Now, didn’t that feel great? So you’ve admitted you have a problem. Now what?
I tell my students all the time: once you’re done with this school thing, make sure you go get yourself an education.
Here are 10 ways you can go from miseducation to re-education on your own time:
1. YouTube: Yes, the YouNiversity of choice—the holy grail of modern learning needs no introduction or explanation. Eat your heart out.
2. Short courses: Many are free online but there’s no harm in paying for a good course, whether online or in your area, that will contribute to your personal or professional development. It’s an investment. Just make sure the course and the offerer of the course are high-quality and legitimate.
Here in Jamaica, you can find short courses that can lead you to a career at the Real Estate Training Institute, the Face Place, Heart Trust NTA and the Jamaica Civil Aviation Authority, just to name a few.
Other institutions include the UWI Open Campus, UTech, Edna Manley College, UCC, MIND and the Media Training Institute. Udemy, Google Digital Garage and FutureLearn are some reputable online sites. iTunesU is pretty limited but you can still find have meaningful learning experiences with one of their recorded courses where you can learn at your own pace from some of the best lecturers in the world.
3. Online talks, lectures, conferences and webinars: Recordings from TED, Talks at Google, SouthBySouthWest (SXSW) and any other conferences or webinars available live or recorded in your area are great learning opportunities. Clubhouse talks are my latest go-to for dynamic live online learning. I tried MasterClass recently too and it’s been life-changing.
4. Networking opportunities: People are a great source of education. Some of the greatest gems I have collected in life have been from having fun chats, business meetings and even soul-searching conversations with people in my personal network.
So put yourself out there and expand your circle. Listen twice as much as you speak. And really really listen.
Anything that comes out of your mouth is something you already know. Anything that goes into your ears is an opportunity to grow.
5. Get a mentor / become an intern or apprentice: It’s easier said than done. Not everyone is willing to offer their time and expertise freely. But maybe it doesn’t have to be free. You could offer yourself as an intern or apprentice so that your mentor feels that they are benefitting as well and you learn even more that way.
You could even find a mentor online whom you may not even know personally. Just by watching, reading and listening to their content, you could learn a lot. Be sure to get mentors for different aspects of your life. For more on this, read my article on the value of interning and apprenticeships here.
6. Volunteering: Meaningful volunteering opportunities that truly promote growth and development are not always easy to find. While serving food to the poor, volunteering at a children’s home or helping out at an infirmary are valuable opportunities to build empathy and learn useful life lessons, they are not readily available options in a world that has shifted online.
Moreover, sometimes, we want volunteer opportunities that will help move us in the direction of our career goals, expand our networks or teach us new skills.
For that, one site I have discovered recently is Catchafire. It’s a global virtual service that matches volunteers with people and companies who need their services. Why not give it a try?
While you’re at it, enter “Volunteer Opportunities Online” in a search bar to see what other options are available in your area. Almost any business you could think of would accept your voluntary services so locate one you’re interested in and then just ask.
7. Travelling: Yes, it sounds luxurious and maybe out of your reach but you’d be surprised to find that it’s not. You might be able to travel on a scholarship or win trips by entering competitions. If you’re working, you can save towards it.
You can have memorable travel experiences even in your own country. The benefits of travel for personal mental and emotional growth are underrated. For information on how to have great travel experiences on a budget, check out Goody on a Budget and Adventures from Elle.
8. Journalling: You’d be surprised at how much you can learn from your own mind. I journalled every day of my life on my phone for a year and a half and it both changed and saved my life. Sometimes, by just seeing your thoughts concretely in front of you, you find insights you would not have been able to grasp when the thoughts were just swirling around in your head.
9. Seeing a therapist: I think everyone should see a trained therapist at least once in their life. We can never truly see the world as it is; we only see the world as we are. The more we raise our levels of intra-personal intelligence is the more we increase the clarity with which we can see the outside world.
It might be a little costly but if you’re doing it just once, plan for it and view it as an investment in yourself.
There may also be opportunities for free therapy in your area, especially if you’re in college or high school. Ask around.
