Public School Students

It breaks my heart when somebody mentions public school students to me. I feel so sorry for these students. I used to be one of them. And I very well know how negatively they feel towards some subjects, particularly French and Mathematics. Lately, I have met some private school mature students, and I am unable to draw an adequate analogy between them and others from the public sector. They speak French fluently, and when I saw their grades sheets, I was stunned to find that they did an equally excellent job at all the subjects they studied. The only thing I did when I heard many good things that characterize their education was that I began to pity public sector students. I even indulged in self-pity as I still consider myself as one of these students. At times, I feel that many of these students are lying on deathbed. At other times, I believe that even public students students can make a huge difference. We simply need to impress on them that what does not kill us makes us stronger and that willingness makes miracles. As a lame victim of public education, I would still remain so if I had not put into practice these two adages.

Lies

As I implicitly mentioned earlier in some of my pieces, besides absence, there are many other things that make the heart grow fonder. One of these things are the lies that lovers tell each other before they get married. No matter how frank they try to be to each other, they can not help telling lies, especially that the latter too makes the heart grow fonder. The crux of the matter is that it makes the heart fonder for short time. Wrong are those who try to elude themselves by saying that they have never lied to their lovers. Lovers have to lie so as to gain the opposite sex' heart as firmly as possible. " You are the first one I have ever loved, " lovers say to each other. But this is not true all the time. It is so rare to find someone who dares to say to his or her lover that they have once loved. Personally, I burst into laughter when I read what a girlfriend sends her boyfriend. Boyfriends do their best to show off, thus gaining girls' hearts. Girls do their best to show that they are pure, strict and lovable, thus convincing boys of their purity. However, with time and as marriage is pronounced, married life start to lack vitality and freshness, and each one's defects begin to crop up. Each one lays his or her previous lies on the table. No one is feigning any false feelings anymore. Some promises are broken. Anyway, this is normal in any married life. And it isn't necessarily a sign that married life is unstable . Even successful couples go through these experiences. To avoid this problem, I have told the truth to some girls. But what I have done has got me nowhere, for the truth does not make the heart grow fonder. On the contrary, unlike truth, flattery or lies make the heart easily grow fonder. Telling the truth all the time, however, doesn't get one anywhere. This is mainly why I have not won the heart of the beautiful yet. I bait with sheer truth, not lies.

Mastering a Language

The mystery that comes to me now and then is that many Moroccans write and speak French, Arabic, English, and other languages, but so few of them really master these languages. We have to bear in mind that there is a marked difference between knowing a language and mastering it. Knowing it merely lies in writing and speaking the basics; in other words, conveying a message at all costs is what matters to most. Mastering a language mainly lies in speaking and writing it as perfectly as possible. That is, one has to write grammatically and semantically correct paragraphs in the language he or she think they master. Also, they have to speak the newly-learnt language authentically and with intelligible pronunciation. Personally, accuracy and fluency are what guarantees real mastery. Without these two criteria, we are eluding ourselves. Recently, I began to learn French, and when I informed some people of this, they were surprised to death. " How come you haven't learnt French yet, " they wondered. Here, it is a pity that they mistake learning a language for conveying 'silly' and 'basic' messages in the same language via SMS. In response, I said that I began to learn French so that I would write in it and speak it as accurately and fluently as possible. Also, I set out to learn it so as to read some of French literature. This misconception of a mastery of a language has led some learners astray; now they are master at none; in other words, they are jack of all trades.

Unrequited Love

Many people have suffered from unrequited love at one point in their lives. Still worse is the fact they aggravate their suffering by clinging to this nonreciprocal love for so long even though they have been convinced that the one they love will never be theirs. Though I do not often practise what I preach, I have got some advice for the victims of the predicament. Normally, people suffering from unrequited people love someone of a higher position than theirs, of exceptional beauty, and of excessive pride and established reputation. The only advice I can give them here is that they should go for those with a lower position and less beauty. I am sure that the majority will reciprocate your feelings, for you must be a model for them. However, the problem that you might face is that this sort will love you unrequitedly. That is, they can love you passionately, but you won't be able to love them with the same passion. To do away with pain as some women call it, all we need is to ignore over and over again and never have more consideration than is normal.

Some New Learners of English

Every time I meet some new learners of English and talk to them, I stare at they way they dress and listen to the way they speak English. Some of them choose to dress outlandishly and fashionably, emulating Americans' lifestyles. They are free to do so, and I respect their new lifestyle. Still, what I can't make out is why they hold the misconception that learning and mastering a new language necessarily mean adopting the lifestyle of its native speakers. Some other new learners think that by imitating American or British people in every single life aspect, they are doing a good job. It is important to learn a lot about the British culture, but it is trivial to renounce our own lifestyle we are born with so as to adopt a new different one. I pity those who dress, talk, walk, and behave the same way as Americans do, for these sorts of men are no longer themselves. I am for learning any language and knowing everything about any culture and lifestyle. But I can not disown my origin. Most importantly, I am an English-language practitioner, writing in English, speaking to English native speakers, making them read what I write, letting them know that I am myself, a purely Moroccan Amazigh man in every aspect of my life.

