Blog Post #4: An Intellectual Adventure

Amity Tran

HON 101

Schultz

22 September 2016

Blog Post #4: An Intellectual Adventure

When I was about 11 years old, my family moved to a new neighborhood where there was a temple only a few blocks away. My mother found out that the temple had weekly Chinese/religion classes for children on Saturdays and decided I should go, so I did. At first, I just blindly accepted everything they said. However, over time, my teacher began to say things that I did not agree with. She said that when human beings reach Nirvana, they will turn into men because men have more spiritual power than women. She also taught us Chinese, but she was very strict about us learning only how to write traditional characters instead of simplified characters because “simplified Chinese is for the uneducated”.

When my teacher said those things, it triggered something in me. I wanted to speak back and argue with her ideas, but she was an authoritative figure, a teacher; everything she teaches is supposed to be right. I wondered if I was even allowed to disagree with her, was I wrong for disagreeing? I finally came to my senses and realized that no, it was not wrong of me to disagree with her. It’s my right to be able to disagree with her. I did not like how when a woman has basically died and reached Nirvana, her spiritual being turns into man. First of all, I like being a girl and I do not want to be a man physically or spiritually, no matter how much more “powerful” they are. Also, simplified Chinese is not for the “uneducated”. This writing system was not made to make people dumber. It was created to make Chinese easier to learn in an attempt to increase literacy because having a writing system with a characters made of thousands of strokes for everything in existence is very inefficient, so it was actually created to educate not un-educate. I never actually voiced my disagreements because in my culture, disagreeing with an authoritative figure is like slapping them in the face, but it felt good to disagree.

Even though that teacher did say things that I did not agree with, she was kind and truly cared about every student’s learning. This situation taught me that just because I disagreed with her, it did not mean that I was wrong or being disrespectful. I formed my own opinion about the things she said because I am an individual with my own thoughts. I do not have to think or act the way someone tells me I am supposed to. I can do whatever I want--as long as it is not illegal.