My favorite teacher in secondary school was Miss Jillian who
taught me Literature-in-English. Before she began taking my class, I performed so
poorly in the subject that I thought it was the hardest possible thing to
decipher. It was rocket science to me. Then she came, like a rainbow cast over
a dingy dark cloud. She unearthed the intricacies of literary texts and by the
time she left, I could tear apart any literary piece, be it Poem, Prose, Drama
and spoken word, critique it and put it back together again.
It had more to do with her cool, calming demeanor, her vast
and deep knowledge of the subject and above all, her ability to breakdown
complex material and teach it until it enters the densest of heads. She was a
miracle for my class and but for her intervention when she did, a lot of the
students in my class, and myself in particular would have been lost as communicators
or lawyers today.
When I got to the University, I had an equally amazing
lecturer. Mr. Jimoh. He knew his stuff and whenever he stepped into the class
we paid rapt attention. He would move fluidly from one topic to another with
clear precision. He taught us so well that we even went out of our way to personally
research topics in the outline so when it was time to take it in class we were
more informed and could contribute to the discourse.
I think his proficiency must have been noticed and groomed by
the faculty board because he was always chosen to take the difficult courses. In
fact, He even made me put to sleep my fear of statistics. By the end of every
semester, it wasn’t hard to see that his courses had the highest percentage of
excellence among the students. He worked us hard and with persistence and with
something akin to the gentle hand of a father. He was literally one in a
million of all teachers I had come across.
However, the same cannot be said for many teachers. During my
days in school, there were some teachers and lecturers who used terror as a
teaching tool. They threatened us into attending class, wielded a dangling axe
above our heads to enforcing excellence and appear with a bitter attitude every
day to class. Making students despise the course even as much as they despised
the teacher. And that always tells on the performance of the student when they
rank low. With such brutes as these, little wonder the increased apathy of youths for the teaching profession.
Or those teachers who always have so many stories to tell
about their lives. Instead of getting a shrink on whom they should unload their
burdens, they use the entire class hour to keep the students abreast of what is
going on in their personal lives, totally neglecting the job they were assigned
to do.
Of course it is preposterous to ask a teacher to cuddle a
student into learning something, that’s the role of parents not theirs.
However, you must first know your subject well and then hone skills that make
it possible to transfer this knowledge to your underlings.
And what about their remuneration? But a pittance. It is so
bad that even those who start off with glowing aspirations of doing their best
at impacting knowledge to others become disillusioned and begin to lag at their
jobs until all motivation is gone and there is nothing left but a bitter
impassionate teacher who just wants to drone on and on in class, leave and
await the monthly pay slip. And when it is delayed they are only just so eager
to carry out those long industrial actions that lead to strikes that drag into
many months.
I know one hard working teacher who has taught for 33 years
and yet collects a monthly salary less than what many young people with 5 years’
experience at other ministries receive. She is set to retire in 2 years and yet
doesn’t foresee a fat gratuity.
Not surprise there that many young people do not envision themselves
becoming teachers but are more enthralled by the glamor of other professions.
In fact, the few who do, only do so because they lack something else to do. So
they fall back to the teaching career as a plan B, sometimes C or even D. And
at that, they aren’t motivated to put in their best. Half the time they skip
work so they can engage in other jobs or businesses that allow them glean a bit
of money to complement what little they receive as salary.
Teachers are essential to us. Most of us will be nothing
without our teachers who invested their time to tutor us.
Dedicated to Jimoh Ibrahim and Jillian Jackden… Most amazing
teachers I know.
CC: those teachers who were nothing but angels
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