville, USA. I was nervously waiting for the agent’s queries and boarding passes when I noticed a book in the hand of a white man standing in front of me.  It was not unusual to find a European or an American with a book in an airport. But what really caught my eyes was the title: Lies My Teacher Told Me. I thought it was some sort of memoir of someone who grew up to know that one of his teachers had told certain lies. It was no time and place to talk about books, standing in a fast moving queue, and right before the book-owner reached the agent and started his business. He got his work done in a few minutes and hastened away tugging a large suitcase. I caught last glimpse of the book and presented myself to the agent for my transit clearance.
I forgot the book for about a fortnight. On July 13, we were taken to a book store, (Books and Books) in Corel Gables, Miami. I vainly searched for some serious books on diaspora or communication, whereas some of  my companions got hold of a couple or more of different stuffs.  I was going to look either a miser or a philistine without a purchase. But I suddenly remembered the book and inquired the manager if they had it handy.  He was not sure but promised to check. And he had a last copy. I did not check the price. Enthralled by this find, I picked up half a dozen other curious titles just before our director beckoned us for leaving the store. In addition to Lies, at least two of the other books happened to be great: The Book that Changed My Life and The Bitch in the House.
Lies… by James W. Loewen turned out to be a different work from what I had imagined it to be. It was the rewriting of some of the major facets/facts of American history which, according to the writer, were distorted in history textbooks. This revelation sufficed to keep me glued to the book almost all the night. But, I read the preface and jumped to the most familiar title “The Land of Opportunity” (Chapter 7). The following quote at the beginning of this chapter made my further reading meaningful:
Ten men in our country could buy the whole world and ten million can’t buy enough to eat.  [Will Rogers, 1931]
I began to see America differently from the following day despite my awareness that looking at it in the light of the 1931 statement would be anachronistic. At one point the director asked me of my impression of Miami. I said, with my eyes on a beggar to the other side of the street, “Looks much like an Indian city.” She did not ask any other question, nor demanded explication for my terse analogy. I knew she did not like it at all. The sight of the beggar had induced me to allude to Will Rogers’s ten million.
Later, I marked the presence of the “homeless” in the streets of New York and Washington DC, and willingly gave one dollar bill to whoever accosted me for it. Some friends teased me for this appearance of generosity. I explained, “It’s their money and their people. And it is big for a Nepali chap to be giving a buck each to some of Uncle Sam’s poor nephews in Washington DC.”
The Book that Changed My Life has stories of seventy one “remarkable” writers, who “celebrate the books that matter most to them.” The book presents intimate accounts of how reading helped these writers find directions in life. Sounds curious, right? I love this book so much. The Bitch in the House can prove yet another milestone for a reader to see American society in a new way, especially in the light of how contemporary feminist writers define their roles as lovers, wives and professionals in the changing times. 
These stories may suffice to create some awareness in my students that books help us redefine our view of the world and its people. And there lies the value of personalizing books, making them a part of our lives.

[Courtesy: Yatree’s Ruminations]

Share on Social Media