This blog is not going to give me something I already have--a voice.
I would like to talk today about my dad. My life would be so unclear without him. He is the biggest blessing that I have. Today he proved so again. I have been having a very stressful week dealing with people who want me to "dumb it down". As one example, in my Translation class, my professor made us group into teams and do an exercise called "shadowing". It is an exercise meant to develop the ability to interpret quicker and more concisely. Your partner speaks in another language and then 10 seconds later you interpret his words into the other language. So my friend James and me got to practicing this. A few minutes later, my professor came to observe us and would just not stop criticizing me--and he didn't actually attentively here me before he did. From the second he got to us, he began telling me I was doing things wrong. He said I was interpreting too quickly--right, but too quickly. It bothered me because that's the point of the exercise. But silly me, I guess.
It was beyond me that my translation professor was criticizing my ability to interpret well as a bad thing. I spoke with him after class and asked him why he had done that.
This is what he told me, "You didn't do what I asked. I expected you to interpret like all the others but you didn't, you interpreted at an excelled ability and did more than expected. Juan, you may be talented, I guess. If you would have been humble and stuck to what I asked, I would have given you good comments."
Apparently, he wanted me to "dumb it down." It was beyond me how a professor prefers being acknowledged over helping ALL the students progress." Sadly, this story has repeated itself twice this week.
It has been making for a horrible week, so I called my dad tonight and spoke with him until about one am to understand why a professor would do that. He said, "son, there are many advantages to attending a religiously affiliated university, but there are also some disadvantages. One of those is that sometimes professors will not know where to mark the line between religion and education. Your professor would be better off being your bishop because he judged your humility--something completely irrelevant to the exercise--and not your intelligence or your desire to progress beyond the point you are currently in. But perhaps he wouldn't make a good bishop either because a bishop knows his ward is talented from before he meets them. Your professor 'guesses' you're talented." And then he asked me, "do you know who really is 'dumbing it down, son?" I knew then and there what he meant.
Before we ended our conversation, my day said, "Juan, the Lord knows the hearts of all His children. Just have your voice and let them have theirs."
Gracias, padre.
No comments:
Post a Comment