Through the eyes of a teacher

Teacher

What you need to know:

  • It appears that being a professional teacher goes far beyond mastering your subject and all the tricks needed to penetrate a thick skull. Is it any wonder that teachers have officially entered the corporate world?

There are two reasons why people enter the teaching profession. There are those who did very well in school and can’t get past it, and then there are those who did very badly in school and can’t get out of it.

Love them or hate them, teachers are such an important part of the best years of our life that we certainly cannot ignore them. Teaching is one of the oldest professions and it is gaining new respect.

I have learned that as well as employing a CEO for leadership, a COO for operations and a CIO for information technology, some companies are now employing a CLO to drive organisational learning.

We are told that good teachers are worth their weight in gold. I guess they just wish that someone would weigh them before they pay them.

Although a typical school presents itself as a simple and orderly environment, it has its own set of complexities, and a good teacher navigates this environment with finesse.

Inside the school, we have pupils, teachers, school administrators and support staff. Outside the school, there are three types of people to beware of: parents, school governors and school inspectors.

The basic facts to remember about pupils are (1) they are children, (2) they would rather be elsewhere and (3) poor performance at school is likely to blight their lives.

The good teacher, therefore, skilfully keeps the children in place by making their lessons as interesting and effective as possible. The other type of teacher does exactly the opposite. 

Schools are hierarchical organisations with everyone ranked from the principal, through to heads of department, teachers, prefects, monitors… down to the school cat.

In respect of this ranking, school administrators require only one thing: homage – so the good teacher should try to pay it without descending into the type of sycophancy that fragments the brain.

Fellow teachers should be collaborators, but in these days of “mean averages” and school ranking, they are often competitors and the staffroom is a political hotbed. A good teacher must know how to survive the staffroom battlefield. The cooks, gardeners, cleaners, nursemaids and other support staff provide valuable services, but they have the potential to run “crime” rackets in cahoots with the students. A good teacher quickly discovers exactly who is passing contraband to the students and breaks the chain.

Three things to fear

There are three things that any teacher should fear: angry parents, changes in the syllabus and school inspectors. There is a legend told about an angry father who arrived at the school gate of a remote school in the former Eastern province.

Since he was carrying a panga, a bow and a quiver of arrows and was breathing heavily, the guard refused him admittance. After a short argument with the guard, the father lost patience, placed his hand on a nearby tree trunk and chopped off his own little finger with the panga stating “As surely as I have mutilated my hand so surely will I kill that teacher!”

At this juncture the guard fled and it took a Land Rover full of Administration Police to subdue the parent. I won’t say much about altered syllabi, but notes prepared for posterity and engraved into tablets of stone may not survive such a change.

 School inspectors are often former teachers and their modus operandi is best summed up by the words of Jesus Christ in Matthew “All whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” (Matt 23:3, 4 KJV.) School inspectors need to be careful that teachers do not end up writing more reports than they do content.

 It appears that being a professional teacher goes far beyond mastering your subject and all the tricks needed to penetrate a thick skull. Is it any wonder that teachers have officially entered the corporate world?

Encourage a teacher this weekend.

BY KATE GETAO