Life Of
I think I was waiting for the real world to happen when I was young. No waiting as anticipating and preparing for as such; more like being aware that I was horribly impractical and that one day I’d have to grow up and fend for myself. Being a kid taken care by your family is definitely not being in the real world, and there’s no tower with more ivory than the university. I suppose I’m squarely in the real world now. The realization creeps in on little cat feet rather than dawns in a moment of epiphany. It’s a pretty sad realization. It’s also pretty frustrating when you have to teach high school everyday and see how far away our kids particularly are from any awareness of that.
On the other hand, I think it’s physically impossible for me to be the nurturing, mothering sort to the kids; it just doesn’t go with the personality…or the reputation. And I’m glad that at least some of my colleagues are proponents of tough love as well. It’s as soft as it can be here.
Well, anyway, I’m not going to bite the hand that feeds me.
Posted on November 9, 2007, in Hong Kong, Work. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
Fiction writer and lecturer in uni. Jazz and blues on the guitar. Location: Hong Kong + Manila
Breaking Camp 
looks like you need to go watch some sidney poiter films and robin williams films…. kids are always worth it. you have to discover it in them… don’t give up! don’t give in! 🙂 hahah you know i’m kidding eh.
haha you can try to be the miracle teacher that turns the class around and suddenly give meaning to them in life or something
it always happen in movies…and i can imagine you as the star role
but no…personally i don’t think you are the nurturing sort…especially not after you encouraged my brother to stab the hedge person in the heart with a spade
hope everything is going well for you =)
and what happened to your Martian blog??
Hi Tim. Yeah, haha, I know you’re joshing. The thing with movies is that inspiration lasts for a few minutes and then disappears. ^^;;
Hey Joy~!!! Hahahahaha! Actually sometimes there are warm moments that I feel I can make a difference with them one by one, but not the entire class altogether without compromising some of them. And it simply takes too much time.
And I did NOT encourage your brother to stab the grass sculpture person! He already did it! All I did was whoop afterwards. ^^;;
The Martian blog…gee, there’s another thing that just drifted away. I should get back to that, hey?
Hang in there swordie! Times are a-changing indeed. I also feel the same way my parents do before when they talk about kids back then (my generation). And I find myself wondering about the same thing today.lol XD