Teachers as Providers of Education, the Most Precious Asset

Consuela Popa, România

Consuela Popa is a permanent English and French teacher at Colegiul Naţional Elena Cuza, Craiova, România. E-mail:konskris2001@yahoo.com

Regarding the English language teaching, along with the teaching of other subjects, I am positive that teachers as well as students should be able to reach a common point of view, that of the message that the teacher sends, in general, to his audience and to the world as a main tool in the process of education/teaching. Not only are we masterful actors who perform out of proficiency, in front of numerous auditors, but we are also very powerful message senders to our pupils and to the future generations, therefore, we shape the world in a magnificent way.

It has been argued recently, in our scientific environment and corners, that a new drive or turn should take over our way of teaching and educating generations of young people: that of not only presenting knowledge to them in an efficient and complete manner, interacting with them and participating in the process of education as tutors, mentors, observers, actors, participants, etc., as our methodology tells us, but that of an overall approach which tends to include everything: teaching students/pupils how to learn, giving them their own “learning management licence or agency), prompting them towards learner autonomy in an intelligent way, personal development and originality.

In short, this also means teaching them how to be themselves, without becoming rebellious or anti-learning characters in an institutional frame, but rather making them aware of how to adjust this institutional frame to their own educational needs.

This brings to my mind the issue of reforming and modernism especially within our Romanian system. As teachers we are guides, not only to our students scientific needs and quests, but also towards the shaping up of their personality. We surely do not want them to act as disabled members of society later on, in life, and we do not want them to discover that school has taken them by the hand, but that actually they were not provided the kind of social and psychological thinking that would be absolutely useful when they are left on their own after graduation, the means of approaching the difficult world we live in, of approaching the future and their careers and dreams, of approaching the job market and life as individuals, as they are not just mere tools in economy after all !.

This modelling of personalities and way of thinking is a great responsibility we have as teachers. If we are not only good professionals in our taught subjects, but also good councilors and educational “psycho-therapists”, then we can say we have really tried to do a good job and get involved in the educational process.

We are providers of education, of general outlook on how to react, behave, approach life and learning, not only of specific subject sequences per class / per hour. After we step out of class, our specialty subject being presented and exposed, being activated, left over to their conscience and intellects, we should ask ourselves: “Have I performed well? Have I managed to make them think far beyond the borders of what I teach in a clock like manner? Am I going to be taken for granted or appreciated later on as an important figure for them just like our teachers used to be real lighthouse guides for ourselves?” These are tough questions and we should not content ourselves to have a mere reflection, but to weigh and consider, and most importantly, to facilitate them apply the theoretical and practical skills in their everyday life and in their development as humans.

I believe education is the most precious asset in society, far above any other issued product! It is (no offence meant whatsoever), above economy, industry, trade, as education has it all, every rough copy project in no matter what field in the country has its springs in some educational mastermind. Everything springs from school, from education, from instruction. Everyone has to have a trainer/teacher/instructor. Good specialists, good workers, good politicians , all of them, had their gift from God, for sure, but this gift was shaped and accomplished in their educational frame, school , in their training environment.

I believe that education and education providers are not mere “educational service providers”, as one over-politicised slogan says it, but pillars of a national and cross-national foundation, “evangelists” of society, redemptors, apostles, missionaries. We have to plant seeds, we depend upon our audience’s eagerness to carry out further our missions, to lend us not only their ears, but their spirits, minds, and hearts. For no matter how many times we fall and get disappointed, someone will always be there to carry on the torch.

Education is a pearl. Sometimes this pearl is covered in sand or mud. Sometimes real pearls get slightly unnoticed by novices who wonder what this really is, what they should do with it–hopefully the pearl will not get thrown away into the dustbin by people who have never come across it- and if this danger falls upon, then it is up to us to make sure people really start being aware and look for pearls and learn how to make a difference, advised by the master-jeweler.
Education is the most precious asset, it is a pearl. Pearls are treasures. But what is most important is that we should not burry treasures, but unearth them and pass them on.

“He that shall humble himself shall be exalted” – let us call ourselves “humble caretakers” – let us forget about priding ourselves with labels such as “experts, philosophers, academicians, etc.”, let us keep the content and importance of such labels and not the form, let us be trustworthy caretakers and guides. Let us not hide light, but pass it on. Let us advertise for education. This is the best thing we can do for our future, this is the fundamental investment. Education is not a “non-productive” field, it is the ground from which all riches come. Education is the root of all systems, the cell, the neuron, the fundamental unit. Our sacred commandment is to propagate it, cultivate it, multiply it. Society has distorted education. Consumersim and bad economy, money at the center of everything in a mean way, have distorted our educational “products”, our students. Let us responsabilize children, students, trainees, let us save them from the decayed non-values system of materialism and consumerism. Let us teach them the old values again, let us make them wish“: When I grow up, I want to be a schooled man, a wise man, a cultured person”. Let us cast out the demons of non-values and the world will change its face. Let us be proud of what we are as teachers, so that our children should wish to be teachers as models in their lives. Let us teach them first what we should teach first, a dignity lesson!

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