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Teachers - as their role changes
Published: Thursday | May 2, 2013
By Keith Noel
AS BOYS, our teachers 'knew their stuff'. Each was a kind of fount of knowledge in the subject area in which he specialised. He could not only answer most questions you asked, but if he was unsure of the answer, could guide you to the best places to find the information you needed.
The really good teachers were the ones who would inspire you. They made a student feel capable of fulfilling any dreams they had. Building self-esteem and ensuring that you grew in self-confidence, they became a confidante and a sounding board for all one's ideas. But the excellent ones were those who made you dispense with the dreams you had and reach much further, much higher.
It began in primary school. There were teachers who were responsible for little boys and girls, some of them barefooted, believing that they were capable of achieving big things. Many of us can remember 'Teacher John' or 'Teacher Roach' who put the fire in our bellies and made us know that we could find our way forward. Often, these primary school stalwarts did not 'spare the rod', but we did not mind too much, because they taught us, sometimes by rote, what we needed to know. Our parents trusted them and they did their best to earn this trust.
These teachers delivered what was needed to pass our exams, be it 'second year' or Common Entrance or for us to become pupil teachers (then a major stepping stone to tertiary education). They 'knew their stuff'. The teacher was the backbone of the society. His importance was equalled only by that of the minister of religion.
Then, things began to change.
Three things happened. School and education slowly became not the only, or even the best, way of making your way in society. The entertainment industries provided a fast way to economic security and social recognition. The singer, the selector and the DJ became role models of success. Then sportsmen: first cricketers, then others, became folk heroes to the young. Then there was the growth of the ganja industry. The herb had been a part of our culture, but when it became a serious money-earner while still being illegal, it paved the way for other illegal activity. Guns came into our societies and 'rudeboys' became 'badmen' and then 'dons' and 'area leaders'. The power brokers in working-class society were now the criminal elites. Worse still, when some politicians, in their desire for power, began 'hugging up' these dons, they legitimised their activities.
So the teacher was now just a man trying to do a job. But the great teachers were still out there, inspiring, helping, passing on invaluable information and showing young people how to find it. So he still was held in some esteem.
ROLE CHANGE
And then the teacher's role changed. No longer was a teacher to be that 'wise' person, that fount of knowledge. All he or she was to do was to facilitate, to allow the students to learn through their interactions with each other and mostly through their interaction with the computer. The shift was not as major as it seemed, but it was confusing. In the student-centered class, the less-skilled teacher, having lost power, sometimes lost control. The students recognised this and they were diminished in their students' eyes. Add to this the fact that corporal punishment had been abolished - the last control mechanism had been taken away.
So what do we have? Apart from the skilful, the talented, or the supremely dedicated teachers in the system, we have persons who, even though fairly competent in many areas, have not fully internalised the new approach to teaching. They have no power base; they are no longer seen as providing the only, or for some, even a particularly good means of social or economic mobility. Parents no longer revere, or even respect them; and the society is generally unsympathetic to them.
And we expect them to take charge of and control a generation of young people who are increasingly becoming more self-assertive, more disrespectful of elders, more accepting of violence as a way of handling problems, more able to get their hands on weapons of all kinds.
What a task!
Keith Noel is an educator. Send comments to columns@gleanerjm.com.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...cleisure2.html
Published: Thursday | May 2, 2013
By Keith Noel
AS BOYS, our teachers 'knew their stuff'. Each was a kind of fount of knowledge in the subject area in which he specialised. He could not only answer most questions you asked, but if he was unsure of the answer, could guide you to the best places to find the information you needed.
The really good teachers were the ones who would inspire you. They made a student feel capable of fulfilling any dreams they had. Building self-esteem and ensuring that you grew in self-confidence, they became a confidante and a sounding board for all one's ideas. But the excellent ones were those who made you dispense with the dreams you had and reach much further, much higher.
It began in primary school. There were teachers who were responsible for little boys and girls, some of them barefooted, believing that they were capable of achieving big things. Many of us can remember 'Teacher John' or 'Teacher Roach' who put the fire in our bellies and made us know that we could find our way forward. Often, these primary school stalwarts did not 'spare the rod', but we did not mind too much, because they taught us, sometimes by rote, what we needed to know. Our parents trusted them and they did their best to earn this trust.
These teachers delivered what was needed to pass our exams, be it 'second year' or Common Entrance or for us to become pupil teachers (then a major stepping stone to tertiary education). They 'knew their stuff'. The teacher was the backbone of the society. His importance was equalled only by that of the minister of religion.
Then, things began to change.
Three things happened. School and education slowly became not the only, or even the best, way of making your way in society. The entertainment industries provided a fast way to economic security and social recognition. The singer, the selector and the DJ became role models of success. Then sportsmen: first cricketers, then others, became folk heroes to the young. Then there was the growth of the ganja industry. The herb had been a part of our culture, but when it became a serious money-earner while still being illegal, it paved the way for other illegal activity. Guns came into our societies and 'rudeboys' became 'badmen' and then 'dons' and 'area leaders'. The power brokers in working-class society were now the criminal elites. Worse still, when some politicians, in their desire for power, began 'hugging up' these dons, they legitimised their activities.
So the teacher was now just a man trying to do a job. But the great teachers were still out there, inspiring, helping, passing on invaluable information and showing young people how to find it. So he still was held in some esteem.
ROLE CHANGE
And then the teacher's role changed. No longer was a teacher to be that 'wise' person, that fount of knowledge. All he or she was to do was to facilitate, to allow the students to learn through their interactions with each other and mostly through their interaction with the computer. The shift was not as major as it seemed, but it was confusing. In the student-centered class, the less-skilled teacher, having lost power, sometimes lost control. The students recognised this and they were diminished in their students' eyes. Add to this the fact that corporal punishment had been abolished - the last control mechanism had been taken away.
So what do we have? Apart from the skilful, the talented, or the supremely dedicated teachers in the system, we have persons who, even though fairly competent in many areas, have not fully internalised the new approach to teaching. They have no power base; they are no longer seen as providing the only, or for some, even a particularly good means of social or economic mobility. Parents no longer revere, or even respect them; and the society is generally unsympathetic to them.
And we expect them to take charge of and control a generation of young people who are increasingly becoming more self-assertive, more disrespectful of elders, more accepting of violence as a way of handling problems, more able to get their hands on weapons of all kinds.
What a task!
Keith Noel is an educator. Send comments to columns@gleanerjm.com.
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/2...cleisure2.html