Moonlight
what these sentences mean? "One has grown too tired, and humiliated by constant rebuffs to have the energy to seduce." and "One is too panicked by the thought that the unteachable ‘student’ is ruining one’s life to find the inner resources to see it a little more from their point of view." context: "Nagging is, in its essence, an attempt at teaching, at getting an idea for improvement from one mind into another. But it is also a version of teaching that has given up hope. It has descended into an attempt to insist rather than invite, to coerce rather than charm. "One has grown too tired, and humiliated by constant rebuffs to have the energy to seduce. One is too panicked by the thought that the unteachable ‘student’ is ruining one’s life to find the inner resources to see it a little more from their point of view." thanks!
Nov 12, 2017 5:16 PM
Answers · 2
2
Congratulations for attempting to understand such an advanced piece of prose. The language used here is not commonly used in everyday speech. The context explains how a well-meaning teacher can become jaded/frustrated by failed attempts to teach the "unteachable student." 1. "One has grown too tired, and humiliated by constant rebuffs to have the energy to seduce." The word "seduce" means to persuade someone to do something, most commonly it's used in a sexual context. "Rebuff" means to reject. The writer is drawing an analogy between a lover's rejection by a sexual partner to the feeling a teacher may experience after constant unsuccessful attempts to persuade a student to learn a lesson. 2. "One is too panicked by the thought that the unteachable ‘student’ is ruining one’s life to find the inner resources to see it a little more from their point of view." In this case, the teacher is too focused on his/her feelings about this problem (blaming the student for ruining his/her life) to consider the situation from the student's point of view. Maybe there are other reasons for the problem that the teacher should consider.
November 12, 2017
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