“Education without values, as useful as it is, seems rather to make man a more clever devil.”–C. S. Lewis
I’ve been in school for 17 of the 21 years of my life, and would like to believe I have a fair idea of what different types of teachers could be like. Some go about their jobs like they truly love what they’re doing, others seem to go through the day like teaching is an obligation; and then there are those who clearly see it as an imposition.
But no matter what their personal teaching attitudes or stances are, we inevitably learn a lot from our teachers, even in the breach. Teachers teach more than just Science and Math and all the other “subjects” on the curriculum; they teach ethics as well. In addition to, say, the weekly one hour of “Pastoral Care”, they do this generally through the most powerful medium – not through words, but by their actions. Their behaviour impacts their students strongly. And, of course, since it’s always best to lead by example, we’re most likely to do as our teachers do, rather than as they say.
So, if the Education Ministry says it wants to produce “more rounded students”, then it would have to start producing more rounded teachers. Quite a bit of my personal values and sense of ethics, as to what might be the way to act in the public sphere, are a product of the influence of my school teachers. Of course, the major chunk of core values were directly instilled into me by my parents, who still remain my most influential “teachers” in the real meaning of the term. But at some level, we’ve all been influenced by our teachers in the formal public educational institutions.
My current value system, therefore, is a melange of what I’ve been taught at home and whatever modifications my experiences have forced me to make — with me spending such huge chunks of my time every day in school.
And I’ve realised how damaging it could’ve been if I had teachers whose values and ethical standards were not that solid – especially in the early formative years. What if I had teachers who threw things and screamed at their students, calling them names or belittling them? If a student doesn’t have a strong personal value system or positive role models, that student could easily accept that sort of behaviour as being okay, or acceptable. And that student might carry over that type of behaviour into adulthood, in their professional and personal life. The horror! The horror!
Our teachers, as a consequence, have great power in forming the “Guyanese nation” we all aspire to, as articulated in our national motto. More emphasis should probably be placed, when training teachers, on their role in moulding the values of their students. Implicit values like work ethics are undermined when young students see their teachers “hold back” materials which are taught only in their “lessons”.
Explicit values like the importance of confidentiality and the importance of privacy could be emphasized by the teachers, so that when the students leave the school system, they’ll be able to function like adults that are capable of respecting the autonomy of persons they interact with.
Other values, like the importance of accountability and punctuality, should all be established as being important from a young age. Teachers that violate these tenets in their classes do damage beyond the details of the “subject” not being covered.
Our teachers, then, hold great sway over how we might turn out at the end of our tenure at school; they could be the difference between whether we become successful professionals or whether we go about our jobs in a very slipshod manner. We need a solid foundation in professionalism, and our teachers can give us that, hopefully by their actions, and not just their words.
