Reply to comment

I would have a sports story to tell until few months ago when I joined Haverford's Rugby team. I have always been one of the least athletic and the smallest guys in a group. But I've always been active: climbing trees and hiking for hours in the mountains in my home village in China. At the beginning of this semester I had the sudden thought to challenge myself and put myself under the discipline of a sport. And it happened to be Rugby that I've chose. Now reflecting back on the past few months, I've realized Rugby has trained me well mentally (my physical size is quite hopelessly the way it is). The first few sessions were very rough: I didn't know the game and I was not fit at all. I made mistakes constantly but I was never told to stop. The command was always try again, no rest, don't be such a ___, the practice does not stop because you've stopped. If I've reached my limit for the day nobody would blame me for sitting down. After a short while one gets the message: the biggest mistake is stop trying, all the others are salvageable.

Obviously I'm better equipped to take more strenuous practice and more harsh bollocking, but I don't think I would have continued Rugby in an ultra-masculine-unnecessarily-harsh team. I was lucky that I was pushed hard, and often to my limit, but never beyond it.

In the classrooms, it is tricky to figure out how far we can push(or encourage if you prefer) the kids. I feel like the American classrooms are too "sanitized." It is important to ensure a safe learning environment for the kids, but even for older students there are so many things a teacher cannot say or do in a classroom. Lawsuits and complaints are so easily provoked. I taught high school students English in Vienna last semester. The classroom environment was pretty open. There were few restrictions on what a teacher can or cannot say. I freely said f*&k and s*&t when I deemed appropriate to connect to them and to make my point. When a student brought up Notorious BIG and some of the scenes, I went along with the discussion which required me to say some things no American school will allow me to say. My hope was that I could meet the student wherever they are and challenge their perceptions of the world from there. I feel like an overly sanitized environment does not allow me to do that. Going back to Rugby, all the cursing and bollocking do not diminish the potential value of the sport.