How to Make Judgments, How to Think?

A very VITAL skill of life that needed to be acquired here, translated…

“Who made you believe, that Americans are the saviors of everybody else?”

“Saddam Hussein received weapons of mass destruction from countries such as the U.S., Germany, England, France, and had used chemical weapons to attack a local tribe too, in just one day, causing over five thousand deaths in Kurdistan.  Should we NOT declare war on this EVIL dictator?”

In the winter break of 2010, I’d gone to Texas, to visit a sister school, the very moment I walked into the geography class, I saw all the students there, grilling the student who was on the podium, he has a piece of comic strip he’d drawn, with the American soldiers, dressed up like Superman, carrying the crying children of Kurdistan.

“The weapons of mass destruction?  It’s a joke, in 2007, the research findings of the Department of Defense confirmed, that Iraq having weapons of mass destruction is doubted.”  The student who’d questioned the speaker also has his own comic, the former president of the U.S., George W. Bush was drawn as a butcher.

Another student with George W. Bush, stealing oil, and after the instructor allowed him to speak, shared, “You know how the gasoline enterprise in Texas that Bush owned, setting up an energy company in his own name, the purpose of this war was merely to protect himself, and the rights to crude oil for the U.S.”

I was stunned in the audience, this, couldn’t be a lesson in geography at all, it’s more of a kind of cross-examination of the international matters.

After class, I’d immediately went up to the professor, Kent, and asked him how he does it.

“Because this week’s lesson took us to the Middle East, and, the U.S. had already fought the wars in Iraq for SEVEN years, and so, I’d asked every student to draw a comic, to express how they felt about U.S., fighting over in Iraq.”

“Just a comic?  Without having to remember a ton of places, weather, as well as resources specifically found in the regions?”  I’d recalled how when I’d learned the geographies of other countries, I’d had to memorize ALL the facts.

“No, they can find the information online themselves, the goals of my teaching is for the students to understand the nations we cover through current events.”

“But just by drawing a comic, how, can you manage to cover all those countries?”

“He-he, comic is actually one of their most feared lessons, because the students needed to research ALL the information, to read all the materials they’d collected, then, form their own opinions, and conclusions on the matter, then, they’re to express their findings in art, the entire process took a long time.”

“Sure, I’d recalled how a student from Taiwan told me, that her host family friend couldn’t hang out with her on the weekend, because she’d checked out a ton of books, to finish up her comic.”

“Actually, the students feared most about whether or not they are convincing in their arguments, the grades I’d given them has NOTHING to do with how well they can draw, but I’d focused more on the logic to which the students tried to persuade the class on their points, if the student didn’t accumulate enough knowledge, and, becomes stumped by the classmates’ questions, this, was way worse than not being able to answer a test question, because the questions came from the classroom of her/his peers.”

“Logic?”, I’m interested in the logic that Kent talks about.

“Yes, after the collected data got sorted through, they’d become information, and, after information gets put through the thought process, then, it’d become knowledge, but, only through giving presentations on the knowledge, and, having the ideas challenged, can you have logic.”

Kent tossed me a term that was unimaginable to me, on the high school levels, especially “Challenge”, I’m too intrigued now.”, “Kent, do you mean ‘judgmental thoughts’?”

“But, wouldn’t training your students to go up against one another make them into enemies?”

“How?  Besides, the first person each student would just is her/himself.”

“Her/himself”, now I’m really confused here.

“Of course, one must first judge if one’s own key points are valid enough, then, s/he would have the right, to judge the same values about other people’s views.”

As I’d returned back home, the war in Iraq had finally ended, but, the war inside my brain is still ongoing to date.  I look at my students, thinking about, how even now, rote memorizations are still the primary way they’d learned, how will we first judge ourselves, then, the world too?

I wouldn’t know, I’m still contemplating on that.

And that, would be the PRIMARY difference between the education methods of the western world vs. the eastern word.  In Asian nations, the classrooms are like this: teacher stands in front, starts yapping, and students just listen, without actually, getting to participate in the discussion of the lessons, because that, is how we were taught to learn, and, even to THIS day and age, when a TON of western beliefs had already slowly, seeped through, and still, the way we’re educating our young here, is still, unchanged, no wonder this country is beaten, by a TON of other countries in the eastern culture.