Teaching ESL

I have had the amazing opportunity to teach ESL in several different distinct settings. Each one tells me two different things about the world we live in today.

Setting number one: I teach mainly Asian students. In this setting all that Thomas L. Friedman speak of in his book "The World is Flat" is confirmed by what I see in my students. Their ambitious. They are more technologically advanced than Americans. The are evidence that the world is flattening. Everyone is being given the same opportunities. Everyone can change their lives. America better prepare itself, for it will soon loose its status if it does not change its ways.

Setting number two: I teach mainly Africans, refugees. In this setting everything Friedman speaks of is dispelled. The world is obviously not flat. Instead, it is cruel, harsh, disgusting. it is more reminiscent of the world in which the prophets of the Bible lived in. Yes, they are fortunate to have survived, to have made it to a different country...but they are fortunate. They are the lucky few. They are plagued by disease, by memories. They are happy people, but their eyes are filled with a deep and dark history. They are just as smart as their Asian counterpart, but they do not have the same opportunities.

I am slowly beginning to recognize that some type of the Modern World System is true. The idea that there are core, semi-periphery and periphery states. The core dominate and control the market to benefit themselves and keep the other states out of the core. I do not think I agree with the structuralist solution to this problem, but I recognize there is a lot of truth in this theory. the more I learn about the world, the more I see that the evils that are discussed in the Bible are not exaggerated. They are real, and they are a live. It makes me feel so hopeless. I guess I need to go back and read the whole story, so I can remember to always hope.