I was arrogant

I am a difficult person to deal with. Today, I exhibited my arrogance.
Today, a guest speaker, Sr. Damian Lai SPC, a retired ex-principal of St. Paul Secondary School, came to share her view on "Teacher as a Reflective Practitioner". It was a good topic and Sr. Damian was well prepared. She delivered her sharing with a detailed PowerPoint. Sister was gentle and soft spoken. Her pace was appropriate. She did not rush though she had a lot of ideas to share with us. Her choice of words, such as "espoused", was elegant and learned. She did not rely on a script. The PowerPoint was her script and it was massive. She spoke for about 40 minutes.

Sister does not know us, except for Joseph Fong, her former employee. Joseph invited her to come. Sorry, Joseph. I was arrogant to your former boss.
Sister wore glasses. The reflection on her glasses prevented me from making out whether Sister had established eye contact with us. Perhaps she had. But I am afraid she failed to establish a rapport with her audience. I noticed that some colleagues had lost their way in the course of the sharing.

After her talk, Brenda raised the first question, asking Sister to clarify a point in her sharing. I followed with two questions.
My name is Alex. I teach RS. Pardon me for being blunt. Can you tell us what expectations you have on us? Your sharing has been very substantial. Can you tell us in a few words the key ideas you want to tell us?
Why did I raise these two questions?

I think we were rather unprepared for the sharing. We did not know what to expect from this sharing. We only knew that it was something to do with being a reflective teacher. But did Sister have any expectation on us? If she had, what was that expectation? It turned out that she didn't! Had she had, she would have adapted her sharing to our level and adjusted accordingly in the course of her sharing. We were just any audience.

Sister did not answer my second question. Even before she tried, Emily had already voiced her comments to save the day. Emily saw that I wanted to press on and so she interrupted immediately. She showed her appreciation of her sharing, in particular, the part on celebrating success with the students, colleagues and even other schools. Joseph followed by telling us what a disciplinary teacher he had been and how he was converted. Ms Koo also shared her reflective experience with her environmentally friendly class. The sharing session ended amiably. I wish Sister did not feel offended.
When I returned to the staff room, Donna, the native English teacher blasted me for my arrogance. Yes, Sister had been very theoretical but Donna expected me to be among the "enlightened" few to be able to understand. I was too arrogant to demand Sister to summarize in a few words what she had said in 40 minutes. Donna had never reacted so fiercely towards me. Raymond tried to defend me by sharing the blame. He said he had been guilty of encouraging me to raise my questions. No. Raymond. It was not your fault. The fault is mine. I am not reflective and considerate enough. Perhaps my blood sugar level was getting low. Up to this moment, I am still unable to figure out what triggered my raising the second question. Was I disappointed or frustrated? If I was disappointed, what was my expectation which this sharing session failed to meet? I don't know.

Dear Lord, I am sick. Let me discern my illness and heal my wounds. Amen.