Teaching as a Vocation and Profession; Dedication to all my teachers especially my Both Parents (Mr and Mrs Malachy Ahaiwe)
Hello Dad and Mum๐๐, I have been meaning to write and tell the World about your ‘Vocation and avocation’ [1] as a teacher on social media, but on a second thought, I said but you are not on social media and may not be able to see such constructions that fascinate you. On a long run, I couldn’t hold my pen when I had reminiscence on how excited and amazed you would be on reading the lines of your Students who made powerful and logical constructions. In your words, you would say DG as you fondly call my mum, listen to this line as he reads again and again repeating the same extra-ordinary sentences that struck his imaginations; blessings of a grandchildren thereof. (I am sure your grandchild would read this to you both or maybe you would ask for it to be printed for you, I can only imagine how happy and excited you both are๐๐)
Well, I am unoblivious of the religious-dimension of the word vocation especially before the 16th century. But in my own opinion after a detailed classification of one of my students recently when I asked him to give me an example of Profession and Vocation, I have decided to group your occupation as vocation. In the words of my smart student, I used to have two English teachers during my high school; the Grammar teacher has vocation and the Vocabulary teacher has profession. In my Socratic style of teaching and inquiring into details, I was curious to ask, why do you think so? He further elaborates his points by saying;
The grammar
teacher goes extra mile to prepare his lessons, he’s so happy to listen to
questions and gives us much positive optimism that we can learn, whereas the
other just comes to class most times unprepared, repeating the same stuffs all
over and over again, and wouldn’t hesitate to end the lesson 2 minutes before
the end of his lessons.
Reflecting
on the above on a pre-epistemological index comes out the following; who is a
teacher? And what qualities must a Good teacher possess? Recently, with the global
move and fast-pace desire to make money so fast, of course few of the younger
minds would not even get teaching profession come across their minds. With the
advancement of Science and technology and irresistible Remote mode of Learning
in our world, where lies the future of teachers? Would there be a Robot teacher
and if yes can this probably replace the essence of a teacher?
According
to Cambridge Dictionary, a teacher is someone whose job is to teach especially
in Schools.[2]
Well there are more to the word ‘teach’ which in my opinion is impacting of
knowledge. The essence of teaching is to impact knowledge and here comes the streamline
of teacher as ‘vocation and profession’ as distinguished earlier on. In my
opinion, A teacher who has profession cares not about the end result of what he/she
is teaching but a teacher who has vocation sees ensures and goes cares about
the end-result. For some children, teachers are the only positively influential
people in their lives. Antwone Fisher, a best-selling writer, grew up in foster
homes, and didn't have many adults that he could trust. But a primary school
teacher, Mrs Profitt, was the first adult he ever trusted. 'She spoke to all of
us the same way – with respect. No one spoke to me that way before. I think
that being with her for three years made all the difference[3]
Here comes
the bigger question, Would there be a Robot teacher and if yes can this
probably replace the essence of a teacher? Yes, the possibility of having such
is near but the better question to answer would be how would a Robot teacher
replace the essence of a real teacher? British education expert Anthony Seldon
thinks so; And he even has a date for the robot takeover of the classroom:
2027. He predicts robots will do the main job of transferring information and
teachers will be like assistants. Intelligent robots will read students' faces,
movements and maybe even brain signals. Then they will adapt the information to
each student.[4]
It's not a popular opinion and it's unlikely robots will ever have empathy and
the ability to really connect with humans like another human can. In the real
sense of the word ‘teach’ in the vocational dimension; robot would not be able
to teach at least not yet.
Furthermore,
a good teacher is one who is humane, patient, empathetic, lovely, intelligent, disciplinarian
and a good listening ear. There are varieties of students and with different background
and assimilation capacities. There are students who assimilates faster than the
other and what makes you a good teacher is the ability to detect and know which
works for each of your student. Experience in teaching has shown that, students
learn more with motivations, hence a good teacher is a good motivator to his/her
students to achieve their goals.
On the
other hand, with the advancement in science and technology; There is a big difference
between the traditional teaching techniques and modern teaching techniques. Stay
tuned on my next Publication on the Modern teaching techniques.
[1] is an occupation to which a person is especially drawn or
for which they are suited, trained, or qualified. People can be given
information about a new occupation through student orientation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocation
10.10.2021
[3] https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/general-english/magazine-zone/world-teachers-day 10.10.2021, 08:09 GMT.
[4]https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/reading/intermediate-b1/robot-teachers.
10.10.2021, 12:09 GMT.
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