To Teach is To Sometimes Be Amazed (The Thor Post)

Okay, before I start writing, I must acknowledge that one of the awesome parts of teaching in Thailand is having a student named Thor.  It's not his name-name, of course, but instead it's his incredible nickname.  Unlike the mead-swilling hero of Marvel comic lore or the god of Norse legend, this Thor is calm in temperament and would use words long before he lifted a hammer to solve a problem.

The Thor I know personally is an incredibly well-spoken and insightful student who often makes incredibly meaningful comments out of the blue.  While most students use youtube to find something to laugh about, Thor seems to find things to ponder.  He recently sent me the following email.

Dear Mr.__________ 

I know that this is not Homework but I have a video I found about some of the negative parts of human nature, i just want to show it to you maybe you want to share it with the class but it's up to you. It's about how people abuse their power. 

Thanks Thor

Now it took me a while to get over the daily thrill of getting email from Thor, but I will never get over the thrill of emails like this.  [Seriously, imagine looking at your inbox and seeing email from THOR.]  Thor had been reading Animal Farm as his book club novel and contemplating the question of essential human nature.  His pondering took him to the internet which took him to youtube which took him to this.  

Thor and I share some rather pessimistic views of human nature, but we also share a deep and abiding hope that we can overcome the negative aspects of our human nature.  We start our year with a study of what makes humans unique from other species, and one of the traits we look at is our ability to choose.  We are not bound by our instincts or impulses; we are shaped by them.  Thor's video led to a fantastic class discussion in which we all talked of many things but kept coming back to the end of the video.  Is our species' destruction by our own hand an inevitable result of our selfish and careless nature?  

Tragically, many of my students think it likely is.  Beautifully, they all know it doesn't have to be.  As Thor pointed out, "It all comes down to how we use our power."  If only my Thor had a mighty Mjolnir to shape the world, I know we would be in good hands.