I grew up in a house where both my parents were teachers. Those were times when teachers commanded respect. Back then when someone referred to my parents, there was almost a reverence in the tone in which they spoke. People looked up to them, to us.
But that was long ago, an eternity ago. I'm not so sure the same holds for teachers today.
I am not so sure that most teachers these days get the same level of respect that they really deserve. And boy, do they deserve it.
Back then teachers, for the most part, were required to be only teachers. They taught, graded tests, did their lesson plans and attended parents-teachers meetings. They were also allowed to put the rod to your unruly butt if the situation called for it.
These days, teachers are not even required to teach; they are called upon to be parents, guidance counsellors, psychiatrists, mediators, and, if the Minister of Education Andrew Holness gets his wish, they will soon be required to be 'cops' as well; all this for a salary that requires teachers to also be miracle workers, since a miracle is what it takes to get from one pay cheque to the next.
And it's really not worth it.
For what teachers have to endure they should be paid more, much more. I mean, when you consider the dysfunctional, disrespectful, gang-member wannabe kids as well as the ignorant, short-tempered, and in some instances 'skettel' and 'Mike Tysonesque' parents, they have to endure each day, teachers should start spending an extra year in college learning martial arts and weapons training. And for the extra year of school they should be paid a salary that will allow them to at least afford a decent vacation for them and their families each summer. But they're not.
When you consider the under-equipped schools in which they work, and the environments in which some of those schools are located, teachers should also be afforded hazard pay.
War zone
Consider the crime-infested areas in which some of these teachers are forced to work where the sound of gunfire is as regular as the sound of air being expelled from your lungs and how hard it must be for them to find the courage to go to work in many instances on empty stomachs and equally empty pockets.
For all these things and more - because I am sure there are challenges that teachers face these days that I am not even aware of - today's teachers should be afforded the type of respect that my parents enjoyed so long ago. In fact, you could argue that they deserve even more, much more.
Wednesday was Teachers' Day and I am not even sure how many Jamaicans actually took the time out to appreciate what the day actually means. Maybe we should have a Teachers' Month and during that month, we invite people into the lives of these teachers so that we can start to appreciate the thankless lives many of them lead, all for the sake of the rogue children they're trying to so desperately to educate, nurture and love.
It's such a pity that for all that they do, they are afforded so little in return.
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