In Continuum.

So, even in the highest office in the country, it doesn't automatically grant you the respect of the people. Do you truly respect that man? Not really, but we are supposed to respect him when he appears anyway, because that is what people do in the face of a president. That is the same case with our teachers, you know, and our respect for them isn't supposed to come naturally the moment they step into the classrooms. They have to be earned, just like anybody else in this world, your respect has to be earned before people start to respect you. But then I feel that a lot of people do not exactly understand that logic, they kinda think that the "Dr." in front of their names mean a whole lot, and that they could just wear that title around for people to naturally bow down low to them. I think we have already established the fact that your certificate does not mean anything when it comes to you as a human being. Or, allow me to rephrase. Your certificate does not mean squat when it comes to how good you are as a teacher. It really doesn't mean that you should parade around classrooms around the country just because you have a Ph.D, for example, because it doesn't necessarily mean that you can teach. But of course, many people forget easily, many people think that they should be treated in a certain way, paid a certain amount, and addressed in a certain way - so much for everything. 

I don't know about you, but I was terrified of my teachers back in primary school - I really was. Even before then, my memories in kindergarten were mostly of me standing by the side of the blackboard because I had to much to say to my friends in the class. Then there was that other time when our toys were confiscated and then thrown into the dustbin, which wasn't really very nice of the teacher. I remember how she looked like, a bag of bones who'd always dress in the same shirt with anchors and ropes printed on it (Keep in mind that it was the 90s). In primary school, the teachers still ruled over the students, and I had a fond memory with one of them when she slammed a thick hardcover file onto my head, just because I poked papers through the rings instead of punching holes in them. I remember Mrs. Ong who praised me for my knowledge on the height of Mt. Everest, and how Taiwanese have a nice dialect. Other than that, though I never really liked any of my teachers back in primary school. They terrorized the classes, often with absolute control over everything, and that included whether or not you could go to the bathroom or not. 

It's interesting, though, to see the words that used for such a profession back then. We started in primary schools calling them "teachers", and I think they are supposed to mean "people who teach". You know, they treated us as little miniature versions of ordinary human beings who didn't really know a thing in the world, and that was true. We really didn't know a thing about the world, and they had to "teach" us everything from scratch. I think of all the so-called educators, teachers probably have the worst job out of them all. I mean, just picture yourself in a primary school classroom, and the things you have to worry about while being in there. You have to worry about inconsiderate brats who can never sit still, or that one kid in the corner who decides to take a dump on his pants. The worst kid you'd have to deal with in an university lecture hall would probably be someone who whispers a tad bit too loud, or is snoring at the back of the class. The things you have to deal with as a primary school teacher is already daunting enough, and that is not considering the curriculum things you have to be teaching. You have to teach them the 123s and the ABCs, then you have to teach them about algebras and trigonometry - where do you begin with all those things anyway? 

It's hard to tell, but I do respect my teachers from primary school. Some of them were unreasonable, while others were really nice (one of them gave me a bookmark, though I forgot her name). I mean, working under that kind of stress has to be come of the worst things that could happen to you in any environment, and the same stress carries on into high school. They are still being called "teachers", but with more reluctance and nonchalance than before. The children have grown up somewhat, and they now know that they can walk all over you if you do not have a cane, or the access to one. But then again, that really works only in the better schools, and students in the worse schools really cannot care less about canes. They care about being detained after school, or to be stripped of certain privileges. They don't mind the pain, because that is completely temporary, and some of them won't even mind a suspension from school. They are proud of public canning, and they certainly won't hesitate to show the scars. So, teachers in high schools are facing even more daunting situations, and yet so many of them are in the job right now. I think they get the worst end of the deal, I tell you, no doubt about that. 

But, things do get easier as an educator, no doubt about that. It gets tougher towards high school, but it gets easier the higher the education level you go from here. In Junior College, you life isn't half as tough anymore. I mean, you are working with students who really don't want to look bad in the eyes of their peers, so they try to cooperate and put up their best fronts for you. A basic level of intelligence is still needed at this level, but you really don't have to be a rocket scientist to handle a class. Handling is pretty easy, and you don't get a lot of stress. Students generally cooperates, but the school is probably going to come down hard on you. Other than that, your title changes from a "teacher" to anything from a "tutor" or a "lecturer", depending on the context. If you are in a classroom situation, you are a tutor. Whereas if you are in a lecture hall, you are a lecturer, it's that easy. Suddenly, the title that is supposed to mean "to teach people" has been split into two. On one hand we have the people who are helping us along, because we are supposedly able to learn by ourselves, to think by ourselves, basically independent young adults as they'd like to be called. The other title, however, is more passive. You are in the role that requires you to stand on a stage and just talk for hours on end. A lecturer, that's what you are in Junior College, and nothing more. 

It gets even easier though, in college, and here's why. The tough part is probably the period of time after your university when you want to aim for a higher education level. Like, a masters degree or a doctorate, something like that. I mean, it helps with the job applications, and it certainly looks good on paper. But like I said, being book smart doesn't necessarily mean that you are a good teacher, a good tutor, a lecturer, whatever. In college, they'd much rather you to call them "facilitators", because "tutors" just doesn't make the cut anymore. They want to have even lesser role in your school work, and they don't want to be "tutoring" you in anything. Tutoring just makes it sound like they are giving you a step by step guide through everything, or something, and that is not what happens in a college. They pretty much tell you want they want it, how they want it, and then you are all on your own. They "facilitate" everything, and that is all they do. Problem is that some of these "facilitators" take facilitation too seriously, so much so that they do not do anything other than going through the PowerPoint slides which we could really have read on our own. 

It's true, your job is really very easy in a college. It's tough to become one, because you have to work hard to get the qualifications. But once you are there, your life is pretty damn easy. You give lectures, you mark a few papers, and that's about all that you need to do. I think compared to being a teacher in an average high school, you guys are in a country club sipping on margaritas on a daily basis. I have met lecturers, or facilitators, like that in my college life, and a lot of them just goes through the motion and reads off the slides, if they read off any of them at all. The infamous case of Rosemary, as we all know so well by now, was sparked off only because she never taught anything in class - nothing. My current lecturer for COM300, for example, spends the majority of the time killing us with her boredom. She cannot teaches, and she sucks at what she is supposed to do best. She boasts about her sixteen years of linguistic experiences, when she pronounces "genuine" as "genu-wine", or "pasta" as "paster". What's up with that? 

I think as respectable a job as these people are, there really should be come kind of filter, you know. You have the really great lecturers like Nina, Julie Bowker, Baban Hasnat, Bob Armstrong, because they love their job and they are good at it. Then you have the really horrid lecturers who cannot string a proper sentence together at all. I mean, the old saying holds true when it comes to education in any country: garbage in, garbage out. If you are going to have second rate educators in our system, then you are going to expect second rate students to be churn out of the system. You can't expect brilliant students to emerge out of the system with these subpar lecturers making it through without doing a single thing in class. I don't feel like I learn anything in those classes at all, only because they do not make an effort to teach, or to instruct, or to do anything that is supposed to be done between a teacher and a student. They all like to be called the "educators", it's like this safe umbrella term for them. But if you really think about it, some of them are just there for the job or the money, and never really for teaching purposes, whatsoever.