Feature

Surplus of sleeping hours

Shayera Moula

Not a doubt in mind that 'boring teachers' is a global phenomenon. Even Harvard and Princeton must have the craziest nutcase taking control of the classroom. You think this is what Foucault had in mind when he spoke of the power-knowledge relationship? To paraphrase he did say that with knowledge one is simply able to exercise power upon a harmless and less powerful being. And in most cases we are treated as the tabula rasa (empty vessels) where we are bombarded with information. You think this is what Spiderman's uncle had in mind when he said “with power comes great responsibility?” So now with authority teachers feel responsible to kill the students out of their wits???

It can't be explained in any other way really. I mean the ability to drift the entire class into sleepy zone through words is nothing but pure, inborn and unique gift! Shame on the other teachers who don't have it. Tough luck! What's crazier though is that when these teachers, after having noticed the class half dead and others glaring with bloodshot eyes, continue to speak in their monotonic lecture. Perhaps they are dictating a valuable point, as to what it would feel like if time had stopped all together, by forecasting it 'live'!

You can't say you haven't experienced it. Even if you happen to be the kid who brings shiny apples for the teachers, and even if you are a teacher wholly in love with your profession, you must have at least once faced the teachers who successfully set an example of hell in class. One odd day, very early in the morning, we were compelled to listen to facts that we already knew. Mouth drying, eyelids slopping downwards, fingers tempted to kill the person sitting next to me I just had to let my anger out somehow. The teachers said it would have been more enjoyable if we had brought our texts to class. Sure, like looking at a bunch of words (which the teacher was uttering anyway) would have suddenly flown us right towards nirvana!

Being a backbencher of snail-paced classes, I tore out a piece of paper and started crumbling it to get my sheer frustration out. My friend did the wiser thing. She took the lump of paper, wrote voodoo doll on it and started stabbing it with all her might!! It was helpful for a while until the teacher noticed, asked what happened and we naturally claimed that it was nothing. But seriously, murdering the teacher aside; is there any moral way to stop such snooze viruses? Some of us are trying to appreciate the fact that at least we are getting education but sometimes and only sometimes we sort of wonder that in this highly accelerated modern world, how many of us would want teachers who could put Sleeping Beauty right back to sleep???

In the end, I guess God was just trying to bring variation to the world. All the teachers being equally lively might have also appeared boring at one point. I mean it's only like 1% of the teachers like that or perhaps more else where but thank God they are a minority!! Perhaps God just had to add the 'dull' flavour in some brains so that he could later amuse himself from the Heavens above. Like Shakespeare had said:

“All the world is a stage,
And all the men and women merely players”…

G. Sumdany Don

It was not just another bright morning in the campus of the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) on June 16th, 2007. The auditorium was house-full, while the students were all enthralled as 14 different clubs of the university organized various events including drama, songs, dance, debate, game shows etc. Once in every semester, the clubs of ULAB organize this 'Club Day' festival where different clubs provide information of their clubs and the club activities, while some also perform on the stage. At the end of the day-long ceremony, the freshers of that particular semester sign in to the different clubs according to their own choice.

ULAB, a university that follows the liberal arts curriculum, believes that in order to become a future leader, there is a host of skills that students need. These skills include organizational skills, leadership, team work, time management, identifying values and knowing what to do with them etc, and clubs are an excellent vehicle to cultivate those skills and to sharpen them. As a result, joining a club is mandatory for any student of ULAB and marks are also allocated for club performance.

9th Semester, MSJ, ULAB