I've had an indescribable relationship with education. Back in my school days, I'd watch teachers perambulate with their textbooks, transforming what could have been magical learning moments, into something closer to reading a government pressnote.
Take that quote by William Arthur Ward about teachers - "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." I used to think, it was just another motivational assertion. Now? It feels like a secret manifesto against textbook-wielding teachers.
Picture this: A classroom, where a teacher monotonously reads from a textbook, voice as flat as week-old soda. What about students? They're not listening. They're performing an elaborate mime of 'paying attention' - eyes glazed, pencils stationary, minds wandering to more exciting territories. I knew it, because I was that student, perfecting the art of looking engaged, while mentally planning my afternoon escape.
Why do teachers fall into this soul-crushing routine? It's a cocktail of stagnant diffidence, insufficient training, and bureaucratic fear of not "completing the syllabus". As if education were a train schedule that must be rigidly followed!
True learning isn't about transferring information like a photocopier. It's about sparking that adventuristic feel called curiosity. It's about creating classroom environments where students don't just absorb facts, but question them, play with them... Textbooks, at best be a launching pad, not a prison.
I dream of classrooms where teachers are less like, information dispensers and more like intellectual tour guides. Where a mathematics lesson could feel like an adventure, and a history class might make you forget you're supposed to be bored.
School managements..., your job isn't just administration. It's cultivation - of teachers, of learning environments, of that magical spark that makes education transformative. Implement teacher training. Create mentorship programs. Turn classrooms into laboratories of learning.
Because at the end of the day, education isn't about completing a syllabus. It's about igniting minds, one curious question at a time.
Education is not the filling of a pail,
but the lighting of a fire."
- W.B. Yeats
Good Teacher 🏆👍🏾🌹
ReplyDelete