If you ask me why I wanted to become a teacher, I don’t know. Teaching is a noble profession. If you said you’re there solely for the good salary and retirement, then you’re selfish. Greedy perhaps. Otherwise teaching will never be classified as a noble profession.
I’ll say God put me there. But why? It took me two years in my teaching courses to figure it out. I was there with zero definition of why I was attending teaching courses. But God has his ways to reach me.
When I was helping at the grocery stores, I meet parents who did not send their children to school. One of them is a boy who is a regular customer. He couldn’t read the descriptions on the products. At his age, boys and girls are attending schools. But for him, much of his days are involved in looking after his newly born siblings and running errands. I worried what holds for his future. If he didn’t attend school, he should be equipped with survival skills – reading, writing and counting. Perhaps he is in the wrong crowd too – those who also didn’t attend school, school dropout or play truant. I began to see why education is important to break the destructive cycle of poverty. The first thing you need to break is ignorance. Ignorance on the importance of education is the main killer.
Illiteracy also occur at school level. There are students who are still illiterate in secondary schools. They are left behind. They probably had learning difficulties which are not address at an early age and still isn’t resolve. I strongly think the Education Ministry must do something about it. They should have special classes for these students. This is very destructive.
Truancy. Some did not play truant. They just skip classes. For them it’s inevitable. Even if they can perform well in their studies, they still fail to show up in classes. They can’t afford the bus fare. They need to take care of their baby siblings. They had to run errands and chores. They are out there, working, doing jobs like washing the dishes in the restaurants to support their families or loitering around to collect aluminum cans. They wish to go to school but the current is stronger than their desires.
And if they give up, they’ll drop out of school. This will, inevitably, hurt their future. They might give up because they can’t keep up with their classmates. They drop out because they can’t fit in or they cannot stand being bullied and teased. They give up because they just don’t understand or can’t even read the words on the papers. What the heck am I doing here then? It’s a waste of time. Others just can’t see the long term impact.
What are teachers for? Why do we teach? Why are we here? For two main reasons, to combat illiteracy and school dropouts. We cannot eliminate these problems but we can make a difference in their lives.
