Cocaine as a teaching aid?
Thought that title might get your attention! Today’s entry actually has a link with the title, and I’m sure you’re all quite intrigued now so I will continue.
Yesterday I had a 3rd year class, entitled Current English. In this term of the class, we cover a world problem and then at the end of the term have a Model United Nations conference about it. For those of you who might not have heard of the term, the Model United Nations is a mock-up of the real UN, where students take on the roles as delegates from certain countries and research about a given topic. A few of our conferences look more like we are making a mockery of the real UN, but that’s beside the point. Anyway, the students were giving presentations on natural resources found in countries and the problems/conflicts caused by them. Resources included diamonds in Angola, oil in Nigeria, timber in various parts of Asia, and coca in Colombia.
So we get to the coca presentation and the group stands up and goes to the front of the class. Had reasonably high expectations of the class as they had a long time to prepare and the presentations before this specific one had been good. So they introduce Colombia, the coca industry and how coca leaves (see right) are used. A little is talked about how the government is trying to eradicate the crops with the help of US forces and the problems they encountered. It was all going too well. So then the spanner in the works comes. One of the male students in the presenting group gets out a sealed clear plastic bag from his shirt pocket and states “this is cocaine” while tapping it with his finger. At this point there is a loud thud in the classroom as my jaw slams into the floor. I was just waiting for the police to burst into the classroom, arrest me and deport me by the time I’ve said “I’m not military!!!”. If that wasn’t enough, he gets this powder into his hand from the bag and snorts it, before simulating the feeling of taking a hit (or whatever the lingo is for snorting) cocaine. I think one of the other presenters must have seen my face and reaction while this was going on and she quickly shouted out, “Don’t worry! It’s not real cocaine!”. A couple of sighs of relief went through the classroom from students and I slowly started to reel my jaw back in. Was still pretty shocked by it though.
And then we got to the Q&A section after the presentation, and the first question was: “If I wanted to buy cocaine in Japan, how much would it cost?”. Bang went the jaw against the floor again! and then came the answer. “From our research” a girl states, “the initial cost is low but then if you buy it again it costs more”. Logical given it’s an addictive drug but I dare not ask how they did their research.
As much as I enjoy every day at my workplace, yesterday and that class in particular will go into the memorable category and won’t be forgotten for a long time to come. You know you’ve got a good class going when a student says to the class, “This is real cocaine”…
or Discuss this Article
