Friday, July 21, 2006

Politicking

I hate politics that's why I went into teaching. At least that's what I thought.

We were never dissatisfied with the system until that very uneventful day that blew everything off. The first thing noticed is injustice. Probably because we see justice as a form of charity. True, it is. Being teachers, fairness is even more pronounced because that is our main concern. We don't like to have favoritisms or grade students because he or she is a favorite. We don't like to give a student an unfair grade - always considering whether the student really deserves it or not despite the feelings we may have toward him or her. We don't want to give exams without telling them what the contents of the exam will be because it will be unfair to them.

I find it quite mind-boggling that all of us are teachers who are concerned about justice, but when it comes to our colleagues, we drop that set of standard and use another one. True, teachers and students are not the same with regard to profession, but philosophically, being subordinates of our superiors, we are in the same position as the students who are our subordinates. The students are our pupils, we are pupils of our superiors: teaching us how we ought to be doing our jobs, teaching us correct grammar and syntax, teaching us strategies to improve our lessons.

So is it fair to use a different set of standards on teachers?

True and authentic leaders train subordinates to be better than them, and not using their position to highlight their ranking. They are humble. They admit their mistakes becuse they know that we all make mistakes and there is nothing wrong about having weaknesses. In fact, knowing our weaknesses will help improve. Aaaahhh, so that's why there is no improvement. :)

Besides, there is really no corporate ladder to climb up on in a school. Everyone is a teacher (save for those who are in the administration); some are just given an honorarium for the extra load that is given to them. So do we still wonder why it is possible that a teacher can get a higher salary than his or her superior?

"No one gets rich in teaching." If you thought you'd become rich teaching, then you are in the wrong job. Resign and go to big corporations. There are many ladders there you can use to climb up to the top. Good luck on your career change. :)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home