More than just talking: the demands of teaching

As we all know, teachers are very important people in the whole world because there is no knowledge acquisition without them. They are so important to the point you can't just wake up one morning and decide to become one because you can't teach what you don't know.

Like I always tell people, teachers should be the most respected people in the whole world, but here in Nigeria it is the other way around, and that is why people that own schools no longer go for experienced and qualified teachers because they don't want to pay them enough money that they deserve.

The image is mine

Looking at the rate at which some schools are employing unqualified teachers for students, I can say it is some teachers' fault that some students don't perform well in their studies because most teachers nowadays don't know how to connect with students and then understand what they need when studying.

On the other hand, I would say all fingers are not equal because, in that same class, where some students don't perform well, there are students who are doing great with what the teachers are teaching them.

My mom always said something to my siblings and me whenever we didn't perform well during our secondary school days; she would say, "Bi won ba gun iyan ninu odo, to won se obe ninu epo epa eni to ba ma yo mayo. "English: "It is the same teachers that taught the head girl and head boy of the school that taught us, and yet we didn't perform well at the end of the term."

She said that teachers will only do their best, and it is left for the students to go through what his or her teachers taught them so that they can understand better.

The image is mine

I wouldn't blame any teacher for any student who didn't perform well in the class because most students nowadays don't go through what they were taught in school when they get home, which would have helped me understand what they wrote in their notebooks, while most students don't ask questions in the class, even when the teacher asked if they understood their answer will always be "yes" because they wanted the teacher to leave the classroom so that they could play.

I personally don't like teaching jobs, but then there was a time when I was desperate to get a job, and a teaching job was the only option I had, so I didn't have a choice but to give it a try.

Trust me when I say a teaching job is not just for anyone because it is more stressful than how people talk about it, starting from talking from morning till evening and making sure every student in the classroom understands whatever you are teaching.

I didn't last for two weeks because when I asked those kids if they understood what I taught them, they would say yes, and when I asked them to explain, they couldn't, which left me with no choice but to explain over and over again.

The image is mine

I got tired and then quit because they just wanted to play instead of listening to what teachers were teaching them. The proprietress told me that I just needed to keep explaining until they understood, and I asked myself, "On top of how much will I talk until there is no saliva in my mouth again?".

The truth is that sometimes teachers are not to be blamed because most students don't want to listen; they just want to have fun in school and then go back home to watch cartoons. It is only people who haven't tried the teaching job wouldn't understand how stressful it is for teachers to input knowledge into their students.