Apologize

LP was certainly impressed by my response and explained, "I must say the revision lecture really may not be up to the expectation of our students. They have good reasons to be disappointed."

"Friend, may I ask you two questions?" I asked slowly.

"Yes?"

"First, do you think the material covered in that revision lecture is important?"

"Why? If not, why on earth should I asked that private organization to give that talk?"

"Very good. Second, in the examination, did you set any question on the material covered in that revision lecture?"

"Of course! One-fourth of the questions come from that lecture."

"In that case, what's there for you to apologize?" I became more serious, "The official purpose of a revision lecture is to highlight and go through some important topics of a particular subject. It is never meant to be a comprehensive talk on everything. The pragmatic purpose, on the other hand, is to give our student's some tips and clues for the examination. If you are satisfied with yourself that what you covered in the revision lecture is important, and you did put up questions from the talk, what's there for your to apologize?"

My friend was forced to nod.

"And, I remind you, it would set a very bad precedent if you apologize," I continued, "We should be the ones to tell our students what should be taught and what they are expected to know. If what we teach does not conform to their expectation and they complain and we have to apologize, who is responsible for running the curriculum?"