Saturday, August 19, 2006

"Head reduction"

I finished one TA training workshop (for international students) and started another one, this time a more general one. One of the latest points in the international TA workshop was about solving problems in class, particularly issues of cheating and plagiarizing. The message there was clear – if there is a problem in class (e.g. you catch someone cheating), do not do anything yourself and report to your supervisor. You have to remember that you are just a TA... Compared to a one and a half workshop, that was a rather minor, though strong, point there. Now, in the general workshop, it has grown huge. Basically this is one of the main themes in this one – whatever happens, do not make decisions! Whatever happens do not try solving anything yourself! Never make your own judgment – ask your supervisor!

Well, maybe this is the cultural shock, but this seems to me a little bit too much. How could you ever be active and to initiate, if you are being "emasculated" from the very beginning? On the one hand you are taught to be creative and to think out of a box in the class. On the other, you are very limited in your freedom to build you class environment as you see it right.

For me, this entire session reminded the army. In Israel this is called "haktanat rosh" (which I literally translated as "head reduction") - a behavior when you are (mentally) lazy, not willing to make decisions and/or to take responsibility. If you think about this, this is a rather illustrative expression…

1 comment:

generic cialis said...

Hi, well be sensible, well-all described