The impact of the “teacher” figure

The multifaceted role of a teacher & their impact, as seen by a student.

A teacher in this narrative could be any person who assists anyone in acquiring knowledge, learning, and growing. The term “teacher” is more of an umbrella term to an array of characters that falls under it. Grandparents, parents, qualified teachers, lecturers, instructors, tutors, coaches, and even Youtubers can be teachers. We might have already heard most reasons why teachers are so important in a person’s life, especially the classroom teacher. This is already existing knowledge, and all of it is available on Google, so repeating all the pros and cons would be a waste of time. And I am in no way a skilled expert to analyze the role of a teacher, so this is my observation of these figures in the Sri Lankan context.

The most common disparity we see in high-school teachers in Sri Lanka and the rest of the world is the lack of standards established into being a qualified educator. Excluding the professionals who have undergone years of training in teaching and understanding child psychology. I’ll share a personal experience to back up my discussion. Coming from an affluent girls’ school in Colombo 7, anyone would assume the school to be infested with teachers of high standards and regulated teacher’s qualifications before being accepted as a teacher. Though in most instances, they did have proper qualifications, some were seriously questionable. Back when I was in the sixth-grade music class, we spent most of the period listening to the teacher’s life rants. One thing I learned from her was, the sole reason she became a teacher was because she was fed up with her 9 to 5 job as a banker. This is the leading factor which makes many people become teachers. Not the liking towards their profession or children. Short working hours, extended holidays, a carefree lifestyle, a considerably good salary are all tempting in the long run for many people. Then there were the teachers who had absolutely no sense of empathy. The teaching role for them was just another job that pays well, with linear schedules. They maintained a poker face and an IDGAF attitude; they will slap you in the face and drag you by the pigtails if you ever dare to question them, even on subject matters. Another such instance was when I was doing my A/Ls, and one of the teachers left the school to pursue her Master’s abroad; at least, that’s what she told us. A month later, she was featured in a leading International school’s monthly newsletter as the head principal (age 25). Showcasing networking in the form of being one of N. Grero’s exes would prove out to be highly beneficial. During my school years, my parents’ schooling years, and even today, we hear numerous encounters of incompetent educators taking the role of being a mentor to children. The mere fact of excelling in a specific subject field has earned them their occupation, but certainly not the skills to be working with highly susceptible minds. For some children, their childhood tyrant could have been a self-centered teacher. I met many incompetent teachers in my school days growing up, which led me to have little to no respect towards many. Another thing I observed mainly in Lankan schools is favoritism. This is not the innocent act of a teacher taking an interest in a student, but when the parents interfere with a child’s education to gain special treatments. I have no clear insight into how things function in government sector schools but in private and International schools, let’s just say the teachers are easily buyable, which is a tragic situation in itself. This was very prevalent in my school, where we witnessed moms waiting by the gate all day until they can ambush an unsuspecting teacher and bribe them with shiny goodies and candies to get their child to the choir team or the prefects guild.

Another aspect that is very noticeable among all the educators I have met with is the superior role they strictly maintain — the yearning to be called with respect and a title. Miss, Sir, Madam, Mr., etc, must be added if one needs not be punished. The sad part about this whole ordeal is them associating respect with a title. It is not the title that earns them respect; it is their behavior. As the quote implies, “You can’t ask for respect. You have to earn it”. Referring to educators with a title may be a form of respect for some, but it only creates a gap between the two parties. It makes you see them as your superior, makes it harder for us, as students to freely communicate. Students naturally become more well-mannered, aware of what they do because the educator’s title is embedded in the student’s mind. This was very apparent to me with the teacher-student relations I had with the Lankan tutors versus foreign tutors. The foreign tutors were adamant about us calling them by their name without any titles, and even if by mistake we did call them sir or madam, they would be quick to correct us as not to do it again. This might be a personal preference but, it does make a world of a difference. Even if the educator or mentor was of several years (around 2 years) difference, and if they still insist us to call them by a title, there would be an instant rift between the student and the teacher. It is inevitable. The words, acts are all filtered, censored, and discreet around such people. Even be it the title of “Akka” and “Ayya”. There were many acquaintances in the University premises that insisted on being referred to as “Akka, Ayya” and for them, a young person referring them by their name was like a stab to the heart. While at the same time I met those who insisted on being called by their names, regardless of the age differences. This instantly creates a bond and a feeling of trust. I have noticed I’m much more comfortable and gravitate towards people who are like the latter example (and to say adios to the former category). A personal observation is — there’s a significant change in the way we treat people once we start to call them by a name other than their birth name. If we’re on a first-name basis, many people feel comfortable opening up, because now you get to see them more as a friend than a superior.

