Teachers Are The Role Models In Our Life

Posted by teacher on October 28, 2011

Teachers, indeed, as the Minister of Education recently stated, have to understand their true and complete role as educators. But the process does not begin in the teachers’ training school; the process has to begin with teachers being given the recognition that would allow them to be motivated to practice being true and complete educators.

This true role as educators is not something that can be taught in a classroom setting. It is something that must be instilled within the very young, so that they can look up towards their teachers and have respect for them. Helping teachers to understand their true role as educators has to begin with the appropriate recognition for the value of service they provide.
For some time now, the service provided by teachers has been undervalued. Teachers are being derecognized in this country, by virtue of the importance that is being paid to their well-being and the lack of appreciation and respect that is being shown to them by parents and students alike.

It is a depressing situation which began with the decline in the economy in the early eighties. The economic hardships of that time forced some teachers to take items to school to sell in order to make ends meet. It also pressed them into offering extra lessons so as to supplement their income.

But things were not always this way. There was a time when students looked up to teachers to the extent that teachers often set the fashion of the day.
School girls were often seen whispering to one another about some lovely skirt, dress or shoes that a teacher wore, and some male teachers dressed so impeccably that even some of the female students developed crushes on them.
The teacher was a symbol of respect. They were admired. They were role models for the children, sometimes simply by virtue of their appearance.

However, there was a time when the economic crisis took a toll and some teachers began to wear shoes that were tired at the front and worn at the heels. Their clothes became shoddy and the children therefore had less to admire than before. Being children, the appearance of these teachers soon became the object of ridicule and even of the coining of false names.