...High School Educators of Today??

I don’t know if you have noticed this or not, but the quality of the teaching force in high schools is facing a steep decline these past few years. Teachers aren’t what they used to be.

IMHO, the best educators are the ones that are about 45-50 years old right now. Teachers of that generation were both inspired and inspiring, commanded our respect and really knew their stuff. The greenhorns on the other hand didn’t leave such a great impact on me. They seemed more complacent; less motivated and didn’t inspire much confidence with their methods of teaching.

I actually narrowed the issue down to one cause and I believe it is a really valid point. The reason to the sorry state of the new generation of educators is the ever changing trend of job prestige in the eyes of society.

Every few years, how prestigiously a job is rated changes with the demands of the times. Back in the good old days, teaching used to be a very sought after profession. It was considered one of the more stable and better paying jobs in the market. People actually aspired to be teachers during the time, working towards a degree before pursuing their noble task of enlightening the young minds of the later generation.

Nowadays things are very different. As university degrees are at an all-time high in terms of accessibility, having a bachelor’s degree is just the starting point. The question today isn’t if or if not you have a degree, but what kind of degree you have. Because of this ongoing trend, being a doctor or an engineer isn’t that huge a leap anymore. If you have the right amount of resources, you’re well on your way to obtaining a degree which was once almost unattainable back in the good old days.

So what does happens to those who don’t have a bachelor’s degree?

I guess the matter that I’m driving at is really the fact that teachers back then were educators by choice, and most of the teachers of today are educators as a victim of circumstance. This may explain the lackadaisical attitude for a number of the contemporaries. The level of education received also correlates to their lack of substance. The older generation of educators, as mentioned earlier, had university degrees, while nowadays all you need is a diploma or a certification for attending some Maktab Perguruan.

I am not saying that there aren’t any excellent teachers out there anymore. Of course there are. And for those of you who have chosen to educate as a profession, I solute you! You have chosen to pursue a very noble undertaking. However, the reason why I brought this issue up is not to spike the teaching force of today. Rather, I’m speaking about the sorry state of the education system the change of job prestige to the social eye has left behind.

So what alternatives do we have for the future? I don’t expect to see a positive change in the teaching force in the coming years. Among many alternatives are home schooling, computer aided learning and distance education. Take your pick.