This brings me to the present context of educators I’m surrounded with. In the short time that I encountered educators after high-school, I came across a whole variety of teachers. But most of the encounters were brief and some might not even know of my existence. But a recent encounter that I faced in the University premises, literally made me question the mentality of certain so-called instructors and the eligibility, standards set for them to be in a position of a teacher. One of such not-so-pleasant encounters in the past year written with a fairy tale element (originally posted on IG) as not to expose them and get me in trouble. In this story, there are people of three tiers. First-tier compromising of the well-established members, second-tier — the ones who are trying to reach the established position within the institute.

“Oompa Loompas lived amongst the demonic Wonka Wannabes on a faraway Candy land. It was yet another scorching hot weekday in the Chocolate factory. A little fun fact about Natalia, She loves to mind her fucking business, stay away from drama, but the world is like, “Nope, not today!”. As customary, she was summoned to the chocolate factory because a new potion master came to prepare the young Loompas for the finals. The day was filled with anxiety, and all the Loompas were murmuring potions equations, trying their very best to not fail the potion class. This wannabe Wonka, let’s say, was… interesting. Although she loves to mind her fucking business, Natalia sometimes can’t, not because she doesn’t want to, but she just genuinely can’t. Natalia was to take care of the potion equipment that day; did she ask to do it? No. Did she have to? YES. Natalia had absolutely no idea about this potion equipment. Why, you may ask? Well, let’s just say that the wannabe potion’s master was not of the best in terms of his appointed task. But ask Natalia anything about this wannabe Wonka’s liking to make potions with naked Oompa Loompas and Wannabe Wonka’s mini version; she would respond with the most accurate data. Rewind to mid-day when the wannabe Wonka ordered Natalia to fix his broken cauldron. Natalia, not knowing how to do it (and she had enough reasons as not to know), asked the help of one of her fellow potion experts, Loompa. Little did Natalia knew how this triggered the Wonka wannabe. Wonka Wannabe stared at Natalia; if looks could kill, Natalia would have been ten feet under! And as all the Loompas watched, the Wannabe Wonka started to turn beet red and mustered up the words, “wHy DiD yOu Do tHaT!?” as he stormed off, leaving a trail of smoke behind him. 15 mins later, wannabe Wonka approached the unsuspecting Natalia in a corner, got real close to her face, smiled showing all his rotting teeth and asked more like rhetorically.

“i SaW wHaT yOu DiD tHeRe!

aRe YoU dUmB?

dO yOu EvEn sPeAk EnGlIsH?

hOw dId YoU eVeN gEt In To tHe cHoColAtE FaCtOrY!?

yOu WiLl NoT LaSt A dAy In tHe WoNkA sTuDioS!!”

-Exits Natalia crying — “

The verbal encounter we had (by we had, I mean he talked and I listened) was by no means exaggerated; in fact, it was downplayed. Which in some ways contributed to have an outlook of disappointment towards the “teachers” the institute continues to bring in. This was not the only time “Natalia” ended up crying due to incompetent instructors in the one year of university she endured (the fact that these incidents happen alone would be sufficient to create an overall impression of educators usually). As per any topic of conversation, there’s both the good and the bad. The yin and the yang, that balances out everything. There’s an abundance of good mentors that can outnumber the bad encounters. Something we often disregard is that just because one has several academic qualifications or years of expertise in a field, that doesn’t naturally qualify them to be teachers. But it is, unfortunately, the main deciding factor when accepting mentors or educators to a certain institute. An educator can be equipped with multiple MSc’s and Ph.D.’s, 100 years of working experience, and a whole list of LinkedIn credentials and yet make a whole classroom fall asleep with one speech. At the end of the day, these educators though they have fountains of knowledge and wisdom, their incapacity to teach is what I see as the overall incompetence of an educator. There are many teacher figures, mentors that I met along the way that completely changed my perspectives, views, and outlooks on life, and most of them to this day might not know the impact they had on me by their mere existence.

In conclusion, it is evident that anyone could be a teacher, educator, or mentor. It isn’t the academic qualifications that make anyone fit to be a teacher but the unorthodox methods one uses to teach so the students get to actually learn, rather than be a seat filler. The ability for an educator to be more empathetic and look beyond the paradigms of the teacher role he/she is playing. The role played by a teacher doesn’t have to be conventional, it is multi-faceted. A common misjudgment of teachers is underestimating the students. Most of the errors on a teacher’s part occur because they don’t believe their students have the capacity to understand just as much as they can. Every small thing an educator or a teacher figure does is very obvious to a student. What they forget is, they just have one pair of eyes on a whole class versus a dozen of curious and analytical eyes on one person. A video that explains these roles clearly is What makes a good teacher great? | Azul Terronez | TEDxSantoDomingo.