TEACHERS AS UNSUNG HEROES

Teachers as unsung heroes
By JANE OKEKE
Monday, March 15, 2010
No profession suffers neglect more than teaching. Teachers toil and sweat in the classroom but the efforts seem to be imprisoned by the high walls of the school. If there is any profession that is all encompassing, which involves imparting and impacting on young minds, continuing from where parents stop every week, discovering talents to be developed and showcased, it is the teaching profession.

The teaching profession, whether in the public or private schools is not all about the teachers duration of teaching ,either forty or fifty minutes every period as the case may be or vetting the note- books of the students . Often the teacher is the one who discovers that such and such students have talents for drawing or painting, making speeches, spelling ,cooking, calculating, singing, acting and listening e.t.c and goes ahead to spur these students to make the best of what they are blessed with.

The teacher does not stop there, he goes ahead to enter such students for competitions with the permission of the school, and is also there to boost their morale. You need to see the teacher when such students excel, he becomes a cheerleader.

In the movie, Akeelah And The Bee, it was the teacher who discovered that Akeelah could spell and encouraged her to enter for the Spelling Bee Competition. In the same vein, Mr. Yemi Osinbajo has been noted to have said that it was his secondary school teacher who discovered that he had a knack for making speeches and encouraged him to read Law in the university. You need not be told that he is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) today.

But the worrisome question is, were those teachers appreciated? I doubt it. Nobody ever appreciates these unsung heroes. I have been teaching for about six years now and students tutored by me whether for impromptu speeches, debates, speech making or essay writing have won laurels but never have I or any of my colleagues from other schools at such Award Ceremonies been recognized or appreciated.

It is pathetic. Yet the moment you say you are a teacher, you are undermined. To this I say, enough is enough. My fellow teachers, it is high time we began to blow our trumpets for we have being taciturn for too long a time.