BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - AS they streamed through Basseterre on Wednesday (Oct. 5), united in their lime-green T-shirts, many bystanders simply observed that here were teachers participating in an awareness exercise of Teachers’ Week. But in fact, bystanders were observing the ‘real’ leaders of the country, the ones on whose shoulders “the prospects for economic recovery and development will rest”. (TIME FOR ACTION-W.I. Commission 1991)
Teachers have the dauntless task of participating in a profession that becomes more labour-intensive and more demanding of new approaches as the world around them changes and they are forced to change to remain effective.
Yet there will always be some aspects of the teacher that must remain timeless – aspects that will always be treasured by pupils on whose shoulders they were ‘raised up’.
Young teachers in times past were always asked the same question as they began their classes in Education Psychology, and it was:
“Did you have a favourite teacher and why was s/he your favourite teacher?”
The answers invariably ran along these lines...
“S/he encouraged me to keep trying until I was successful.”
“S/he saw more in me than I saw in myself and made me realise what I could do.”
“S/he listened to what I had to say and made me feel important.”
“S/he made the lessons interesting.”
“S/he opened my eyes to other ways of seeing things and inspired me.”
“S/he praised me when I did something good.”
“S/he was concerned about my problems even outside the school and helped me to overcome them.”
These are aspects of the teacher that students from every age have depended on to prevent them from falling through the cracks and helping them to rise to reach for the stars.
Parents must realise that they are the first teachers and their children will look for these features from them in their earliest years to enable them to shine.
These personal attributes and relationships between teacher and pupil and parent and child are needed more than ever in this rapidly changing world.
At the heart of all these changes taking place on the economic and educational landscapes is the rapid rise in technological innovation that has removed barriers to accessing information for educational advancement.
The removal of barriers to information is drastically changing the role of the teacher and methods of educational delivery.
With this new explosion of information on to the world via the computer, the student who has mastered basic education and who has ‘learnt how to learn’ can now become self reliant and engage in computer-assisted or self-paced learning.
S/he can now obtain information through a variety of delivery modes such as radio, audiotapes, television, CD’s and Internet browsing.
Though it will take some time for old methods and roles to die completely, the days of ‘chalk and talk’ and of the teacher being ‘the sage on the stage’ are definitely on the way out.
With this great accessibility to knowledge worldwide, those engaging in mere ‘academia’ or knowledge for knowledge sake will no longer confer any competitive edge on developing nations.
The test for education in the future will be how knowledge is used or applied.
Nations will rise or fall depending on the innovative ways they use and market all of their resources – both human and physical resources.
For instance, the Caribbean will have to take a new look at its powerful resource, the sun, which is available all year round; it has to look at innovative ways of employing solar engineering to capture this force.
We must question whether we ought to remain satisfied that the best economic use we can make of the sun is to “toast” the skin of tourists as they lie on our beaches.
Again, will the surf of the Atlantic be valued only for the surfing it can offer to visitors or can it be used to provide cheaper supplies of energy in the form of hydroelectricity.
Generally, the trend is to re-think one’s present status and see whether one is really reaping the potential of one’s resources.
It will be necessary to halt the importation of ideas which benefit others more than ourselves and to generate and share ideas about the improvement of our unique culture and prospects.
The late Steve Jobs found out how knowledge could be used and applied and with the magic of his mind brought his ideas into reality, thus becoming the greatest inventor of our time.
To do this, he had to step outside the education system that was drowning him in “academia” and not encouraging him to follow the path of innovative or creative thinking.
Teachers, the timeless attributes which endeared so many pupils to their teachers are still necessary today. Inspire them, encourage them, raise them up so that they can, like Steve Jobs, reach the heights of their potential and change their country...because they can and you can convince them that they can. They need you and you will always be important to their and our countries success irrespective of the changes,
Unfortunately this need is not equivalent to any monetary reward.
We hope you had a fulfilling Teachers’ Week and that your new Teachers’ Union Headquarters will serve to make you more than the sum of your parts.
“One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings.” ~Carl Jung
“A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops.” ~Henry Brooks Adams
