Often regarded as one of the
oldest and noblest professions in the world, teaching continues to be a career
choice of those who wish to help children build their potential in various
aspects. As we celebrate Teachers Day on 16 May, I wish to share my humble
opinions on why challenges faced by teachers are chances for them to make a
difference as they cherish the bittersweet moments in their career.
As a teacher who has been in
the profession for over a decade, I believe that chances and challenges would
help with the career growth of every teacher. Frankly speaking, in the early
years of teaching, I perceived problems as pain that would kill my patience and
passion in educating the schoolchildren. But, as time goes by, I begin to realise
that everything that makes or breaks my day at work is both a chance and a
challenge for me to perform better as I learn to manage my emotional
well-being. Experience is truly the best teacher.
Needless to say, teaching is
more than finishing the syllabus, preparing exercises for enrichment activities
and grading papers. It is the study of human characters shaped by children’s
social backgrounds and their special abilities. True teachers would be
intrigued by unique personalities of pupils as the process of discovering the
latter’s learning styles could be an exciting adventure. Chances are teachers
will be surprised and enlightened by the findings that would create an
opportunity for them to expand their creativity in teaching as they wish to
cater the needs of different types of learners.
However, the challenges may be
greater when dealing with demotivated, disrespectful and delinquent pupils who
might be too hard to handle. In this case, teachers may need to turn the
judgemental thinking into an analytical one. In fact, this is how we do justice
to children with struggles we may know nothing about. Indeed, it takes a second
to judge a person but it takes a special strength to stop and think. Pupils who
look frazzled and uninterested may suffer from sleep deprivation because they
have to work to help their poor family. Those who fail to complete their
homework may need to juggle between taking care of their ailing parents or
younger siblings and catching up on the lessons. Those with bad attitude may come
from a broken family and live a loveless life. These cases may be never-ending
problems to teachers, but this is the time they take teaching to the next level
and deal with the challenges smartly and heroically by saving and helping the
problematic pupils, instead of hating or punishing them. This is also how
teachers apply love, respect, happiness and humanity (LR2H) in educating the
children.
Teaching is not a bed of
roses. It is a room full of beautiful flowers. And, with teachers’
unconditional love for teaching and learning, it will become a home for
enthusiastic educators and lifelong learners.
