1-22
• Do you remember something better when you are told the answer, or when
you have to figure out the answer for yourself?
• In which class did students seem more
interested? More bored?
• In which class did you feel freer to speak up
and say what you think?
• Which class had more to do with your own
lives and experience?
• From which class did you get more ideas about ways to involve people in their
own health care?
• Which class seemed to bring the group closer together? Why? Does this matter?
• Which teacher treated the students more as his equals? Could this affect the
way the students will relate to sick persons and to those they teach?
• Which is the better teacher—one who has
to be ‘tough’ in order to keep the students’
attention? Or one who keeps their attention
by getting them interested and involved?
• Did you learn anything useful from these
classes, apart from dental care? What?
• In what ways are the relations between each teacher and the students similar
to relations between different people in your village? For example, between
landholders and sharecroppers? Between friends?
With questions like these, you can help the students to look critically at their
own situation. As much as you can, let them find their own answers, even if
they are different from yours. The less you tell them, the better.
If the discussion goes well, most of the questions listed above will be asked—
and answered-by the students themselves. Each answer, if approached critically,
leads to the next question—or to even better ones!
If the students do not think
things over as carefully as you
would like, do not worry. And
whatever you do, do not push
them. Your answers have value
only for yourself. Each person
must come up with his or her
own. There will be many other
opportunities during the training
to help students discover how
education relates to life. In the last
analysis, your example will say
far more than your words—for
better or for worse.
If you want lasting results:
POINT........................ but don’t PUSH.
People will move by themselves once they
see the need clearly and discover a way.