I like to believe that people are kind-hearted, good-willed and sincere in nature. And most people are. We do things with good intentions. We want to help, because we can. We want to recognise because it seems selfish to not recognise.
And teachers. One of the most unappreciated, underpaid and undervalued 'professionals'. Mind you, most people don't even see teaching as a profession.... I digress.
Thoughts on Giving teachers public recognition
So one of the ways in which we (as a population, person, body, whatever you call it) can show that we value teachers and appreciate their work is to recognise them publicly. And how does one go about choosing who to recognise publicly? Since, surely, all teachers cannot be the same - some must be better than others. And announcing the entire school faculty would just take too long. Well, who better to provide feedback then the recipients of knowledge themselves, the students?! It is a fair and more importantly, more meaningful when students show appreciation to their teachers.
Let me paint you a picture: Students are given a few weeks to write nominations and write about the good that their teachers have done. A few weeks later, the teachers with the most nominations (or more than 1 nomination) are announced publicly and presented with a certificate to thank them and publicly acknowledge their hard work. Honestly, I think this scenario is wonderful. We ought to do this more often, thanking people. Being gracious, grateful. We have been conditioned to take things for granted, because unfortunately, a person's brave and selfless act just becomes the accepted norm.
So, what is wrong with publicly recognising teachers then? I actually don't think there is anything wrong with that per se, apart from the fact that in our haste to want to make up for our lack of appreciation, we also did not realise the implications that this recognition brings. Whenever there is a winner, there is a loser. And if a situation is pitted as such, people will perceive the outcomes to be as such. A friendly is a friendly and there is no winner or loser, because no one is recognised for winning. Similarly, and very sadly, since some people are recognised as caring, nurturing and inspiring teachers (winners), those who are not recognised feel the pinch.
I think the worst thing is the emotional and psychological impact that the action leaves. You can present an award to say, 5 teachers in a faculty of 50, and tell all 50 teachers that whether they receive an award or not, they are all appreciated, and the words mean nothing, because the action has been done. Besides leaving those without awards emotionally fraught and fearing that they have not done enough, it also affects those who receive the awards too. How so you might ask? Teachers who publicly receive awards are not expected to be 'nurturing', 'caring' and 'inspiring' or whatever the title signifies. They are expected to behave in such a manner at all times. That in itself can be an extra burden. And what of subsequent years? What if they don't receive an award the following year? Does that mean they these teachers are no longer nurturing, caring and inspiring? I have heard that there are even political reasons that can be associated with such awards, but I dare not go into that. I don't wish to be so cynical about mankind...
Humans are complex beings, and while we cannot accommodate everyone, the least we can do is to consider the possible impacts that our actions have - especially when we charge ahead, wanting to do good things. We might want to take a step back and think about other implications that our good deed will lead to. In no way am I saying that because of this, we should not recognise people for their efforts and hard work - we should. But perhaps there is another way of showing that 'we value you' other than public recognition.
We are teachers. And we need to remind ourselves that we do not work for recognition. We do not work (or we shouldn't be anyway) for someone to praise us. Maybe quiet recognition is another way to go about it? Honestly, I really don't know. I have not been able to think of a better way to go about this. I suppose we can just be status quo. We know that we are giving. Do we really need someone else to come and thank us for it? I think most of us teaches, would still continue to do that we do even if not a person in the world thanked us for it. That is why we are who we are. That's the beauty of it. Perhaps this bid to recognise the under-appreciated taints the true meaning behind giving. Now, that is something to muse about.
Thoughts of Giving Teachers Monetary Rewards
Since we are on the topic of awards and rewards, I might as well write about a topic that I have a very strong personal opinion about: receiving monetary funds and performance bonuses as a teacher. They are somewhat two separate issues so I will discuss them separately.
Firstly, the concept of giving every officer of the education faculty performance bonuses is an idea that completely befuddles me. How does anyone justify whether a teacher deserves a bonus or not? The teaching profession is not the same as medicine, law, finance. We cannot calculate our gains through hard figures, and even if we do, is it fair to attribute an increase or a decrease in 'performance' (i.e. the number of As achieved on national exams) to a teacher's ability? I personally believe that there are so many factors and variables that influence and confound the grades that students attain. Yes, it is undeniable that the teacher has some influence, but there can be other factors as well: extra lessons for other sources outside of school, peers, having a bad day, being sick on an exam day, having a poor attitude, having a good attitude and the list goes on and on and on. But to correlate a teacher's 'performance' directly to your students results, I think, is a grave mistake.
There are so many other things that this leads to. Perhaps this is why in institutions where teachers are given performance bonuses based on their performance, things get a bit complicated... and for better or worse, teachers do not just focus on teaching, but a lot of other things. And they do this to justify how they have 'added-value' and have earned their keep. I could go on and on, but this also leads to the second issue that I mentioned: receiving monetary rewards, or awards in general. In an institute where this is the case, receiving an award, and reward can definitely be something that shows how you 'add-value'. And with this possible motive in mind, it changes the value and taints the beauty of the awards altogether...
Your thoughts?
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