Issues - Euthanasia

In our class we work on topics and these topics are usually the same for two-week periods. For Weeks 10 and 11, the focus for our reading and writing was the topic: Issues. We looked at six issues:

• legalising drugs
• euthanasia
• stereotypes
• depression
• using guns
• abortion

Students were challenged to write about one of these issues. They were to write on their blogs or make contributions to the Issues Forums on our class Discussion Board.

The issue that I am particularly concerned about is that of euthanasia. I value human life and I can’t imagine taking a life. Yet I have been through a prolonged illness of a parent. My father died in June 2001. He suffered for several years with spinal degeneration, emphysema, heart attacks, and Parkinson’s Disease. He had always been a very hard-working man and liked to help others. He hated being in a position where he had to rely on others to do everything for him. He hated the continual pain and the endless frustration.

My father died just a day after his 85th birthday. When I had asked him what he wanted for his birthday, he asked me to give him poison. He wanted to die with all his heart. The last time he went into hospital, I am sure he willed himself to death. He was under a DNR (do not resuscitate order) when he suffered his final heart attack. I knew that he welcomed death when it finally came.

My mother is now 82 years old and strong and fit. She has always been a fiercely independent and proud woman. She would hate to be reliant on anyone for her needs. I know if anything happened to my mother that took away her ability to live independently, she would far rather die. She would expect me to help her die. Now, is this right or wrong? I don’t believe it is right, yet I wouldn’t be able to refuse her. Could I do it? I really don’t know if I could be that strong. I just pray that the Lord will continue to look after her and keep her standard of living tolerable. When it is her time, I pray she is able to pass peacefully and without pain.

Life is not easy. When a baby is born it is helpless and relies on its mother for every need. The baby grows into a strong, competent adult. But then the body ages and deteriorates and sometimes an old person ends up as helpless as a baby. Mum and I visited a dear lady for over a year. She had suffered a very bad stroke and could do nothing for herself. Her daughter fed her, bathed her, toileted her, dressed her and carried her from place to place. That seems worse than death to me.

Well, what do you think?

Motivation

I have a deep concern about student motivation. I have seen a big difference in results obtained by ESOL students in the class. Some of this can be attributed to language ability and some to study skills generally. However, I believe the biggest difference is in the amount of motivation to achieve. Students, who are determined to succeed, set their goals, and then work hard, are generally quite successful. Students who lack motivation, just seem to drift.

The degree of motivation and the subsequent success or lack of success has been very obvious on the online course. Most of the students have made a valiant effort. Progress is obvious in the motivated students. They know what they want to achieve and they work hard to achieve it. One remarkable student has joined us on a nine-week intake. In just four short weeks she has done nearly as much work as others who started nine weeks earlier!

Unfortunately I also have a few ghosts on the course. They started with a desire to learn but the motivation fizzled! They just seem to disappear into the digital ether. I have tried to understand the reasoning for having a number of ghosts.

• Maybe he/she thought that English could be absorbed by osmosis – that no effort would be required and that the English would be transferred by merely being in the environment. Reality wasn’t the same as the expectation.
  
  
• Maybe time management was a problem – perhaps the motivation to earn money, go to the pub, cook a meal, do some gardening, whatever, was greater then the motivation to improve.

I have tried to motivate. I have tried to make the course varied and interesting. I have worked hard to provide good learning materials. I have sent emails and made phone calls. What else could I have done? How can a teacher motivate when the student’s own motivation is lacking?

In an effort to understand the differences in motivation, I have organized an online chat with my students on Sunday evening. Hopefully they will turn up. I have many questions I want them to answer for me. I need to find the keys to increase motivation.