And the all-in-one award goes to...

People often asked me why I didn't want to be a teacher, after having gone through contract teaching for almost 6 months, is currently working in a school (but not a teacher), and giving tuition for the past 10 years. And my answer to them is always the same : the times have changed, and so, the role of the teacher has also changed. With both my parents being teachers, it's not difficult for me to see the change as the years went by.

When I was younger, I remembered that my parents would reach home almost about the same time I did from school most of the days. My father still had time to check through my 习字本子 (a book to practice writing chinese characters) and would erase off one whole page that I had just completed coz he thought the characters were badly written. My mother had time to go through my Math homework as well, and sometimes, there were still work from the assessment books.

Back in those days, to be a teacher is to just teach, as what we all thought it should be. But for the past few years, though my mother (now retired) was teaching in the morning session and classes should end about 1 p.m., she would not reach home until after 6 p.m. most of the days. This was one significant change I noticed as the years went by in the teaching world. Teachers have more and more things to do and to take care of. And with the introduction of school rankings and other such things, teachers have even more work to do instead of just concentrating on teaching. I know that to improve, there must be competition. But this also brings out a lot of other problems for the schools, teachers, and even students. Problems that only those working in the sector will know. Problems that the highest of the highest authority will never understand.

Besides school rankings, there are still other awards for CCAs, SYF (Singapore Youth Festival) awards, etc, for the schools to compete among themselves. And when the students take part in such competitions, teachers are the ones who will be 'sacrificed'. Of coz the students will have to endure part of the stress and having to miss lessons. But I personally feel that teachers got the most of it. The teacher-in-charge has to find time to train the students, be around if there are external trainers, make sure the students work hard enough to win. If the school wins gold this year, the expectation is there for the teacher to win gold again the next year, the following year, and so on.

And then there is the competition for best class performance inside the school itself. Again, the stress is on the teachers. Besides worrying for the class, there is still the teacher's work performance review, promotion exercise, etc. So, for those people who do not work in schools, do not think that there is no office politics in school. There are much more going around than you can imagine.

One of the most important thing, is the change in the behaviour of the students. I believe that the streaming of the students is one of the causes of such behaviours. And also, the mindset of the teachers for the different streams of students. Do not think that all students in the special/express streams are angels, and that all students in the normal technical streams are devils. The special/express students can be good-mannered and smart, but they can also be scheming and shrewd in the bid to compete to be a top student. The normal technical students can be irritating and rude, but they are street-smart and can be really nice, with no hidden agenda or whatsoever.

And I believe that it's even worse when it comes to dealing with the parents. Kids nowadays are like princes and princesses at home. Whatever they go home telling their parents about the school, the teachers, the classmates, they will always believe that their precious babies are right, and the whole world is in the wrong. They will never believe that their precious babies will lie to them, and when they are being punished in school, these parents will demand to know the who, why, how, and still think their precious babies could do no wrong. I've even heard of cases of parents helping their children to cover their lies.

Which is why some people who did a mid-career switch to teaching get a shock when they start teaching proper. I strongly believe that nobody in the 'outside world' will ever understand how tough it is to be a teacher. The definition of a teacher had changed much over the years. Honestly, if I had a choice 20-30 years ago, I'll definitely choose teaching. Coz a teacher at that time is a 100% teacher. Nowadays, a teacher is more like 30% teacher, 30% administrator, 10% organiser (CNY celebration, Teachers' Day celebration, Sports Day, etc), 10% student (to clock the number of training hours needed), 10% counsellor, and 10% miscellaneous worker.

So, to all teachers out there, hang in there! Have a happy teachers' day. You all have my utmost respect.