According to Wikipedia, which is never wrong, International Relations is the study of relationships between countries, including the roles of states, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and multinational corporations (MNCs).
I've taught the subject for the past 3 semesters (well, they're not really semesters here, but there is no translation for "cuatrimestre" to be found anywhere on the internets, so let's pretend they're just semesters and be done with it, ok?), and last night, for the first time, my group participated in my school's annual Model UN event. My classroom was assigned the countries of Colombia, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Three other classrooms were assigned the rest of the countries that belong to the United Nations Security Council. The issue on hand was "IRAN'S NUCLEAR CRISIS" (capital letters are mine). Students had to vote and debate according to their country's politics, history, diplomatic relations, etc. In my life I had only been to one of these events, but it wasn't the same. I think that time there were only 6 or 7 countries who were represented, not the 15 who are in the Security Council.
Anyway, there were 3 judges present who would choose first, second, and third place winners, based on arbitrary and incredibly subjective things like "CLARITY, ARGUMENTS, PROPOSAL, and NEGOTIATION" (again, the capitals are mine). I'm not going to argue those criterion, because I wasn't responsible for the grading rubric or anything like that (I would've done it a lot differently, if you care)... that's not the issue (although it bugs the shit out of me). But anyways, the maximum points they could get for each thing was 25, with 100 being the absolute highest grade they could get. Simple enough, right (although again, horrible rubric) (I'm using parentheses way too much).
To recap... 15 countries, highest 3 scores get recognition, my students are in charge of 4 countries. I won't go into the details of the debate, because I want to keep it short (too late), but at the end, the teacher who is responsible of putting this thing together called me over and we added up the judges scores to find out who the top 3 countries were. They were in alphabetical order, so the first of my students' countries to pop-up was Columbia. We added up the 3 scores and it was very very low. Understandable, because the person representing Columbia on stage was clearly nervous and didn't participate as actively as other delegates. When I saw that score, I started to dread what was coming up and all the negative feelings I usually have about myself and my work started to bubble up.
(Sidebar) Re: Negative Feelings
I have self-esteem issues. I feel that whatever it is that I do, I could do better, or that I'm not good enough to do it in the first place. Since I became a teacher, I feel that way about my classes/lessons/methods/exams, whatever. I'm always second guessing myself and questioning if I did things right. I always question if my students are getting something important from our time together or not. And never mind the academics, or the reciting, or the memorizing, or any of that stuff. I want them to feel comfortable, important, and I want that whatever it is they learn be important, useful, and long-term. The other day somebody who was my student 2 years ago sent me a message saying that she was reading something for one of her college courses and that it reminded her of something I had taught her before, and she remembered the specific class that I taught the thing. That. That's why I teach. That's what I love about my job. Never mind that she remembered me, but that she remembered a specific lesson/session? Amazing.
I always want to do right for my students. I work here for them. They are the absolute greatest and most important resource that we have now. And what saddens me is that I seem to be in the minority in feeling that way. A lot of teachers here are either woefully under-qualified, they don't give a shit, or they simply do the same old boring shit they've done for years and years, without caring one tiny bit about their students' views, ideas, and feelings. It's fucking awful and I hate everything about that.
I want my students to understand clearly that that's what I feel and that's what I love most about my job. Of course, I can't go right out and say it directly. I have to make them understand through my interactions with them, my lessons, activities, assignments, and my dealings with them outside of the classroom as well. I hope I do. I hope my attitude and behavior towards my students reflects the love I have for what I do, and the respect and admiration I have for them as well.
/end Sidebar
Back to the Model UN.
After finishing adding up all the scores, the teacher in charge of the event was ready to announce the winners. This year, in addition to the top 3 scores, they were also going to award 2 "honorable mention" spots to the 4th and 5th best scores. Announcement time:
- Honorable mention - Nigeria (not mine)
- Honorable mention - France (mine)
- 3rd place - Germany (mine)
- 2nd place - Russia (not mine)
- 1st place - the UK (mine)
As a sidenote, when we were adding up the scores, and the teacher responsible for this event saw what was going on, his face was hilarious. He looked like he wanted to take a dump and it just wasn't happening for him. After all, he and his groups have done this for a number of years, I'm sure he expected to sweep.
I was in shock. Not because my students had done well, no. All of them are incredibly smart and I had complete confidence that they would do a fine job, and win or lose, I was damn proud of them. But to take 3 of the top 5 spots in the competition, leaving the other 2 teachers to fight for scraps, was astonishing and amazing. I can't find the words to describe what I felt. Actually, I can...
Pride. But not just pride, and not pride in myself, no. Pride (x a million) in my students for being so goddamn great and for kicking so much ass.
But here's the kicker and what makes this ten million times more amazing. I'm positive (because I know they're good people and have amazing hearts) that besides not wanting to let themselves down, they didn't want to let me down, and I know that was additional motivation for them to do such a great job. That floors me, because I feel the same way and the fact that they are able to see that and reflect it back to me is just spectacular.
And it feels fucking great.
Superstars, that's what they are. Every last one of them.
Now you know.
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