We have a joke in English: I love children but I could n`t eat a whole one.
Here in Japan, many teaching job ads glibly state 'must love children'. But what does that really mean? How do you love your child? Surely, by giving it what you believe is best for him or her.
As a Christian, though a pathetically bad one, in one of my first teaching jobs out here with kids I tried to give them what I believed was best for them- a story about Jesus. All hell broke loose. I can see why- foreign man imposing his culture on our Buddhist kids- how dare he? But if you truly want me to be the best teacher I can be, how can I leave your kid with just cartoons, fast food, video games and TV..? Some letters in the English alphabet spell 'God'- some pages in English dictionaries have words like 'good' and 'evil' on them. We may disagree about what those words really mean... but if I can`t even mention them, all we are left with is small talk...and you and your kids will never really understand English culture and many English speaking people.
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