Way back in my elementary time, there were still some students who wanted to become a teacher, besides the other popular jobs: doctor, engineer, and pilot. How about now? I never conducted any survey, but if I ask the same question I bet almost no student who will say, “I want to be a teacher someday.” Yes, some of my students want to be a teacher because they want to help the community, but it is as their second profession after a businessman or businesswoman. Why? Please tell me, what is wrong with being a teacher?
Many things I don’t’ understand in this life. One of them is why the teachers, who must spend more time and energy in preparing, delivering and checking the lessons or test - not mentioning the suffering of having some naughty students or mean parents - and doing strategic work with the future leaders of the world: the children with their complexity, have lower wage than other professions who deal with papers and dead stuff?
My mother was a teacher, a quite good one. She ever won a third place award in “Guru Teladan” competition in Central Java province. One time she wrote a letter to the Minister of Education to express her concern regarding an issue and the late Mr. Fuad Hasan replied with his own handwriting. She quitted several years before her pension because she couldn’t compromise her integrity in the school work. I’ve heard from some people who said to me that my mother was the best teacher they ever had. She is part of the old school teacher who still gains a quite big amount of respect from her students and society but did not gain a quite big amount of salary. Most of the teachers today are even worse, they are not paid well and don’t earn respect they deserve. Granted, many teachers don’t perform well, thus the level of respect gets lower. Yes, this is the homework for teachers, including myself.
I am grateful for the government who shows some initiatives to raise the salary of the teachers recently. It is the easier part. The more challenging one is still haunting me and it has been my dream: seeing teachers return to their honorable place in the community, to be one of the vocations the students want to be.
Many things I don’t’ understand in this life. One of them is why the teachers, who must spend more time and energy in preparing, delivering and checking the lessons or test - not mentioning the suffering of having some naughty students or mean parents - and doing strategic work with the future leaders of the world: the children with their complexity, have lower wage than other professions who deal with papers and dead stuff?
My mother was a teacher, a quite good one. She ever won a third place award in “Guru Teladan” competition in Central Java province. One time she wrote a letter to the Minister of Education to express her concern regarding an issue and the late Mr. Fuad Hasan replied with his own handwriting. She quitted several years before her pension because she couldn’t compromise her integrity in the school work. I’ve heard from some people who said to me that my mother was the best teacher they ever had. She is part of the old school teacher who still gains a quite big amount of respect from her students and society but did not gain a quite big amount of salary. Most of the teachers today are even worse, they are not paid well and don’t earn respect they deserve. Granted, many teachers don’t perform well, thus the level of respect gets lower. Yes, this is the homework for teachers, including myself.
I am grateful for the government who shows some initiatives to raise the salary of the teachers recently. It is the easier part. The more challenging one is still haunting me and it has been my dream: seeing teachers return to their honorable place in the community, to be one of the vocations the students want to be.
Comments
Post a Comment