Teachers Should Be Accessible 24-Hours
As an Erstwhile Pre-trained Teacher, and someone seriously considering re-entering the formal teaching system, I would like to share some of my ideas that I strongly believe will contribute to a successful Educational Transformation throughout our Jamaican schools.
Our education system, specifically Primary and Secondary, in Jamaica has been sliding down hill for about twenty-five (25) years now due to a myriad of debilitating factors such as Elevated Student Indiscipline, Incompetent Parenting, Lackadaisical Teaching, Headless Government Policies, and a Decline in Students’ Self Worth and Purpose for School. In order for the ‘powers that be’ to appear as if they are doing something significant in repairing and transmogrifying the education system, they try their endeavour best to reduce our curriculum standard to that of the United States of America by watering down the curriculum complexity, critical thinking component, and grading scheme.
This method of concealing the true state of our education quagmire makes the stakeholders and students look better than they really are, because the ‘powers that be’ would be able to compile and publish statistics showing that students are passing more external examinations (GSAT, CXC, & GCE) at high grades. However, what they cannot conceal at the end of the day is the fact that—and this is based on my observation of workers and persons I interact with on a daily basis—there are so many persons with high external exam grades who are completely clueless in effectively applying such knowledge via Critical Thinking within a year or two after graduating from school. Why? Is this what they call true education?
For me, complexity in curriculum standard is no different from teaching a person how to fish by forcing that person to understand and appreciate the concepts, equipment, and reasoning skills required for completing a successful fishing trip. Simplification, on the other hand, is the total opposite of the aforementioned; because it only allows that person to memorize that he/she needs to go to a fisherman (replace fisherman with Google, Books, Someone, etc.) to collect fish every time he/she needs a fish—replace fish with Solutions to problems and situations via Critical Thinking. My swimming teacher at prep school pushed me in the deep end of the pool in order to boost me to use the techniques he taught me to swim; and it worked perfectly.
With the above foundation clearly laid, I will now move straight into what I mean by teachers being accessible 24-Hours. Since it is obvious that students in this modern generation have frequent access to internet, social media, and technological devices such as computers and smart phones, teachers who really care about educating their students can start by setting up a specific account or group on Facebook for educating students on a 24-Hour basis. Students would be able to access their teacher’s assistance at any time of the day, even when school is on summer holiday and the teacher is at home being paid to relax.
The teacher can then use his/her Facebook account or group to post images, video clips, notes, & assignments relevant to the topics and subject areas; and parents or guardians can be added to the teacher’s friend list so that they can monitor their child’s academic performance while communicating with the teacher. Students are far more intelligent than we think they are; and the real things that are necessary for Maximum Learning and Critical Thinking is for students to understand and accept the purpose of going to school (TO LEARN), and for the teachers to bring the information to students via all methods of communication, by collaborating with parents and guardians.
This is the Educational Transformation we need.
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Very good read. Our education system does need a revamping I believe. No need to simplify what is being taught. It effectively dumbs down our students.
Why don’t you wait and teach for about 3 years and then really tell us what you have done to make changes and suggest others try it your way? Even a little research with evidence would help to support your ideas. It is a shame all these educators and professionals in the system are so clueless after so many years, and here you are with the solution. Maybe you need to know the difference between performing physically and mentally before using a physical performance such as fishing or swimming as an example for “critical thinking” which is a mental task. You cannot use “critical thinking” and then provide physical feats as example. If it were that easy to teach critical thinking, we wouldn’t have reading difficulties even in dyslexic students because even dyslexic students can fish or swim. Your ignorance of the privacy laws for students is laughable. Facebook? Seriously? Children under 18 cannot have their personal information posted online even if they are criminals…..it’s the law….Haven’t you even wondered why NO schools are doing that? Not even universities? Sure there are web pages to advertise the schools, but you cannot reveal grades or personal information online. Do you understand boundaries? 24 hour access seems highly suspicious when you are dealing with children. What are you smoking?
