Just Because

Back in the aughts, my friend James’ mom gave me a wedding gift of a pretty sturdy metal flower vase.    She told me it was meant to be used for “just because” flowers, an unspoken recommendation that a husband shouldn’t wait for a birthday, anniversary, or Valentine’s Day to buy his wife flowers–sometimes he should buy them “just because”.  Alas, her nudge of wisdom worked.  I can’t say I’m a flower-giving machine, but virtually every time I’m at a grocery that sells flowers, I remember that I should buy them sometimes “just because” and that I don’t need a reason [Note for self-preservation: aside from love, of course.]

That’s the romantic “just because”.  Let’s look at the dare-I-say ugly “just because”, which relates to a lot of situations in life, but I’d like to place it in the language learning classroom.  The reality is that many instructors, if asked why they are doing what they are doing in class that day, the truthful answer, when distilled, would end up being something like this:

“Because it’s the next page in the book.”
“Because that’s what the curriculum says.”
“Because that’s what they want us to do.”

Those don’t need a vase, they need a garbage can.  A red flag for me pops up when an instructor knows exactly what they’re going to cover in week 10 when it’s only week 1.  With the exception of a college class where students are just taking the class for a grade and a credit requirement, if a particular class or cohort of students isn’t progressing at the same rate as the previous class, the only possible reason the instructor can give for moving at the same pace as before is some obscured version of “just because”...because there is no good reason to do that. 

Unlike my unexpected bouquet on a random Tuesday, that reason stinks.

A top-of-mind example that I’ve seen and heard over and over again is an instructor “working on” present perfect when I know that their class makes consistent errors with simple past in spontaneous production, though usually the instructor isn’t even aware of it due to the lack of spoken output.   Then I hear the dirty words when I bring it up: “They should know that already”  or “We covered that.” 

Welcome to red flag city.  That type of instructor keeps doing what they’re doing “just because”...just because they don’t know what else to do but turn the page. 

Students are trusting us with their time, and perhaps money as well, directly or indirectly.  We need GREAT reasons and we should be able to articulate them. 

As I step off my soapbox, I realize that if she reads this I might have just set myself up for failure every time I come back from the grocery store with my flower hand empty.