ELT News Think Tank

This Month's Think Tank Panel

Marc Helgesen

Peter Viney

Curtis Kelly

Chuck Sandy

Chris Hunt

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Curtis | Chuck | Chris
Date: January 2005

Topic: "Should "real world" tragedy be brought into the classroom?"

Marc Helgesen

The Tsunami. 155,000 dead and counting. More than died in Hiroshima. Does it affect my students? One group of 40 was in India at the time. Thank God they are all OK. At this time last year, I had over 20 in Thailand. Does it affect my students? Of course. They're human. It affects us all.

How will I deal with it in class? I don't know. I'm not sure yet. I'm not sure I really understand what 155,000 lives means. How should I deal with it in class?

After 9/11, some students came to my office and said, "We have to do something." They organized a prayer service and an offering that raised money for victims in both the USA and Afghanistan.

“There is a tendency to avoid negative topics in language class. We tend to stick to the bland.”

My students are involved in other action projects like charity for Niigata victims and Fair Trade project education. I'm sure we'll do something.

How will I deal with it in class? I don't know. I'm not sure yet.

How do we deal with negative, painful topics? When the Think Tank panelists were discussing how to bring up the issue of bad news, Chuck wrote: "It's a central issue here: we do often do our best to promote communication and then avoid communicating, really."

There is a tendency to avoid negative topics in language class. We tend to stick to the bland. What kind of music do you like? Who is your favorite movie star? Bland. Kind of like asking "What is your favorite type of white bread?"

I had lunch with some students today. Two told me about books they had read over the holiday. One was a love story. "But," the student complained, "three characters died. Suicide. What kind of love story is that?" Then she added, "Well, it did have a happy ending." The other told about a powerful story of a victim of war who later became a soldier. My student found it upsetting.

Think about it. Real, live emotions when reacting to a story in English. Powerful.

Real feelings because the students were relating stories. They were reacting to stories. Life is about stories. And both life and stories contain negatives. I am a strong believer in personalizing the classroom. I don't think it is usually OK to say, "Tell about a time you cried." That should be the learner's choice. But "Tell about a time you were very happy OR very sad" is much stronger than "Tell about a time you were happy." If the students are OK with bringing up sad, or confusing, or painful stories, they often make great topics. Because stories engage us. We're human. We care about other people.

But I am still no closer to knowing what I'll do with the Tsunami and its aftermath in class. Like you, I have spent some time the past couple weeks emailing friends to see if they were all right. And thinking about ­ worrying about ­ students. I teach at university, and university students often take vacations in places like Thailand and Indonesia. In many cases, I had no way of knowing who was traveling and where.

I'm reminded of a poem by Jules Lester I learned years ago. It contained the lines:

"Take the time to tell people you care about that you love them.
You never know when you won't have that chance again."

I don't know what I will do, but I do know what I did during my first class this morning: I told the students that was so happy to see them ­ because I really care about them.

PS: I wrote the above article on the first day of classes. A few days later, the departmental student organization decided to set up a fund-raising drive to help tsunami victims. They did this on their own.

I am really blessed to work with these kinds of people.

Panelists: Marc | Peter | Curtis | Chuck | Chris

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Marc Helgesen, Miyagi Gakuin Women's College

Co-author of English Firsthand and Active Listening

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