MOHAMMED ABASS
Without any doubt, teaching is an ancient vocation that has a divine essence. All the prophets of God taught; Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad were all teachers. In this case, if all these prophets are considered noble by God and man, it implies that teaching is a noble profession amongst other professions you can think of.
Kimble and Garmezy (1963:13) cited in Brown (1987:6) define teaching as “showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand.”
I have titled my article “Be a teacher first.”
This is because it is only as a teacher that you can be the best and most effective in everything you are doing.
It is believed widely amongst educationists that whatever you claim you know without having the ability to impart it, you don’t actually know it in the real sense. This is because interpretation comes before explanation. Hence, it is only by being a teacher that you can give details of everything. So, be a teacher first!
If you are an administrator, you must be a teacher first because administrative work involves planning and you cannot actually carry out a detailed plan unless you are a teacher. That personnel working under you are not machines. You must know their personalities, their individual strengths, and weaknesses, and push them to work. Hence, knowing each individual’s strengths and weaknesses will help you to know where to apply them and boost your organisation’s productivity. For this reason, be a teacher first!
In our society, there is one bad thing that some people say. This is very sad and unfortunate whenever I hear people say it. The statement is, “When I used to be a teacher.” With all sense of humility, in most countries I have been to in Europe, North Africa and Sub-Sahara Africa, only in Nigeria have I heard people make this kind of statement. However, I can say that those who are saying this are cheaters, not teachers. They did not enter the teaching profession sincerely, but they found themselves in it as a way to earn a living while waiting for other job opportunities to come their way. In essence, they are using teaching as a springboard. They are passengers in the teaching profession. They weren’t worth being there at all in the first place because the teaching profession called for only nobles and bright brains.
The psyche of those that are employed in the teaching profession can be used to measure the Carrying Capacity (CC) of the person as a teacher because, if you know so much and you know that you know, you will automatically develop that empathy to help out. In my experience, I did this to cover the entire six area councils at FCT Abuja to give back to my society in my basic educational reform agenda, and I realised how difficult the task was and how much commitment and selflessness it required. This type of positive attitude to helping others in need and empathising with the less privileged, who are yearning to learn, can only be found in you when you are a teacher. So, be a teacher first!
A teacher with empathy can do anything to make the learners learn and achieve.
Education is one of the cardinal tools to make the positive change we are yearning for and I would like to say that until we rejig the process and turn things around for positive change, our society will continue to be dilapidating in values, morality, and even growth and development in the real sense of the word.
It has been perceived that something somewhere is acting like an external force holding us back, and we need committed hearts and fine brains to make an intellectual revolution through dialogue, advocacy, negotiation, and patriotism to realise positive change in our society.
A teacher is like a soldier on the frontline in the life of a society or a nation. Whatever he does can either build a nation or mar a nation. A teacher is an intellectual soldier in the battlefield. If you don’t see them from that perspective, so be it.
We have failed to realise simple arithmetic and this fact is that “the products of incapacitated teachers would result in the production of weak personnel in the workforce, weak administrators in our public offices and private enterprises, weak medical doctors, weak engineers, and lawyers, etc., so if you take the aggregate of all these samples, you will have a weak nation.” This is one of the reasons we found ourselves where we are now. We are living in a weak nation even though we all know how God has endowed us with abundant resources. Since we have neglected education and failed to honour our teachers, we have not been able to harness all our resources to their maximum capacity utilisation. Be a teacher first!
I am using this moment to sensitive parents at home to be highly concerned about those teachers that are teaching your kids, their professionalism, morals and values, character comportment, and especially their quality of subject knowledge. Please, parents, this is a wake-up call to you. Watch out. To society, teaching is noble and is meant for those who are either called to it or trained to do it. Never use teaching as a stepping stone to get another job while you know you are not fit and worth being there. Please, fear God. Please, kindly help us out by paying the teacher’s salary when due, giving them opportunities for a better life, and supporting them with a continuing professional development programme. To the younger generation of students, take your studies seriously, don’t be followers of those who are calling people to immorality and senseless behaviours or any useless fans on social media. Be a good child to your parents and let them be proud of you, and let Nigeria be proud of you as a country.
I wish my dear country, Nigeria, success, peace, and unity. Nigeria is for all. Let us promote it. Our forefathers’ sacrifices will never be in vain.
. Abass is an educationist and social entrepreneur. He writes from Abuja, Nigeria.
Email: mohammed.o.abass@gmail.com