By Ashley Anthony
My relationship to the education sector has always been that of a recipient- a student. I have upon many occasions criticized the way that our students are taught, and whilst I do believe that these complaints are still very valid and need to be addressed, I have developed a newfound respect for teachers.
Let me be clear, in this instance, I mean teachers who honestly try their best. The kind who don’t tell you that you have to attend their lessons to pass, and who are dedicated to the wellbeing of their students. It is honestly such a demanding job. I cannot pretend to understand what it is like for permanent teachers, who have far more responsibilities than I do, but from the little I have experienced, I have been left exhausted. As it stands, I teach four classes, CAPE Physics unit one and two, and CSEC Biology for fifth and fourth forms. The time it takes to prepare for each class, to set and mark assignments, tests and IAs/ SBAs is unbelievable. For any teacher who turns up to almost all their classes prepared, I commend you. For any teacher who is timely in their marking, I commend you as well. It is tough work.
I have, tried for the most part to be the type of teacher that I wanted in high school. Going to school was a largely frustrating experience for me. There were many teachers who simply did not seem to care about their students. I understand that sometimes we can become dissatisfied with our jobs, and feel demotivated to perform, but when teachers act like this, students are the ones who suffer. They are the ones who are forced (due to the syllabus never being finished) to have to go to lessons outside of school. This is a problem that I think feeds itself.
Students, unhappy with how they are being taught seek classes outside of school. These lessons, obviously cost students hours of sleep and recreation time, thus making them tired in school. Tired students are less responsive to teachers, and see school as a place to relax, rather than learn. Thus, when someone is actually dedicated, and wants to teach, although students will attend the class, they do so somewhat grudgingly because they have come to see school time as time to de-stress. Something else that happens is I think students value their in-school classes far less than their lessons; they don’t need to pay for them, and they know that if they miss something in class they’ll cover it in lessons. This response from students can serve to demotivate the teacher, and thus continue the cycle.
To remain motivated is incredibly challenging. I don’t blame my students (especially those in fifth and sixth forms) who don’t come to school that regularly. I was once in that position. Do you stay home and work, or do you come to school and not be taught? Is it worth it to come to school solely for one class? Most times, I decided it wasn’t. However, being on the end of the teacher, it is tough when you prepare to teach a topic and then less than half the class shows up. Most times I chose to go ahead and work with those who had come, but ended up having to reteach the topic to the other students in the next class. Another issue that I had when I went to school was with the spontaneous school activities that would disrupt classes. As a teacher, I still face these problems. I understand that you are trying to provide students with a rounded education, but I don’t believe that the development of one part of a student’s life should come at the expense of another. I think with proper scheduling, it could be possible to have school events without setting students back in their learning.
However, despite how difficult the job is, and the challenges teachers face, I really don’t think you should be a teacher unless you are willing to deal with these problems. We should be able to provide students with a good education despite them, whilst simultaneously working to fix the issues. It is a lot to ask of a person, but I think that you shouldn’t be in the profession if you don’t have that type of dedication to education.
