I remember ever telling this MP how important it was for secondary school students to like their teacher, and very literally, I saw my words fall flat off her.
It might seem like it's pandering to the immaturity of adolescence, but how many actually realise that secondary school students liking their teacher has nothing to do with superficial popularity. It's simply about being a good teacher.
By the nature of the job, a person is institutionalised as a teacher when he or she is certified to be better versed in the syllabus than the receivers of the education. But it does not mean that the students are innately dependent on you because of that. I myself had deliberately slept through every biology lesson in secondary four, and did the learning independently at home. (But I started the self-studying late and only managed an A2. Bleah.)
Teaching is not just about delivering the syllabus, it is also about being a mentor to the students who have been entrusted to you. It's really not about calling their parents when they didn't do their homework (seriously, this is secondary school), neither is it about yelling and thinking they are hopeless at the slightest issue, nor is it about talking down and expecting to be accorded respect because of your position. Also, it is not about becoming one of them.
It's about being that guiding light they can turn to.
If we were to just pause and reflect on our school days, I think it wouldn't be difficult for us to point out what about that teacher makes us naturally want to sit up and listen.
It's the teacher's genuine heart to nurture you.
Knowing the syllabus is a given; that is what you are trained and paid to do. Being a mentor, is what so many in the teaching profession have neglected.
Sixteen turning seventeen is a chaotic age of curiosity and uncertainty. Students are very quickly moving into a different phase in life, and everything to them is simultaneously possible and unreachable. Can you imagine how much the teacher who sees them more often than their parents can influence! Even more so when you are with at-risk children, how pivotal you can be to stop problems before they take root.
It is true that a lot of this is contingent on the student's own attitude. But even the best student with the most commendable attitude would not choose a mentor who cares only about the textbook. Elitist, authoritarian and downright naive teachers are, needless to say, out of the question.
Conversely, it is also true that there are too many students out there who gave up on their studies because their teachers first gave up on them.
Granted, there are many teachers who wholeheartedly want to groom the students in their care, and I give them my most heartfelt salute. And for the few I have had the great fortune to have met, thank you for teaching me what I really need in life.
But having been taught for 18 years, and having accessed the staff room for 3 months, and increasingly knowing more who teach, I am finding myself meeting a majority who misinterpret the teaching vocation. And I really shudder when I look at them and wonder "Will this by the teacher of my kids?"
Perhaps we all need to stop and ask ourselves, are you who you want to teach your children?
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