New Class Quandary

Do you know what "quandary" means? It means a dilemma or a situation where you are uncertain about what to do. I have a quandary at the moment with regards to a couple of my new Elective Classes.

I am teaching Modern History and Global Issues classes. These are both interesting for the students to learn and fun for me to teach. History is my hobby. I can never get enough of studying it. I always have a history book on the go.

I also subscribe to a weekly newspaper which gives me my fix of current affairs and helps explain all that is going on in the world. Without my newspaper and history books, I would feel a little out of touch with the ongoing epic that is human history.

Here is my quandary though. These two new subjects can tend to be a little depressing. In fact, teaching about war, famine, corruption and inhumanity can be downright horrific. I like my classes to be lively and happy places but that is difficult to do when one goes into some of the more violent episodes in history or explains the roots of current conflicts across the globe.

Maybe one solution is to be more optimistic. My political make-up makes me naturally pessimistic. After all, they say that left-wingers see the world as a gloomy place which needs a lot of improvement. Hopefully I can choose topics in these classes that won't make students miserable! If I can provoke discussion and positive ideas or solutions then that can create a lively atmosphere. If not, feel free to complain to me!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the new classes and even if the content can seem a little depressing, at least you are learning some good, useful English!

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・【The World Cup (again)】2010.07.30 (Fri)