I was having a conversation with my colleague at work the other day about how some people think that it's a breeze to be a teacher. In fact, some people look down on teachers as they think teachers rate extremely low on the professional rankings. Yet, if you think about it, teachers make decisions that affect other people for the rest of their lives. I have talked to people who hate Mathematics, History, Geography, Science and even English because they had awful teachers in those subjects. However, this is almost a given situation if you go to public schools.
Out of sheer curiosity, I made a rough calculation. I teach 40 students 3 different subjects on any given day. I teach Social Studies, IGCSE Modern World History and IGCSE Business Studies. So let's say each student asks me a yes/no question. That's 1600 decisions I need to make. Why decisions? Each answer leads to other questions. I need to think 5 steps ahead of them to make sure my initial answer is of proper educational value. Now, what if the questions are of the yes/no, what if and why not varieties? Remember, these are private school students. Educators in these facilities are expected to cater to the individual needs. So for 40 students, that's a probability of having to make 2,560,000 decisions in one day. Other than a leader of a country, which other profession has to make these kinds of decisions in a split second at any one time? Decisions which could later affect the rest of their lives? If you know of any, let me know. I really need to feel good about this right now.
Now, I'm faced with these decision-making 5 days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Those are normal working hours right? But remember again, I work in a private school. We cater to individual needs. We don't teach for 10 minutes then tell them to do the work and we sit down and relax. No, we have to walk around to make sure they get the individual attention. And when we have our non-contact time (or in public school terminology, free period), we have to run around preparing for the next lesson. In my school, this could be anything from going to the administrative office on the ground floor then running up to the 3rd floor IT lab with a brief stopover at the library on the 2nd floor. Then we have our break time. Teachers have yard duty where they have to take care of the other children in the school while the children are playing.
Try doing all this to your body and mind 5 days in a week. And the school holidays? I work during those school holidays. I'm writing comprehensive reports that the parents will read and be able to know the successes and failures that their children are facing in school. And since I can't come right out and say, "Your child is a lazy ass dumbo who refuses to listen to instructions and thinks he/she is God's great gift to Mankind.", I suppose I spend most of my time then being very, very creative and tactful.
So why do I do this? It's simple. I love my job. I love what I'm doing. Sometimes, a student who I'm about to give up on suddenly turns to me and explains why the Gross Domestic Product of his country is less than those in Malaysia despite his country having more rich people than we can ever dream of here. Or another student suddenly pipes up and says "Miss, wars are stupid, aren't there? Look what World War 1 did to Verdun or how World War 2 affected world relations." Or another students looks up from a model she is making of tsunamis and asks,"We have the technology to prevent so many people from dying, don't we, Miss? After all, we know why it happened."
On days like those, hope does spring eternal. And suddenly everything a teacher does has its place in the universe. The single joy of achievement outweighs every pain and hardship experienced. So why am I tired? I'm tired because not many teachers do their best for their profession. To them, it's just a job, not a passion. And sometimes...just sometimes...I wonder if they may have the right idea after all.
Out of sheer curiosity, I made a rough calculation. I teach 40 students 3 different subjects on any given day. I teach Social Studies, IGCSE Modern World History and IGCSE Business Studies. So let's say each student asks me a yes/no question. That's 1600 decisions I need to make. Why decisions? Each answer leads to other questions. I need to think 5 steps ahead of them to make sure my initial answer is of proper educational value. Now, what if the questions are of the yes/no, what if and why not varieties? Remember, these are private school students. Educators in these facilities are expected to cater to the individual needs. So for 40 students, that's a probability of having to make 2,560,000 decisions in one day. Other than a leader of a country, which other profession has to make these kinds of decisions in a split second at any one time? Decisions which could later affect the rest of their lives? If you know of any, let me know. I really need to feel good about this right now.
Now, I'm faced with these decision-making 5 days a week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Those are normal working hours right? But remember again, I work in a private school. We cater to individual needs. We don't teach for 10 minutes then tell them to do the work and we sit down and relax. No, we have to walk around to make sure they get the individual attention. And when we have our non-contact time (or in public school terminology, free period), we have to run around preparing for the next lesson. In my school, this could be anything from going to the administrative office on the ground floor then running up to the 3rd floor IT lab with a brief stopover at the library on the 2nd floor. Then we have our break time. Teachers have yard duty where they have to take care of the other children in the school while the children are playing.
Try doing all this to your body and mind 5 days in a week. And the school holidays? I work during those school holidays. I'm writing comprehensive reports that the parents will read and be able to know the successes and failures that their children are facing in school. And since I can't come right out and say, "Your child is a lazy ass dumbo who refuses to listen to instructions and thinks he/she is God's great gift to Mankind.", I suppose I spend most of my time then being very, very creative and tactful.
So why do I do this? It's simple. I love my job. I love what I'm doing. Sometimes, a student who I'm about to give up on suddenly turns to me and explains why the Gross Domestic Product of his country is less than those in Malaysia despite his country having more rich people than we can ever dream of here. Or another student suddenly pipes up and says "Miss, wars are stupid, aren't there? Look what World War 1 did to Verdun or how World War 2 affected world relations." Or another students looks up from a model she is making of tsunamis and asks,"We have the technology to prevent so many people from dying, don't we, Miss? After all, we know why it happened."
On days like those, hope does spring eternal. And suddenly everything a teacher does has its place in the universe. The single joy of achievement outweighs every pain and hardship experienced. So why am I tired? I'm tired because not many teachers do their best for their profession. To them, it's just a job, not a passion. And sometimes...just sometimes...I wonder if they may have the right idea after all.
11:57 am |
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