I Kept my Lips Sealed

This summer, I have had the chance to attend an affluent wedding in my village. What characterized the wedding is that the invited sat at many tables no matter how polarizedly different their social classes are. I appreciated this comportment so much. But the discussion that some attendees were involved in did not live up to my expectations. As one of the attendees, I too sat a table with so many wealthy people beside me. As a native ex-villager, I know every single one of them very well. As usual, at weddings, one of the pleasures I take in attending is to make my belly full. As we ate, we soon began to talk. I too involved myself. Suddenly, I felt that I had only been talking at cross purposes; instantly, I kept my lips sealed. I had to do so, for the young boys sitting opposite me told me that they were studying at Al Akhayayn University. When I asked about how much it cost them to study there, I was told ten thousand dirhams a year per each student. I was surprised to death because I as a practicing teacher do not earn this amount during three working years. And these students pay this amount only to study in one single year. That is why I kept my lips sealed until my belly got full and I ran home.

The Pen and the Keyboard

I haven't held a pen for so long. More precisely, I have rarely clutched it to a write a few lines on paper. Instead, the keyboard has replaced this medium whereby we write. Most of the time, I use the keyboard. That is why my handwriting has begun to lose beauty. Whatever the means, my ultimate purpose behind the pen and the keyboard still remains the same: to impart my ideas through my pieces. The only difference I have recently felt there is between the pen and the keyboard is the ebb and flow of inspiration. To my amazement, I find it easier to write with the keyboard as I am so often inspired then, and the ideas in my mind flow smoothly. Unlike the latter medium, the pen pains my mind, and makes my ideas turn around the bush for a long time. They take much time to hit the bush. When the pen is in my hand, I tremble with fear, for I can not stand spotting something crossed out or amiss on paper.

During the Deliberation

Towards the end of a school year, I usually hear some teachers discussing their students' levels and grades during the deliberation. Whenever I attend the latter, I always feel I can not stand the manner some teachers describe the level of some poor students. What I can not accept is when a teacher says that some of his students are stupid, communicatively handicapped, and slow on the uptake. Therefore, they add that the students in question do not deserve success at all and that what they deserve is dropping out of school. This is not mature and professional of this sort of teachers, I complain. Some others go on to burst into laughter when they hear names of their students. Here, they start to reveal the defects of some of their students. To my dismay, some others describe students as mere donkeys and good for nothing, for the latter have never raised their hands in class. As I hear all these so-called complaints and many more from teachers, I wonder whether or not these teacher have inevitably gone through the same experiences during their school days. Even if not all of them have, they must experience the same outside the class. They must be understanding and they have to bear in mind that they were once students. On the contrary, they should provide remedies instead of uttering silly complaints. My message to these teachers is that they must take enough precautions when they dare to speak ill of their students, particularly that many of the greatest of geniuses of the whole world too were once 'stupid', 'communicatively handicapped', and 'slow on the uptake'.

Unemployment

Unemployment has become a rampant phenomenon in Morocco. I strongly condemn it, and I strongly demand that all unemployed people, especially diploma holders, should be hired in different sectors. When it comes to the sector of education, I have got some second thoughts to mention. All unemployed B.A., M.A. and PhD holders are calling for joining the teaching profession. But, the question we have to pose here is whether they are competent enough to land this job or not. I strongly believe that we must not sacrifice competence for the sake of recruiting the unemployed. If we do so, expect that a large number of students will fall prey to the teaching of incompetent teachers. In this way, these students will in turn be negatively affected in that they will not receive good education as they should. Many of us are victims of this calamity. Enough is enough to badly-educated graduates if we really care about the education of our students! Personally, I would rather stay unemployed, trying to find another job than teach improperly. Many unemployed graduates have been recruited to teach, not because they passed the necessary written and oral exam, but because they took to the street calling for employment. I stand by them just the same way as I stand by the students whom they are going to teach. The fact that many ex-university students in Islamic studies have been recruited to teach Mathematics and French in primary schools breaks my heart, particularly that we are worsening the quality of our education by providing a bread-and-butter job to the unemployed calling for the teaching profession.

A Candle that Flickers

I light it every night,
But whenever it flickers, I begin to lose my sight.
A long time ago, I thought I used this flickering candle only to read;
Now it turns out that I have been using it to lead
A group of readers to my world of both tension and relief;
Oh, drops of my tears are still like a falling barren leaf.

