Babel

Babel is a film about people from different cultures failing to communicate. I understand.

I'm a teacher. I communicate for a living. I can write a handout with carefully articulated instructions. Then I can make copies for everyone and carefully explain those instructions to the class, and see if anyone has questions. I even show examples of what the finished product will look like. That's all part of the job.

After a couple of questions, everyone seems to understand. Students nod. They follow. Success! We move on.

On the due date, inevitably, people come in with their assignments. Well, some do. The students who follow instructions are often (not always) outnumbered by those who didn't follow instructions.

The students who didn't follow instructions always seem to say the same things: "I didn't know that," "I didn't see that," "I forgot," or "I didn't understand." (Few will admit that they didn't care, though one has to assume that's a factor as well.)

And I teach English to people for whom English is their primary language. I might get one or two people per class who speak English as a second language. They typically write better than many native English speakers. So what's the problem?

Well, there's plenty of blame to go around. Some students don't put a high priority on education. Some don't put a high priority on my class. Some think I'm boring. Others think I'm a clown. Quite a few students do listen, but not all. I've yet to meet the teacher who can reach everybody.

Plus, I was a student once. I was apathetic. Motivating me took a miracle. I'm not sure how my best teachers did that. I've been trying to figure that out for my entire career. Sometimes the magic works and sometimes not so much.

I frequently get students who reflect on their junior high and high school English classes and admit that their teachers just showed movies and let them "talk quietly and work on other homework" all the time. I get really frustrated when I hear stuff like that, and I wear myself out grading papers, taking work home, trying to help. I can't fix the public school system; all I can do is try to stem the tide, a handful of students at a time.

I didn't get into this to be a martyr. I'm just trying to do my job.

If teaching has shown me anything, it is that we cannot take communication for granted. Babel just says that differently.