lessons through terror

i stood in front of the class last night trying my hardest to find the best fit answers to all of prof easy's questions to no avail. i was stumped with the first question and he continued to press on until i couldn't give him any satisfactory answer. i wasn't really that embarassed because i knew what will happen with the rest of the presenters - its being the first that sucks. i realized that behind the hard questions (and my bullet-ridden body), prof easy's trying to teach, or rather drill down into our thick skulls to understand FULLY what the frameworks are. and maybe this is how it comes down to - him having to use a sort-of radical approach to teaching because we become lazy to "really" understand and make the effort to "really" learn. i try to be optimistic that despite the subtle dissing of other professors, that i really did learn something from them. is it right for him to expect his students to be ready for class? definitely! is it right for him to expect everyone to remember everything from their past subjects? maybe, but that doesn't seem realistic. i imagine he wants us to understand the readings by ourselves, then apply it to the case and try to remember everything come presentation time. if we had more days of the week and we were not working, then maybe we could do all that - but realistically? there's pages and pages of materials he wants us to read, a thick case he wants us to analyze - research, discussions, a term paper to worry about - when does that leave time for ourselves? i know professor has only good intentions - that is undoubtful. in the big blue where i work, there are very few filipinos that are "real" managers and even less "great" leaders. undoubtedly, this is what prof easy is trying change. maybe he's trying to break our spirit, to make us stronger individuals so we can compete head-on in the organization. maybe its a baptism --- by fire and whoever emerges unscathed ultimately triumphs.