Lowering Standards

in Singapore, teachers who are university graduates have to do a post-graduate diploma in education. the course name is very often shortened to "post-grad dip in education". and that's what the course is. after you come out of a degree course, for you to teach, you must lower your own standards. or more correctly, be able to bring yourself to the level of your target audience, i.e. the students. most of the time, this does indeed mean having to bring yourself down to their level.

this is not because the students are not intelligent. but more because students lack the training and experience to analyse problems in the context of the academic subjects. a teacher therefore has to be able to explain concepts in ideas which the students are able to relate to and therefore find easier to comprehend. unfortunately, there are teachers who teach as if they expect the students to be just like them, which more often than not means that teachers expect students to be studious and bookish and able to grasp abstract concepts quickly.

but that is not the case. especially with primary school children. which is why i think that demanding that all primary school teachers be graduates might not necessarily translate to a rise in education standards. i might be clever. i might know my stuff very well. but that might make me a horrible teacher because it is and has always been easy for me to do well academically. which therefore means that i might not be able to simplify concepts and to explain ideas in a manner that the students understand.

i'm sure you know what i mean. you must have had a teacher who, when you ask him/her a question, looks at you and says "aiyoh... liddat so easy you also don't know ah?" then rattles off at the speed of light. and at the end, you walk away learning nothing and perhaps even feeling a little discouraged.

it might make sense to have graduate teachers perhaps at a higher level, tertiary, JC or maybe even when dealing with high ability secondary school students. but for the majority of students, they need teachers who are amongst other things, patient, able to use various strategies and strict yet approachable. not all graduates have that. and many non-graduates have those qualities as well as sufficient academic knowledge and experience to teach at the primary school. what's more, many non-graduates are better placed, because of their personality, to shape the minds and behaviour of primary school children.

what determines whether a person would make a good teacher is not what degree he/she has from which university/institution. rather, it is his/her attitude, personality and ability to simplify to use different methods and most importantly, to relate, intellectually and emotionally, to the students under his/her charge.