محاضر في كلية الطب جامعة الخرطوم يمر بتجربة بائسة في جامعة مأمون حميدة

Quote: Dear Dr. Ezzan Saeed: I will appreciate posting this email to sudaneseonline thread titled محاضر في كلية الطب جامعة الخرطوم يمر بتجربة بائسة في جامعة مأمون حميدة...,as I do not have an account in that forum As a former teaching assistant who started his career by teaching in Mamoun Humeida along with University of Khartoum and then went on to study and teach in two American Universities I believe that I have something to add to this lively discussion. May be I should also mention that Dr. Ahmed Abdulwahid is a dear friend of mine whom I met on the first year year of college, then we went our separate ways as we were in different disciplines. When I started teaching at Mamoun Humeida I was a fresh graduate from University of Khartoum. And as such I was trained by mostly serious and tough instructors. As a result I adopted their tough ways on my teaching at Mamoun Humeida. Naturally, I was shocked by the attire and behavior of many of the students in the lab, and in the lecture room (when I occasionally filled in for the instructor whenever he is late or sick). Also, naturally I was tough on the students and I remember asking many of them to leave the lab or the lecture room (although I never had such dramatic events as those encountered by Dr. Abdulwahid). All in all, I spent two academic years there and I can say that the students of this University are not the same, of course. Some of the brightest and well-behaved students I have ever encountered in Sudan or the US are from that University and I still remember them (eight years later) fondly. Some others, not so fondly. But that is the way it is anywhere in the world, I believe. Anyway, I came to the US after two years of teaching and Mamoun Humeida and I started teaching here as well. It was shocking of course to see how casual the teacher-student relationship here is. I realized very quickly that my University of Khartoum ways were not applicable here so I adapted and ended up with some of the best students evaluation from two US universities. When I finished my masters degree I found my self back in Sudan working as a lecturer in a public/private university. This time around, I was more understanding of the students and more tolerant of their styles. My understanding for the "respect" that I should expect from the students has also changed. For example, I realized that it is pointless for example to ask students not to eat or drink in the lecture room, or to leave the lecture whenever they please. If a student is hungry, diabetic or have to go to bathroom or blow his nose or have any other emergency this does not mean that they disrespect me, it only means that they have reasonable human needs that should be accommodated. The major red line that I had for my students is disrupting others while the lecture is on. As they have no right to disturb others. My new approach worked miracles and when I had to leave and return to the US to study for my PhD I was given a great farewell. My students organized me a farewell party of sorts and gave speeches and were genuine in their appreciation. One thing they emphasized is that they felt that I respected them as human being with no regard to their attire , personal flaws or even academic competency. I felt that was validating to my efforts. Because at the end of the day, we cannot really make the world run they way we want regardless of how noble our ways are. The best we can do as teachers is to do our best. May be I should also mention that I have no real love to the administration of Mamoun Humeida University. I strongly believe that they did not have a genuine respect for instructors and that they think of them as a commodity, at least that was the case with me, but that is another story for another post. One last thing to mention is that Dr. Abdeulwahid idiosyncrasies may be in play here too. He is a smart, of course, and hard working but he belong to the school of education that emphasizes tough discipline and has a certain image of how students should be. Dr. Abdulwahid himself studied in Saudi Arabia until finishing high school, but he was good enough that he made it to the University of Khartoum without having to resort to private admission, he also, always conducted himself with discipline throughout college. This tells about his abilities and his high expectation of students. Nonetheless, the students are not responsible for these expectation. Best Regards, Omer Elfarouq