my favourite on today's Today
technically, it's yesterday's today, but oh well. a very insightful article.
the heart and soul of teaching
HO KONG LOON
IN 1983, my school head nominated me for the post of vice-principal.
But he was shocked when I turned it down, persuading me to reconsider my decision because that rejection could adversely affect my career advancement.
He relented when he realised how resolute I was. I thoroughly enjoyed doing what I loved most: Teach with passion, dedication and, compassion.
A decade or so later, the education landscape underwent great change with improvements in salary scales, better and faster prospects for promotion, attractive study bursaries, generous sabbaticals, annual performance-based bonuses and so on.
Still, there were teachers who much preferred teaching to fast-tracking their way up the pecking order to become heads of department, subject or level heads or senior teachers.
The ranking of teachers set many teachers working feverishly to come up with the best possible professional portfolios, one that their reporting officers have an avid interest in.
Differentiation took on an added significance when ordinary teachers and their hierarchical counterparts worked from different rooms.
Staff camaraderie nose-dived. Contact time, originally intended for busy teachers to interact professionally or socially once a week, was transformed into lengthy staff meetings, in the guise of sharing sessions, mini meetings and briefings.
Walk into any school before assembly, during the breaks and after dismissal, and it is not uncommon to see teachers working at a frenzied pace — marking written assignments, keying in data at the computers, responding to the voluminous work-related emails from colleagues or superiors, keeping an eye on the kids at the canteen, supervising silent reading ... and the list goes on.
Gone were the days when teachers could take time off to relax with their colleagues after school hours.
But I soldiered on. The children in the class were my main concern and if my portfolio seemed embarrassingly slim, it did not unduly bother me.
When it was time for the battle-weary horse to move on, he did. I was an anachronistic remnant from a bygone time. I was nurtured and trained to be the front-liner in the education of the child, who held centrestage in the process.
It is the passion, creativity, love, care, concern and commitment, which collectively make the learning process enjoyable, productive and permanent.
Now, it is rare for the teacher to have all that time with the kids.
Teachers today have an overflowing plate attending to issues well beyond the classroom. There is only so much they can accomplish daily.
The better-qualified ones are not necessarily more committed, nor are they, in comparison with their lesser-qualified colleagues more effective teachers.
Grow 2.0, while welcome and comprehensively packaged, aims at institutionalising the culture of reward for diligence, upgrading, multi-tasking and versatility.
A tsunami-scale mindset revolution, to get back to the basics of dynamic, creative and dedicated classroom teaching, is hopefully attainable, too.
The author is a retired teacher.
HO KONG LOON
IN 1983, my school head nominated me for the post of vice-principal.
But he was shocked when I turned it down, persuading me to reconsider my decision because that rejection could adversely affect my career advancement.
He relented when he realised how resolute I was. I thoroughly enjoyed doing what I loved most: Teach with passion, dedication and, compassion.
A decade or so later, the education landscape underwent great change with improvements in salary scales, better and faster prospects for promotion, attractive study bursaries, generous sabbaticals, annual performance-based bonuses and so on.
Still, there were teachers who much preferred teaching to fast-tracking their way up the pecking order to become heads of department, subject or level heads or senior teachers.
The ranking of teachers set many teachers working feverishly to come up with the best possible professional portfolios, one that their reporting officers have an avid interest in.
Differentiation took on an added significance when ordinary teachers and their hierarchical counterparts worked from different rooms.
Staff camaraderie nose-dived. Contact time, originally intended for busy teachers to interact professionally or socially once a week, was transformed into lengthy staff meetings, in the guise of sharing sessions, mini meetings and briefings.
Walk into any school before assembly, during the breaks and after dismissal, and it is not uncommon to see teachers working at a frenzied pace — marking written assignments, keying in data at the computers, responding to the voluminous work-related emails from colleagues or superiors, keeping an eye on the kids at the canteen, supervising silent reading ... and the list goes on.
Gone were the days when teachers could take time off to relax with their colleagues after school hours.
But I soldiered on. The children in the class were my main concern and if my portfolio seemed embarrassingly slim, it did not unduly bother me.
When it was time for the battle-weary horse to move on, he did. I was an anachronistic remnant from a bygone time. I was nurtured and trained to be the front-liner in the education of the child, who held centrestage in the process.
It is the passion, creativity, love, care, concern and commitment, which collectively make the learning process enjoyable, productive and permanent.
Now, it is rare for the teacher to have all that time with the kids.
Teachers today have an overflowing plate attending to issues well beyond the classroom. There is only so much they can accomplish daily.
The better-qualified ones are not necessarily more committed, nor are they, in comparison with their lesser-qualified colleagues more effective teachers.
Grow 2.0, while welcome and comprehensively packaged, aims at institutionalising the culture of reward for diligence, upgrading, multi-tasking and versatility.
A tsunami-scale mindset revolution, to get back to the basics of dynamic, creative and dedicated classroom teaching, is hopefully attainable, too.
The author is a retired teacher.
-----------------------------------------------------
For his last point, technically on paper, creative teaching has been achieved by the "ICT revolution" and ExcelFest. On paper. What has been shown to people. *Sic* A tsunami-scale mindset revolution is needed, indeed.
My saluted to this person who has the balls to stick to his passion and principles at the expense of material returns.
posted by yanjie at
1:29 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home