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“The Failed Three-Way Swap” By Sara Saw

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Sometimes, we students are asked to follow without question. This account from August 8 illustrates this while also showcasing the understanding nature of Dalat teachers. In the new Public Theology class, we explore how God's truth applies to every area of life and how Christians apply gospel in the public square. Guided by curiosity and mutual respect, students explore both non-biblical and biblical worldviews. Each student will be part of a Unit Presentation Team (UPT), Unit Debater (UD), a Unit Question Generator (UQG) throughout the semester, though hopefully not at the same time. 

“Say something, say something!” Tia Emmanuel (12) gently urged me.

I glanced often at Mr. Dave Nguyen (the Bible teacher) as I weighed my options in a few seconds. I was overcome with an irrational fear of being judged by everyone if I said something. 

As I predicted, Mr. Nguyen only noticed this minor detail at the very end of using a random name generator for assigning our projects topics. 

“Let’s three-way [swap]!” Ee Rynn Ong (12) earnestly chimes in. The class didn’t seem to agree wholeheartedly to no one’s surprise. “Oh, we can't," the same voice said with a sigh after a few seconds. We definitely could have, but some people were going to be extremely irritated at the end of this.

“Does anyone want to swap topics with her? She shouldn’t do the same topic for the three projects," was about what Mr. Nguyen said. Because it seemed another student couldn’t be added into the group of maximum six. 

Quiet murmurs turned noticeably into a loud silence. The absence of any noise made the atmosphere tense. But it appeared Mr. Nguyen gave up suspiciously quickly and seemed to dismiss the matter. 

“No, no, it’s ok. This is nothing.” I recounted this thought days later.

Being dramatic about upholding unnecessary rigidity is embarrassing for not only oneself but everyone else. Do not let yourself be held back from embracing the present. There are other ways to be right! Keep calm, nothing is set in stone, because things will change regardless if we want them to or not. It will get better.

In fact, I was updated about this after H block on August 8: “Hi Sara, I'm not going to expect that you're able to prepare both your presentation and for the debates in so little time, since it's Unit 1. So for the debate unit, I'm okay with giving you unit 2, 3, or 4, even if it's over the maximum. Let me know which unit you'd like to debate. And also let me know which unit you'd like for the Question Generator,” said Mr. Nguyen.

Indeed I had been blessed with a peaceful, quiet resolution. The chance to choose what I wanted to do for the projects was granted with understanding and kindness from the Dalat staff member. In reality it was technically possible to submit a presentation, debate and paragraph question for the same class in less than two weeks, but it would have been an awful experience and I was glad it didn’t turn out that way. 

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