LETTER OF THE DAY - Teachers have a heavy load
Published:Tuesday | February 22, 2011 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Norman Washington Manley, in a 1939 speech, charged Jamaicans to develop a 'new national spirit' which would foster self-government and the advancement of the culture of Jamaicans. Manley declared that "whatever there is of civilisation in the masses of the country is entirely and solely due to and stimulated by teachers of this island ... the leaders of life and thought and activity".
Teachers carry the proverbial cross on their shoulders, the future of the society. We have a responsibility not only to transmit information to students, but to create an environment for personal, social and professional growth. We mediate, counsel, preach, provide financial assistance to students, and love. No teacher can leave his or her work at the workplace. We all take with us some aspect of work on our minds; we think about the gang war that broke out today; about the child that fainted; the child who is being abused; those who have serious learning disabilities; those who are downright rude.
We think about some of the parents who ostracise us, yet they do nothing about their disrespectful children, and expect us to right the wrongs. We think about those in authority who, instead of helping and reassuring us, try to make our job harder. I need not elaborate on the fact that we live from pay cheque to pay cheque. Who is there to protect us? When we are threatened and sometimes attacked by students, who looks out for us?
Not all bad apples, but ...
Mark you, I have students who give me a reason to go above and beyond the call of duty; who I mother every day; those students I look forward to seeing in the future, when I'll be able to stand proudly and say, "That's my student!"
What of the others that parents let loose in our classrooms to wreak havoc? Don't refer to them as the 'generation of vipers'; I say they are victims of terrible parenting, and I pity them. How can a mother and her underage daughter be at a dance together, and worse, on a school night? I cannot fathom how a parent could look me in the face and tell me that she cannot control her 15-year-old, and he only goes to school when he wants to! How can teachers play their role as agents of social change under circumstances like these?
We need help. We need a new national spirit. Teachers have a heavy load.
I am, etc,
SELECA WALKER