Reflections - Week One

This week was a bit overwhelming. Being back at school after a thirty year hiatus was strange and at the same time, rather neat.

Questions flowing through my mind included:

·      What would my fellow-students be like?

·      What would the faculty be like?

·      Would I fit in?

·      Would I be able to keep up with the workload?

My feelings included mild terror (I know, if it’s really terror, it actually can’t be mild!) and second-guessing myself and this decision to go back to school.

And yet, at the same time, I felt more certain than ever that I want to be a teacher. It’s a bit like the Irish statement about death, “It’s not the bein’ dead that I’m a fearin;, it’s the dying!” It’s not the teaching I fear, but the process of getting there!

I’ve been impressed with two things this week:

First, the expectation that being effective teachers will require the willingness and the ability to see things through different eyes – to think outside the box, as it were – along with the assumption that we who have proven that we can learn (we made it through an an under-grad degree, after all) are expected in this programme to actually think! and

Second, the willingness of faculty to have us evaluate their teaching choices in our classes, as it were to put their own necks on the chopping block! That reveals trust in us, as well as a willingness – an eagerness even, to learn from us and from the experience of teaching us.

Second Day of Classes

 Today was my second day of classes in the B.Ed. (After Degree) Program at King's. One very positive thing is that  we are treated as "pre-service teachers" which is quite different from being treated as "students". I was really a bit fearful that classes would be like what I experienced in my undergrad days - not the best memories I have. This is quite different.

For one thing, it's much harder. No mere regurgitation of things studied, instead we're required to think - to reflect and ponder - and not just at specified moments (like mid-terms and finals) but in every class! This is actually pretty good training for teaching! 

Since my High School ("Hail, Holyoke High School: Alma mater, first forever!) and undergrad were done in the US, I have to take some Canadian Studies. I chose a Political Science course, "Canadian Government and Politics". WOW! There's going to be debates and quick-witted reparte on the issues facing Canadians today! It's pretty exciting. I'm one of the first debaters. The issue is "Should Religious Beliefs Be Excluded from Consideration of Public Policy?"  I'll be arguing "Yes". Imagine, I'll be arguing "Yes"! (One of the first "rules" I learned in debating is that if you get the chance, take the opposite position from the one you actually believe. That way you already know the other side's position - perhaps even better than they do!).

I still not entirely sure how I am going to maintain some balance as a bi-vocational priest, but, by God's grace and hard work, I will. (smile)

Glory to God for all things!