Another thing that I never imagined myself doing was to talk about morality, ethics or Buddhism in class. I mean, I am there to teach probability, statistics, and mathematics, not how one should behave. Besides being so bloody obvious, I thought it was so darn personal, just like a color of one's underwear, that I would not dare to discuss. As I recalled, while I was studying in the US, none of the professors talked about morality in class. Plus, I mostly teach graduate students who are generally older than 22. One would have thought that when they get that old, they can tell rights from wrongs...
But NOPE. About a month ago, I caught my student cheating for the first time in my teaching career. I asked students to email their computer programs along with their written exams, and two of the programs were exactly alike. Of course, I was quite disappointed that they betrayed my trust, and I told myself that I had to take better precaution. So I talked to the class about the importance of honesty and how cheating is taking away your dignity. And at the end of the day, you want to be able to respect yourself.
I was quite surprised at myself that I had to talk about it at all. I mean, I don't think I'm so much morally superior that I could tell people what to do socially. I suppose our society is so caught up in getting to the ends, regardless of the means, that students think that cheating is OK as long as they get good grades.
Yesterday, before the class started while I was waiting for them to settle in, I asked them if they followed the news about Toyota recall. Toyota has a long-standing record of manufacturing and logistic excellence that we, industrial engineers, often cite it as an example. I told them that the current Toyota's slip is an example of impermanence (อนิจจัง). So, to complete the picture, I gave them the other two items of the three characteristics (ไตรลักษณ์) along with the English translation: unsatisfactoriness (ทุกขัง) and non-self (อนัตตา).
While I let them do the computer lab quietly, one male student asked me what non-self is. And he has spent a short time as a monk! (Soon-to-be outdated custom for young Thai men to be ordained before getting married). Clearly, the problem is not just about the dwindling number of monks but also the quality of monk's education.
The other day I was listening to Ajahn Jayasaro's talk. He said an indicator of how declining Buddhism is in a Thai society is not the amount of news coverage on bad behavior of monks, but rather, whether one would rejoice if one's own son wants to remain a monk for life. He said, if we want to have good monks, then we should let good men become ones; else, where would they come from?
But NOPE. About a month ago, I caught my student cheating for the first time in my teaching career. I asked students to email their computer programs along with their written exams, and two of the programs were exactly alike. Of course, I was quite disappointed that they betrayed my trust, and I told myself that I had to take better precaution. So I talked to the class about the importance of honesty and how cheating is taking away your dignity. And at the end of the day, you want to be able to respect yourself.
I was quite surprised at myself that I had to talk about it at all. I mean, I don't think I'm so much morally superior that I could tell people what to do socially. I suppose our society is so caught up in getting to the ends, regardless of the means, that students think that cheating is OK as long as they get good grades.
Yesterday, before the class started while I was waiting for them to settle in, I asked them if they followed the news about Toyota recall. Toyota has a long-standing record of manufacturing and logistic excellence that we, industrial engineers, often cite it as an example. I told them that the current Toyota's slip is an example of impermanence (อนิจจัง). So, to complete the picture, I gave them the other two items of the three characteristics (ไตรลักษณ์) along with the English translation: unsatisfactoriness (ทุกขัง) and non-self (อนัตตา).
While I let them do the computer lab quietly, one male student asked me what non-self is. And he has spent a short time as a monk! (Soon-to-be outdated custom for young Thai men to be ordained before getting married). Clearly, the problem is not just about the dwindling number of monks but also the quality of monk's education.
The other day I was listening to Ajahn Jayasaro's talk. He said an indicator of how declining Buddhism is in a Thai society is not the amount of news coverage on bad behavior of monks, but rather, whether one would rejoice if one's own son wants to remain a monk for life. He said, if we want to have good monks, then we should let good men become ones; else, where would they come from?
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