The Gleaner carried a Column titled, “failing teachers” published on Sunday August 24, 2014. The writer explored various aspects as it relates to areas in which teachers are failing the nation, and challenges various stake holders to improve the teaching and learning process, and by extension, our educational outcome. However, there are some aspects of the article that I take issue with. Mr. Mason stated that, “There are too many substitutes in our classrooms. This results in a lack of discipline or respect between the teachers and students.” This is a fallacious claim, since he provided no evidence to support it. Respect between teachers and students should always be mutual, whether the teacher is a substitute or not.
He also stated that, “When the Jamaica Teachers' Association
speaks of the single largest contribution to the poor state of education being
in the home, the impression is left that the family life of our students has
significantly deteriorated in recent times. I have seen no data to support
this.” Since, Mr. Mason is oblivious, let me inform him. The home is one of the
most critical aspects of any child’s development. As it relates to children and
the home, we look towards three paramount developmental areas, Early Literacy
Development, Emergent Literacy and Oral Language. These three are vital toward
any student future academic success being that they are all mutual inclusive
and they start within the home. Factors which affect these areas are
socioeconomic background, lack of parental involvement and according to (Sulzby,
1985), lack of a literacy rich environment, among others.
Of the three, Oral Language is most vital. Oral language
development begins in infancy when adults respond to the infant’s cooing and
babbling. The stronger a child's oral language development, the greater is the
literacy success. Because increased literacy correlates to enhanced learning
ability and sharper critical reasoning skills, an emphasis on oral language
gives children a proven foundation for dramatically accelerated success in
life. When students fail to have strong foundation in these areas, the work of
teachers becomes more strenuous and it affects educational outcome. So Mr.
Mason, it has nothing to do with students’ family life being deteriorated.
Mr. Mason further states, “Teaching used to be seen as a
calling. Women in my family, as well as friends, treated the profession with
the pride it deserves. Pity this does not happen much anymore. Since this is
not so, why the resistance to pay for performance?” Mr. Mason, It does not take
rocket science to know that this system is unfeasible. What would be used to
measure performance? In light of teaching and learning, what does Lev Vygotsky,
Jean Piaget, and other theorists have to say? Any science student should be able
to tell you that in order to measure both qualitative and quantitative outcomes
of an experiment, there has to be a control group which is exposed to same
conditions as the subject being measured. Even a simple mathematics topic like
measurement shows why it is impractical, being that one knows what measurement
is.
Finally, Mr. Mason makes the argument that, “The teachers'
colleges are perceived to be the weakest link in the tertiary training chain.
Persons are admitted to colleges who have run out of other options because of
their own academic deficiencies. One must question the value of having a
teacher of mathematics who did not pass the subject at the high-school level.”
Over the years, teachers colleges have done a successful job in training
quality teachers. The problem lies with the administrators of various schools.
No teacher places him/herself in the education system. If you have a teacher of
mathematics who did not pass the subject at the high school level, there isn’t
a need for a question of value; the question is how such teacher gets the job
in the first place. And most of our teachers in the system are misplaced, how
can you have a teacher who has masters in home economics teaching primary
school children?
I am not sure what Mr. Mason means by ‘miseducated’, but as
far as I am concerned, nobody goes to school to learn how to be a parent and
you do not need a degree to know that you need to be involved in your child’s
life. As educators, we do not blame home environment, we are simply saying that
it has a significant impact on any child’s future academic success.