Now you know why the education system is so screwed up because there are people like you in charge of creating rules and laws without any education background or experience.
lol…..”teachers get paid to relax on summer holidays”….this is laughable. Teachers do not get paid in the summer that is why most have “summer jobs”. If they do get a check in the summer that means they took less pay during the school year for money to be set aside and saved up for the summer. They are only paid for the hours they work….not a penny more.
All hell would bruck loose if this person should become the Minister of Education……So what…. teachers have no other life except a professional one?…… so nothing must be done at home and teachers must have no time for themselves but to have students bombarding them with school work right throughout day and night……. Hahahahahaha This must be a damn sick joke… why don’t you do as you are saying……I would gladly round up some students so that you get no rest… not even for a minute and if you survive it you could come back online and tell us how it feels…. Teachers are not paid to relax. Government CANNOT pay teachers to work overtime, and work at home so you need to get your facts straight…… You don’t revamp an education system by oppressing the teachers… You are trying to stress out and KILL our teachers.
I’m not sure about this suggestion. If you’ve ever spent any time in the classroom, you would know that teachers need those school holiday periods to ‘recuperate’ and prepare themselves physically, mentally and emotionally for the new school semesters. Teachers also need their personal time off’s from student involvement in order to remember that they are individuals with a personal life and their own families to care for. The major purpose in education is to build that potential that the student comes with….to use what has been gathered in the classroom to develop their self-empowering skills. To get to a place where they can be effectively independent. Having access to the teacher 24/7 is not only taking away the teacher’s well-needed ‘breathing space’, but also teaching the child to discard what was presented during the allotted classroom sessions. The child must use those classroom lessons to work out dilemmas outside of the classroom -transference/grasping concepts, (critical thinking). Return to class with the problem unsolved by all means. There he/she will get further direction. When the child can constantly call on the teacher even during the teacher’s personal time it teaches him/her to be lazy. It says, learning has not taken place, Never mind the desire to learn. it says it’s okay not to try to think on your own and develop that mind which you have been given…..The 24/7 availability is for parents. More important, however, as far as internet access to teachers goes, the internet is a very addictive place to be. Who knows where the child will roam to once on? Who knows how many students will use it as an excuse to get into other matters which are off limits for their age, or off limits by parental rules. It could also give too easy an access to relationships between students and teachers which are really not as they ought to be. Not being negative…one has to consider the cons as well as the pros to the suggestion. There is really quite a lot more to adjusting the issues than meets the eye. I would not apply this suggestion as part of the adjustment..
Very good read. Our education system does need a revamping I believe. No need to simplify what is being taught. It effectively dumbs down our students.
Very good read. Our education system does need a revamping I believe. No need to simplify what is being taught. It effectively dumbs down our students.
As you have stated the JA education system needs revamping in various areas. You have also indicated that that the American ed. system has impacted the JA ed system negatively. I think one of the major issues is that the JA system is a little behind in teaching methodology for the 21st century because of funding, among other reasons. JA teachers are some of the best, but they could take their kids learning to another level with current Professional Development opportunities. You mentioned the lack of the use technology and critical thinking skills in the classroom. Here are a few free US/World educational websites to empower all teachers across the curriculum: we are teachers.com; common core standards.com; http://www.edmodo.com (classroom facebook); plus many more. Cellphones can be used in the classroom too to do research, word study (dictionary.com) etc. Why not hook up with a seasoned, innovative, motivated teacher to conduct some workshops in a local school for a research/study that proves the positive impact of these new literacies in the classroom? Make your mark. that is what teaching is about. It takes a village!
I see that the teacher has those children working individually. Is this still like back in the day? They need some groups for collaborative work. Methods again.
It was a good read…. And it explains the issue with those who believe teachers are some form of alien that should just live and die in the classroom. This person obviously don’t know anything about the life of a teacher.