Two Words to Share

Yesterday was the final day for the 10th graders. They'll be at home from here on out because they need to focus on studying for their national exams coming up toward the end of September. Another testament to how the entirety of 9th and 10th grade - the cream of the crop, the golden years of St. Joseph - are spent toiling in boredom with accents of anxiousness, pouring over the least stimulating and under-engaging of content, all under the guise that a high grade is the aim of education. Hence why I get a lot more out of helping to teach the 6-8th graders who use a supplemental English curriculum from a series of books that have such enriching literature and thought-provoking, critical-thinking questions. Suffice it to say, the 10th graders were energetic by the time their final day rolled around, coupled with nostalgic reflections of their past years at St. Joseph's. They stormed classrooms shouting, hollering, and cheering, thanking teachers all the while. I suppose Uttom's thanks was being picked up off the ground and tossed in the air. Mayhem.

Luckily, I had given my final parting words to the grade the day before when they were a bit less wound up. Perhaps it made a difference to a select few. I wrote the content down in an article that Uttom and the Language Club will publish in a newsletter-like collection and distribute throughout the school. I was really proud it it. It came easily. I guess there are some things you just have such direct access to and awareness of, you can sit down with little preparation and throw it down on paper. Perhaps that means I've been attempting to teach such ideas all along...

"As I was sitting in the final class that I would have with the 10th graders today, I wondered what would be the best message to leave them. After almost a year-long experience together, what could I say that would be the most important to remember? I decided on two simple words.

By now, I bet many students have heard me proclaim my favorite word in English: “however.” What is “however,” aside from a glorified “but?” Its purpose to me is to demonstrate difference – to show contrast. This seems to be one of our most crucial thought processes. If learning has something to do with new ideas, it must also have something to do with different ones, as new ideas are different from the ones we had before. Moreover, the beauty of a classroom is having more than one person in it – and therefore more than one idea to share. As we are all unique, our opinions and perspectives are unique too. This means that sharing our thoughts and ideas in class is useful for everyone. Many students must have also heard me speak about how, for example, there is so much diversity in the US that I would never really be able to predict how another “American” thinks or lives. A related instance would be a question like this: “Matt Sir, is it hotter or colder than here in the US?” The answer I would give is that it is neither. The whole country couldn’t possibly be one or the other. There are some places which are colder; however, there are some other places which are warmer. This distinction, this difference, isn’t possible without a member of the “however” family list (other famous siblings include “contrastingly,” “on the other hand,” “although,” “even though,” “in spite of,” “despite,” “alternatively,” and “yet”). This diversity among places and people – which exists here in Bangladesh too – is a gift. It allows us to hear, see, and think about something new, something different from our own small world. “However” shows us such differences. It shouts right in our face that there is another side of the story coming; up next there’s another way of looking at the same situation – something different, something new. And thus our perspective expands; our minds have some new material to chew on.

In many conversations I have with people here about the US, I have seen a good amount of frustration at times. This is usually due to me not being able to give a concrete conclusion like someone might be searching for. As I may have explained before, there’s no way I could make claims about America as a whole, any given American, or frankly anyone else other than my close friends and family, or any place other than where I grew up. My own experience is quite a small piece of the pie. Such lack of knowledge is not unique to me; none of us really knows for sure about other people and how they think and act. However, I believe that we are usually way too quick to react to the world as if we actually do know it. For instance, one may make a claim about a whole country (eg. “The US is very wealthy” – it’s not – the government is actually swimming in debt) or a country’s people (eg. “Bangladeshis eat rice” – nope – not everyone does). It’s a blessing but also a curse that we understand the world in such a broad and categorical way. It can be surprising how much more precise and defendable ideas become when words like “all” and “every” are replaced with words like “most, “many,” “some,” or “generally.” However, we haven’t quite hit on the second important word in my list of two. In the effort of honesty and accuracy, many of the conversations I have with people get decorated with that rather disappointing word, that rather inconclusive word, that rather halting word: “perhaps.” “Bangladesh is a beautiful country isn’t it?” – Perhaps. “In the US, so many people like McDonald’s hamburgers, isn’t it?” – Perhaps. “Life means enjoyment” – Perhaps. “More money is better” – Perhaps. “Life means studying, determination, and hard work” – Perhaps. “Good marks show that I’ve learned a lot in school” – Perhaps. Perhaps “perhaps” is my second favorite word in English. So, what really is “perhaps” besides a fancy “maybe?” Perhaps “perhaps” is the urge to think and examine rather than to conclude and move on. Perhaps “perhaps” is the demonstration of the unknown. Perhaps “perhaps” is the introduction of new possibilities. Perhaps “perhaps” is the acknowledgement that the world is a much larger, more confusing, nuanced, and complicated place than you or I could possibly understand. Perhaps “perhaps” shows that at a given time, our opinions, beliefs, and ideas are just as likely to be right as they are to be wrong.

I smile as I write this. I’m no English teacher. It seems to me that I’m a Thought teacher. It just turns out that English class is the perfect place for some deep thinking. It’s rather silly that after all that thinking, what we’re left with is a “however” (what about some different thinking) and a “perhaps” (what about the thought that our thinking was all wrong – that there’s another possibility here). Enough about English, what about school as a whole? Perhaps many think that school is about gaining knowledge. However, perhaps school is just as useful and even more interesting if instead it’s about turning knowledge inside out – examining it, questioning it, and blasting it apart from all sides. So my fellow thinkers, do with knowledge what you will, and keep some of your most useful tools close at hand – your howevers and your perhapses."