I am a teacher, and this job, as some people know, is very hard and demanding. Some others tend to think quite the opposite. My father, for example, keeps saying the effort he makes in one day equals mine for the whole week. The thing is that they forget that a teacher’s job does not finish the minute s/he steps out of college. Part of our job is done at home; indeed, the biggest part of it.
Something else: we seem to disagree on what makes a teacher a teacher. What is a teacher supposed to do? What is s/he allowed or not allowed to do?
Is a teacher supposed to come to class, teach, and then go home? Or is there a beyond? What difference is there between a teacher who restricts him/herself to the content of the lessons and another who sees that there is a beyond that cannot be ignored?
I have been working with both sorts of teachers, and I can see the merits and demerits of both viewpoints. Learners may find a teacher who keeps to lessons boring, detached, inconsiderate, and they may hate him / her for this. They may think that they simply do not exist and that the teacher does not take heed of their interests, worries, needs, ambitions, etc. Yet, a teacher who tries to go beyond this teaching-only thing may find him/herself involved in a way that s/he may regret later. When I was an MA student at the Tunis High Institute of Languages, we had this most wonderful teacher who shared and cared, who listened to us, and who always gave us the thumb-up. His encouragement and consideration were just what we needed and we were all thankful, for a while. What happened was that some students did not pass the test, and in retaliation, they started blaming that teacher. They hated him because they failed, because he made them believe that they could pass the test; and when they did not, they put the blame on his back.
So, where are the limits? Where should a teacher venture, and what pitfalls should they avoid?
The way I see it, a teacher has a mission: to teach a lesson, and also to help their learners find a path for themselves. I teach first and second year students at university, and I can see that the future is very much blurred for them. The other day, I was discussing something with them and some said that they come to class because everybody else does the same, that they study because they have nothing else to do, that learning is not what really matters for them, and that they are not decided as to what career they want to have.
In a case like this, what is a teacher supposed to do? If this is a writing topic and if you want them to do the job properly, then you have to allow them to speak their mind. But what can you do when you have a situation like this? Do you mark their papers and then you move to the next task? Or do you take it upon yourself to help them see light at the end of the tunnel? It all depends on the personality of the teacher, but the question is: if you were in my shoes, what would you do? How would you react? Does the future of those kids matter for you, or do you come to class and teach your lessons, and then by the end of the month get your salary and that’s it- the job is done?
