Are We Showing A Good Example?

Education has evolved so much since the last century. One significant shift in the focus of education is from only teaching content knowledge to holistic education. This means that we value students as individuals, and strive to help them develop both intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. With this, the teacher's role has also evolved to be one of an "educator". Not only do we teach them academic subjects, so that they have adequate knowledge to serve society in future, but we also try to mould students into morally responsible individuals by instilling good values in them as much as possible, and as often as possible. In fact, 100% of the time.

And how do we achieve this? Well, it is common sense to know that good behaviour cannot be taught in theory, but must be shown through actions. It is no use for teachers to just preach about good values, but do not practise it themselves. Whether we realise it or not, students constantly observe our every move and our every word, and form judgements about us. Therefore, if we want them to have the right values in life, we must constantly show that through our actions and words.

Unfortunately, this does not always happen in schools. I see students regularly being reprimanded for bad discipline, and yet, the teachers themselves display the same bad behaviour in front of the students! Sounds far-fetched? Not quite... Here are a few examples from my own observations in my school.

Case 1 : Teachers bring students to the library for self-study. Students are expected to be quiet throughout that period, but teachers are talking at the top of their voices at the teachers' section. The irony here is that the students are really behaving themselves this time, and the library is generally quiet, except for the voices of the teachers mentioned above, which are clearly heard even at the far end of the library.

Case 2 : Smoking is an offence in school. Any student caught smoking will be dealt with severely, including caning or suspension for repeated offences. However, the discipline teacher (of all people!) who is a chain smoker, gives no second thought of smoking in front of the students, during school hours, in the school compound! He is even seen smoking in the classroom once! How can this teacher expect students to adhere to school rules if he himself breaks the most important school rule of all? Needless to say, many students have no respect for him.

I wonder if these teachers realise what they are doing, and what message they are sending across to their students. If they are really serious about being an educator, they should really change themselves before even trying to change the students. Hmm... it would be really interesting if the principal caught their actions on tape and show the video during meetings while discussing the role of teachers as role models... Maybe looking at themselves acting that way might accelerate the transformation process!