Week #10 in Germany

This was the first week back after vacation. It seems that such weeks are always the most challenging ones. After relaxing or traveling or in general not working, it's always difficult to return to the daily grind. When I asked my students how their vacations were, the majority responded with "too short". In many cases, I think the teachers feel such sentiments even more so than the students.

This week I didn't encounter any culturally significant issues to observe, but I did notice the age old conflict between teachers and students. I think my students generally like me. They actually choose to be in my class, it's not a requirement, so if they didn't like me, I don't see why they would bother to waste 45-minutes of their life (or mine). However, there still seems to be an overpowering desire to contradict authority. In other words, my students take issue with obeying me. It's the little things. I say English only, they feel the need to translate to German. I say listen, they speak amongst themselves. I say do your homework, only half of them turn something in. I say think, they stare at me like mindless zombies. 

Last night I was watching an episode of "How I Met Your Mother" and Lily said, "the only people who like their teachers are dorks". I know I was a dork, but, seriously, what's wrong with being a dork? What's wrong with taking an interest? What's wrong with striving to better yourself by improving your mind? If I'm given the choice between a small classroom of dorks who wish to empower themselves and a large classroom of children who really couldn't care less about their past, present, or future, then I choose the dorks, the geeks, the nerds, the future doctors, lawyers and CEO's. In observing young people, I know that apathy will be the death of our future....let's just hope the dorks take over before that time comes.