What do I have to give?

I have no idea why this post took so long to be written. This is one of those things I want published on the internet in hope that it will offend as many people as possible. Maybe it will never be viewed by the targeted audience, but I'm not blogging to achieve that anyway.

If this blog thing ever takes off "Teaching" and in general "Education" and "Learning" should become a major part of my writings too. Today we begin by looking at a part time job many of my fellow friends/peers/acquaintances, who are mainly students, engage in: Teaching private tuition.

A few of them have asked me, Uncle Allen, why don't you teach tuition? My grades are pretty presentable (to parents and tuition centres, whoever is hiring me) and generally speaking I articulate well and am quite smart. [LOL at the amount of qualifiers in that previous sentence] Teaching tuition, especially if you are tutoring a subject like English, can help yield a decent income for a student without a diploma or degree. Being a student of this prestigious university definitely helps solidify my position as a valid tuition teacher too: Because I have, presumably, found the 'way', the 'method' into university - something many parents want their kids to obtain too. Sadly though, for most of it this just means improvement in academic grades. I have a lot of problems with the education system, also I theorise the idea of "my child will have a better future if he gets into university" as a myth amongst parents nowadays (and adult generation in general); a degree is valued much more than how much it matters. These matters though important are not directly relatef to today's discussion, so as usual I shall save them for another day.

Returning to the original topic, why don't I want to teach tuition. I feel there is a test to run through first before making that decision: "Will you hire yourself?" Some friends have told me they will, some not so sure; but for me, it is a straight no. Firstly, I am not a 'contents' nor 'method' teacher, I cannot be and I refuse to be, and the only thing I can see myself teaching is 'thinking'. Surely I do have some very strong ideas and even stronger convictions to these ideas, but that is because I feel I have thought enough about them to continue the debate. But exactly because of this, I really don't know how to teach someone without influencing them to become me, instead of training them to be themselves. Secondly, the things I can teach really don't match the curriculum; my obsession with truth, morality, free will etc. are topics that is unrelated to the content heavy curriculum where right answers exist. They are in some way, unhealthy even, because thinking takes time away from memorising text in 'history' or practising the same formula over and over again in 'maths'. The basic idea is, I am not the kind of person a parent who wants their child to pass the Cambridge exam needs.

"What do I have to give?" is the question I ask myself when I think about teaching. I do have a lot of thoughts to share and discuss, yes, but teaching is a big word. If the driving force is income I guess I won't call it immoral to take up a tuitioning job as long as you are doing a good job; by good job I do mean helping them get their Cambridge grades, not anything else. However I believe if all you have to give is stand in for the parent as a person to ensure the child is studying, a reasonable transaction as it is, you are not really giving anything. My moral baseline is not that low, but if anyone thinks that it is an easy way to make money, so be it. I don't approve of it but so what if I don't? Perhaps the system is better this way and I am just looking down from my self constructed moral highgrounds looking at reality, a life I refuse to engage in. Damn the money is good but damn does it not feel right.