World Teacher's Day: Teachers are our national treasure

GARDEN ROUTE | KAROO NEWS - Today, Tuesday 5 October, is World Teacher's Day. Around the world, teachers are celebrated around the theme "Teachers at the heart of education recovery".

Resetting the way we teach

A quick search online will bring up pages upon pages of developers rhapsodising on the merits of their laptops and computer offerings. Inevitably, “core”, “memory ram”, “professional”, “harness the power”, “designed for groundbreaking performance”, “all-day battery life” and “two-year onsite warranty” appear above the "add to cart" choice bar.

Sounds to me like much of South Africa's teaching corps during lockdown - except that our teachers have a lifetime guarantee! In keeping with an IT-related metaphor, let's add the term "commitment device" (pardon the pun) to the many descriptions of teachers during lockdown.

They were grounded, flexible and purposeful. Their innovative agency made them resilient energisers as they built up collaborative networks in an unfamiliar space. Overnight. Literally.

Teachers discover early that their love of children draws them to teaching. For so many, their own love of learning makes them passionate about teaching. Many teachers I know were inspired by a teacher earlier in their own education who had a positive impact on them. Now they inspire.

When the pandemic hit, teachers had to dig deep as they took several dizzying breaths and then got on with the job.

They had honed their skills for decades in front of a class and then, suddenly, had to develop a whole new set of skills on the spot. Trial and error. They expected that it would be tough, planned for it and did their best to make peace with it.

They gave themselves time, and permission, to figure it out.

Of course, not all had the luxury to enter a virtual world - but there was nothing "virtual" about their role. Defining "virtual" is not difficult. It refers to something not physically existing as such, but made by computer software to appear to do so. It was anything but! When it came to our teachers, they not only showed up, they stepped up, physically.

Photo: Tra Nguyen, Unsplash

Much of the space may have been virtual, but it was real teachers who crowded the extra mile to take the hands of their learners.

Do not forget the teachers who stood in car parks at schools, in communities with no technology or access to the internet, handing out "drive-by pick-up-and-go" curriculum packs, pre-prepared and packaged, while simultaneously handing out food parcels to indigent and vulnerable children.

Parents would queue to take delivery of resources that kept their children busy. Perhaps this was the first time many parents actually got to see their child's teachers in the "trenches" of education - albeit in a car park wearing a mask!

The dynamic and industrious way in which the teaching profession shared its newfound skills, knowledge and expertise is nothing short of miraculous.

Teachers were energised and engaged, despite the anxiety that a global pandemic wrought. Every single mindset vibe was "I've got this". In a Ted Talk over a decade ago, the late Rita Pierson said, "We can do this … because we are educators! We are born to make a difference".

I can imagine that every teacher expected to deliver their lessons with perfection - but the reality was that they were just trying their best to get their classes taught – other people's children. Yet, most teachers had to take on various roles during lockdown isolation, including that of wife, husband, mother and father, at the same time as being mentor, counsellor and "Zoom controller".

Teachers' lives were disrupted, much like Covid-19 disrupted life as we know it. Yet they never flinched. Teachers did their best each day. Many had to switch from a chalkboard to a Zoom call overnight.

Watching some of the online lessons that leaked onto the internet showed teachers' exceptional communication, listening and organisational skills - and wicked sense of humour.

It was refreshing to see and provided us with a glimpse into the real lives of teachers. Their strong work ethic, patience and friendly attitude made them our heroes.

It was Charles Darwin who noted: “In the long history of humankind, those who learnt to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed". While Covid-19 forced our entire population into lockdown, with a stuttering stop-start-stop-start to education, teachers scrambled to redesign their teaching and learning to allow learners of all ages to learn at home. It reimagined what learning looks like in the 21st century.

We cannot predict what technologies will be ascendant in future, despite the "OECD 2030 Future of Education and Skills Project" indicating the necessity of replacing old educational standards with an educational framework that combines knowledge with the 21st century skills of creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration. In South Africa, this is still far off.

What we can predict, though, is that teachers will prevail as the purveyors of hope to generations of South Africa's youth.

Conventional wisdom holds that motivation is the key to habit change. Any look at how teachers embraced change during Covid-19 lockdown challenges this wisdom. Teachers changed their entire teaching modalities out of necessity. Not motivation. They knew what their learners needed.

If ever there was a time when teachers did it out of sheer love and concern for their charges, it was during lockdown. In addition, if the "Law of Least Effort" states that people will naturally gravitate towards the option that requires the least amount of work, when it comes to teachers teaching during the pandemic, one can dispel that as a myth.

If there is a silver lining to this all, it is that Covid-19 has resulted in public recognition of schools' essential caretaking role in society and parents' gratitude towards teachers, their skills, and their invaluable role in learners' well-being. Let us acknowledge the hard work, passion and extraordinary effort of our teachers during lockdown. It is right to show gratitude for our teachers' social and emotional support, compassion, encouragement and connection.

Teachers sell hope. Teachers are the hope. They choose to teach because they want to be vessels of hope and courage. Despite great adversity, they adjusted their sails, forged ahead and guided their learners, in uncharted waters.