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Grade 10 - first day of school and a new English teacher. He was late
arriving in the classroom. My class schedule said his name was Mr. Poutney.
He walked in and to the front of the class. Didn't say a word. Not even
hello. Walked behind his desk and stood there just looking at us.
We all went silent, waiting to hear what he had to say. Silence.
Suddenly he picked up the yardstick and smashed it across the top of his
desk. Whack! "All students of German descent - stand up," he screamed.
They did. Silence. "You Germans - stand on your desk chairs," he screamed
again. They did. Silence. Horror. Shock. No one said a word as he paced
back and forth at the front of the class, slapping the yardstick across his
palm. "Oh no," I thought, "he's insane." "You Germans get out of my
classroom. Wait in the hallway until class ends," he ordered. They got off
their chairs and filed out of the classroom.
No one moved. No one said anything. That classroom was utterly silent as
he continued to pace. The minutes ticked by. He went behind his desk and
he stood there - just looked at us expectantly. The silence went on and on.
At the back of the classroom the door flew open and the school's
Vice-Principal stormed in, "Mr. Poutney, please explain what is going
on here." "Ah," our new teacher smiled, "Welcome to English 10. We
will be studying the Diary of Ann Frank and I've just given the students a
demonstration of how the holocaust could have been allowed to happen.
The students in the hallway can come back in now." The Vice-Principal
stood in the back of the room with his arms folded as the students filed
back in and sat down.
"We will be studying the Diary of Ann Frank this semester. This is a
first-hand story from a Jewish girl whose family was Jewish and one
of the many victims of the holocaust in Nazi Germany. You have just
had a live demonstration of how this could have been allowed to happen
by the German people. Not one of you argued. Not one of you attempted
to stop me. Not one of you defended the German students," he made eye
contact with each one of us and continued, "I am not interested in
what you can memorize. I want you to think. I want you to look,
to question. Otherwise I have failed to educate you." As he spoke,
the Vice-Principal left the classroom.
He shocked us into thinking. He demonstrated that we were incompetent and
lazy thinkers. He connected the real to the fictional and shook us
out of our complacent and accepting frame of mind.
Throughout that year, Mr. Poutney demanded that we think. He questioned
everything. He taught us to question, to examine facts, to see how
things might have been. He wanted us to learn and learn we did.
This one teacher's actions had an enormous impact on my life.
After my year with him I no longer just accepted facts and opinions
handed off to me to memorize. I thought about them. I compared
them to what I already knew. I checked the facts. I questioned
the opinions of others and I questioned my own. Never again did I
just go along with what "everybody knows" or accept something just
because everyone agrees or the news media says it. He had opened
up a new world for me. The world of philosophy - the study of wisdom.
Shocked into Thinking - Copyright © 2000 by Sharlee Plett. All Rights Reserved.
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