Life Told by an Idiot

" Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, " wrote Shakespeare in Macbeth. Quoting this distinguished playwright has come from the possibility that some readers may shy away when we begin to look up on life as a journey that is not worth living, particularly that it signifies nothing at the end of the day. Numerous are the incidents in life that prove what Shakespeare wrote. During our childhood, we make a fuss and cry for hours for the simple reason that our toys or plastic cars break into pieces. We go furious and complain for days until we procure a new toy. We never take into account how the toy comes to us. All that matters is that we must have a toy or a plaything to play with to fill in the gap. The same thing is true of our choice of clothes, food, drinks, games, etc. Notwithstanding, the moment our childhood comes to an end, we give up all those toys, not because they are damaged, but because they no longer mean anything to us. In others words, they signify nothing anymore. Back to my childhood days, the only game I enjoyed so much was marbles. I couldn't do without it in that that I one day went on foot to a town at a distance of ten five miles to buy marbles. Now, the game has lost its value and means nothing to me. But it still means a lot to children. Similarly, the latter will in turn give it up as soon as they become adults. In our adulthood, we start to value invaluable life aspects, especially love, marriage, wealth, fame, enjoyment of all sorts, etc. Nobody can deny that we are constantly looking for true love. We all aspire to become famous no matter what it will take us to do so. We all run after all forms of entertainment, such as cinema, theater, basking by the seaside, visiting a tourist resort or a foreign country. We all hanker after some money and getting married to an ideal half. Some of us make noise and get furious on their way to attaining all these life pursuits. Some others daydream about a perfect married life, uttering some sounds helplessly during their sleep. Some sleep a wink on the night of a special day. Some do their best to seek fame wherever it is. Similar to what occurred to us as children, as the elderly, we soon give up everything we have attained the moment we observe that senility and old age are pervading every limb of our body. We begin to walk unsteadily; hence, basking by the seaside is no longer a dream. We begin to find some food tasteless. We begin to see our married life losing vitality after we have discovered the ins and outs of our imperfection. We begin to see money as useless as the latter does not guarantee health and return to adulthood. We begin to see love as a trick played on us soon after we find out many lies and defects. Most importantly, we begin to see life as futile, particularly that we have taken it seriously at every stage and now that we have found that we needn't have done so. Let us just breathe a deep sigh of relief now that a simple idiot has narrated our life. We are these simple idiots, anyway. We have made our life fraught with sound, noise, tumult, fury, anger, stress, etc. for the sake of ephemeral life stages. Only late in our life do we discover that life signifies nothing. Idiots can not discover this at an early age. That is why are are all simply idiots who have made our lives what they are at present.

Beauty is not in the Eye of the Beholder

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, some say. Others refer to it to excuse their ugliness. Some others believe in it, but when the proposal day approaches, they give it up. Many others go on to mention it as a consequence of auto-suggestion, trying to calm down themselves. For sure, this adage exists in reality, but beholders who feel so are so few and far between. It is so mainly because nearly ninety people lean towards real beauty, while the same percentage of people lean towards real ugliness. The ten per cent left make up men and women with certain complexes. For instance, a young, ugly girl surely quotes this saying the day a man proposes to her. An old, beautiful woman does the same when she finds that she is ageing day after day with no suitor in sight. However, a really beautiful girl quoting it is almost non-existent. Anyway, it is something normal. I am not saying that the quote above doesn't exist. It exists, but the motives behind its coming into existence are not based on honesty and frankness. What I am alluding to is that beauty isn't in the eye of the beholder, but rather beauty should be in the eye of the beholder. Let us be a bit honest with each other. Let us be a bit realistic. As for me, if I believe in the quote, I must do so all my life, not just when I am going to propose to a beautiful girl or when I am not handsome enough to do so. It is simply because I very well know that it will be so hypocritical of me to do so. Beauty should be in the eye of the beholder! Don't you think so?

Boycotting the new Constitution

Personally, there are many reasons why I have boycotted the new constitution. First, since I am certain more than one hundred percent that the new constitution will be approved and validated, I see no point in going to vote in the negative. Normally, one votes in the negative or in the affirmative if there is an almost equal possibility and competition of the success of one side and the failure of another. Second, since the king himself says YES to the new constitution, I can see that from time immemorial, so few would say NO to the new constitution. Third, the government has spent great amounts of money to make people vote in the affirmative. Here, I see no point in saying NO, for the government has made it clearer for me the new constitution is already approved. Fourth, the majority of voters do not know what are the real changes in the new constitution and whether the latter will surely bring Morocco any positive change. Fifth, illiterate people's voices mustn't be counted as they do not anything about the speech delivered. All they know is that it is delivered by the king of Morocco, the one whom they love so passionately. This love is passed on from generation to generation amongst them. No matter what the speech is about, I am more than certain that they will keep saying " Long live the king! and Long live the new constitution. These reasons are simply just to name but a few.