Teaching is Tiring, Fulfilling, and Everything in Between

Some may find it easy to look at a teacher and say, "Oh, you are lucky to have two months vacation!" Seriously, teaching is not an easy-peasy walk in the park and it never will be for any teachers out there.

I have been teaching for more than 5 years and it has been a very exhausting ride. Every year, we do the same thing, teach the same thing, and it bores me a lot to teach the exact same lesson for 3 classes and yet, I have to deliver it like it is my first time. As enthusiastically as possible, as supervisors would say.

There is an endless count of reports to be made. May it be attendance, class record, tests, formative, summative, quarterly, any test that you can imagine. And even thinking about how to deliver a lesson involves hours of constantly leaning your head on your hands and thinking any creative ideas that could pop out. And I should mention the last minute changes that it will entail whenever the photocopier breaks down or the power is out. It all involves a lot of thinking and it can take a toll on our mental capacity. Stress is inevitable in our line of work and definitely not a piece of cake as others might look into it. It is an 8-hour job, yes, but imagine the many clients that you have to face "at once" and trying to deliver it the best that you can, yet, still, some don't even care and just goes on with their business even without listening a cent to your lecture. It is frustrating to think about that even though there are still many students who are eagerly listening at you, that one child can ruin everything. That one child that doesn't care. And still, it is our fault that that child is not listening, and this is always attributed to our lack of classroom management or lack of creativity in my lesson. The thing is, education doesn't count on the number of persons you have touched. It accounts to the number of people who were left, not because we didn't do anything about them, but because they chose to do so, and still blames it as a "teacher factor".

This system is slowly sickening the lives of teachers all around the world. The lack of respect and enthusiasm towards education from children and blaming it to teachers is a complete disaster. This doesn't help build the character of a child and it somehow paves the way of complacent beings who doesn't care about anything but apathy towards others and the society. It paves the way to a community where social responsibility is neither respected nor implemented in order to create a harmonious relationship with other people.

Technology is something that dawned on us and lauded as the best thing that ever happened to humanity but, somehow, it slowly took the humanity in us, creating individuals who learns like machines, who values self-gratification, and cares not the welfare of other people.

This is not just an issue about teachers, or education. This issue encompasses to all walks of human life that needs to be addressed. But, I think it is sad to note that it seems that we are already in this phase where apathy is slowly considered as a social norm and pleasing one's self is more valuable than helping others.