Issues of control

My classmate Ramazan and I like to talk. In fact, we used to annoy each other sometimes because I felt like he was monopolizing or controlling the classroom and he felt the same way about me. Fortunately, we both figured this out about each other and tempered our styles for the benefit of our class group. Our regular teacher does not have a controlling style, so we students had to work together and learn how to control ourselves. Life was good.

More recently, we added a new classmate who did not benefit from the experiences Ramazan and I shared together. As a result, it turned out that he dominated the class experience. When he wasn’t pressing his own agenda on the teacher, he was updating his Facebook page or engaging in conversation with other members of the class. In other words, his influence broke the sense of group effort that we had built and enjoyed up until that moment.

Ramazan got frustrated and announced that he wanted to move to another group. I agreed with him, and began trying to imagine how that might work and what I should ask for.

At this time, our much-beloved teacher got sent away on a business trip. The replacement teacher arrived with a much different educational style. She is fiercely protective of her lesson plan and determinedly egalitarian in how long each student is allowed to talk. We are flying through the material and learning effectively. More impressively, the new guy appears to be adapting really well. Yesterday he arrived on time, with books, and beginning Monday he promises to do his homework.

I don’t know how long this can keep up, and whether the momentum will continue after our regular teacher comes back from her business trip, but so far I am really impressed.