Teacher
for All Subjects, for All Seasons
If anything, this move to develop
multi-literate teachers to create a multi-literate society only reinforces the
Essentialist view of how teachers should be; that the teacher is an authority,
a master of his/her discipline and model worth emulating. The teacher is
expected to be an intellectual and moral model of his/her students, a
‘fountain’ of information and a ‘paragon’ of virtue, if there ever is such.
Well, I guess there will be, now.
Now that educators and scholars worldwide have acknowledged the inadequacy of
traditional competencies and literacies in coping with the demands of the
times, especially with the advent of information and communication
technologies. UNESCO says that, literacy is a plural and dynamic concept, and
there is no single notion of literacy but multiple literacies.
That is why the Philippine
Association for Teacher Education (PAFTE) has adopted “Leading in the Formation
of the Multi-literate Teacher Educator of the 21st Century”as the
theme for its 40th Annual Convention on October 17-19 of last year.
In this convention, experts discussed various dimensions of literacy such as
cyber-literacy, media and information literacy, financial (economic, business
and entrepreneurial) literacy, health literacy, music literacy, and
multilingual education. Although the Progressivist view of teachers say that
the teacher’s role is that of a guide, group leader, consultant, and
facilitator in the students’ activities, with this aim of developing a multi-literate
teacher for the 21st century, we are more or less demanding our
teachers to be all-knowing and yet be inductive and discovery-oriented when it
comes to teaching. The teacher may now be compared with a drinking fountain
which should have a reserved supply of water all the time but whose water
supply cannot be tasted if you don’t push the proper button; the teacher should
be master of all knowledge but may not divulge this knowledge unless asked to
do so.
Frankly, this is quite unbearable
for me. To possess so much knowledge and yet to share it only when asked to,
only when there is no possible alternative, is like being given a voice to
speak with but also being restrained to speak unless permitted. But as I have
always been painfully reminded of, sort of a smacked-in-the-head way, and as
every teacher should know, the whole education system is not for us. We do not
topbill this movie called The Learning Process. We are just supporting
characters to our leading actors and actresses, the Learners;hence, we must
support them, with all that we can do, devoid of ill will and malicious intent,
and without further ado. It’s a nice job we got here actually. We study and
prepare for this four at least four years, only to be thrust into a supporting
role and be overshadowed by young people who didn’t even study yet. What ever
happened to seniority here? But that’s exactly the point. These leading actors
and actresses that we have are just amateurs, and so we, the supporting
characters, have to teach them how to be just like us in the future. Does it
sound ironic? If it does, please remember that it sounded ironic to our
teachers too, so we’re just even. J
It’s part of what we call, the circle of life.
And that’s the long and the short of
it, whether we like it or not. We can either rant about it or put it to good
use. Let’s just say it’s sort of a teacher’s secret, our secret that only we
know, and that our students and pupils don’t? It can after all be a good proof
that the teacher is still someone the students can learn from. A teacher still
is fifty books, or to use the current trend, six multiple literacies away from
her students. It’s kind of a good secret, isn’t it? J
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