The 50-Computer Terminology

 Thanks to a student, my struggle on discipline wasn’t in vain and my will on discipline has been inherited to students in the school. And the will of Samuel Smiles, “Self-Help”, is also inherited to students in a deaf school in Ghana in the form of Self-Discipline 154 years later via my will. Even if you don’t perceive it, our lives are all connected horizontally and vertically. Here, “horizontal” means “space” and “vertical” does “time”. We can’t escape from the link of “weareallconnected,”.

 Well there is another reason for some students to avoid, dislike and disobey Daigo. As the title says, I’ve worked on the 50-Computer Terminology since last year. This is a test given at the beginning of terms to check spelling of words from previous lessons. I give students a set of computer terminologies as homework before vacations and students take the test, and also use it in review lessons. Memorizing words is the base of any studies for anyone; if you don’t know words, you can’t learn anything at all anyway. And in ICT study there are so many difficult things for students to understand their abstract concepts such as software, network, program, so I want them to know at least words when I teach them. And then as I mentioned before their English level is quite low so they should increase vocabularies to learn ICT. The deaf encounter so many obstacles in life. 

 However spelling is a big obstacle for the deaf because of the lack of help of sound. When you spell some words, for example “information”, don’t you rely on the sound of it? Although I know that memorizing words without sound is extremely difficult for us, all human beings, they can’t excuse themselves in society like “Sorry, I’m deaf, so I make mistakes on spelling.” Thus I force them to work on it. And if students don’t pass this test, they can’t use computers and must continue it until they pass it. This is the rule that I set up for my subject; students should learn to obey rules even if they don’t like it. For this is a part of education at schools to learn the way to live in society. 

 The thing is, I set up the passing mark at the quite high point: 45 out of 50 (90%), so that is why some students refuse it; if the goal is too far away, people don’t start walking for it. In case a student gets 44, I make him/her repeat the test again; there is no mercy at all but the strict Daigo there. It is a quite tiring job for students, but I know students are all capable enough to pass it as long as they study; it’s not a matter of ability but of devotion. If students devote themselves to the task, everyone can pass it, except some students with mental retardation. In short the result is honest and merely shows their laziness, which is the worst enemy to develop country. And in fact academic records of those who don’t pass show their low performance in any other subjects. No pain, no gain.

 It is true that this is big obstacle, burden, or yoke for some students, but there’re some good effects on them. They struggle, struggle and struggle then pass it, and after that, they have the experience, “I can do it.” I don’t like students saying, “I can’t!” before trying, how would you know you can’t unless you try? If you stop trying, there is no future; I teach “Try & Continue”, if you try and continue, you will make it! But they must learn “struggle before success” first. Although I’m very strict, as long as students show me their devotion, I assist them in the test by giving hints, because the experience “success after struggle” is more important than ethics here. This is my way. And if students get “Perfect (50/50)”, I give them a bottle of juice as a prize, more precisely “they get” the prize. I don’t give anything without reason, but if they get it, no problem! And perfectionism is an important value for any industries, so if they’re always seek for Perfect, they can survive in society.