10. Reading: Well, this isn’t new. Books are a traditional but still effective way to learn more about the world and even about yourself.
My advice: don’t let anyone tell you when, what or how to read. Set your own reading goals. Read what you like, whether it’s business books, children’s books, poetry, self-help, travel books, anything you enjoy.
And by the way, never let a book hold you hostage. If you’re not liking it, you have no obligation to finish it.
Of course, you don’t have to explore all these options and certainly, you won’t explore them all at once but dip your big toe in the pool of true education.
In many ways, our education system has failed us but the world is still ours for the taking. Gary Matalon once said very simply at a high school careers rap, “There’s learnings to get from everywhere.” Go get it.
Anna, a 15-year-old girl is raped by someone in her home. However, she spends countless hours of her school day running away from the one person who would be most qualified to help her, the guidance counsellor.
“I don’t want to see her, Miss,” she says to me, almost in tears. “I don’t want her to find me. Hide me, please!”
Why this frantic desperate plea?
Anna is not her real name but this story is absolute truth. Anna spent an entire year in hiding. She had revealed her situation to the guidance counsellor who, as duty demanded, immediately reported the incident. However, after baring her truth to the counsellor, Anna found her to be no comfort and felt more vulnerable than before. Furthermore, Anna did not wish to testify against her rapist in court and the counsellor hounded her day by day trying to convince her to appear for the trial, threatening that if she didn’t, the police would come and take her to trial bodily.
This case broke my heart. While I decided not to fume until I got the other side of the story, especially because the counsellor in question was my colleague whom I knew and respected, I could not help feeling a small tinge of visceral rage at the injustice of this student whom I cherished dearly firstly having the right to her body stripped away by wicked hands, secondly, being forced to relive and rehash this trauma in front of a room of strangers and thirdly, feeling caged and hunted in her own school, a place that should have felt like a haven, a home away from home.
I am sure the guidance counsellor was doing what she was duty-bound to do and what she thought was best but I questioned her methods. I mourned at the idea that a student would reject the help she so desperately needed to get a handle on her emotional turmoil because she did not find her helper, her counsellor to be genuine and approachable. And a new thought struck me. I had never noticed that students at my school, students whom I knew to have serious issues, rarely ever brought their burdens to the school counsellors. For whatever reason, I never even thought to recommend my students to the guidance counsellors.
“No one can be the perfect therapist for everyone but anyone can be the perfect therapist for someone.“
Emily Nagoski, Ph.D.
While I never went to see a school guidance counsellor in my time, I did see a psychologist when I was in high school. I had a teacher who put me on to a therapist when I was 18 and I desperately needed one, even though I didn’t know it. I hit it off immediately with my therapist. Even now, she is so beloved to me and I to her. However, I know that there are people who have to endure a lot of searching, a lot of trial and error before they find that perfect fit. One of my students, whom we will call Naila, had to be hospitalised as a result of a physical and mental breakdown caused by a prolonged battle with an eating disorder. While in hospital, her attending physician insisted that she had to see a therapist who specialises in eating disorders, the only eating disorder specialist in the country, in fact. Though this woman came highly recommended and was no doubt very qualified, Naila HATED her and thought of endless malicious things to do to her. She did not find her genuine nor did she believe her method of counselling was doing her any good. Every session was like having her teeth pulled one by one. However, her doctor forced her to see this specialist and ordered her not to see the therapist she had been seeing before, one with whom she had a very warm productive relationship. As a result, Naila had to endure these pointless painful sessions where she was not getting the help she needed.
Maya Angelou said, “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.” So there are psychologists out there who know their stuff and are extremely qualified but a client can’t really engage with them unless they make them feel cared for in the way that they need to be cared for at the time. It’s the age-old Jamaican concept of “mi spirit jos tek yu.”
Dr. Emily Nagoski, trained psychologist, author of the book Burnout and one of my personal favourite speakers, says that one of the first things she and her cohort learned when training to become counselling psychologists was this simple rule: No one can be the perfect therapist for everyone but anyone can be the perfect therapist for someone. She says she learned that most clients seeking therapy have to “shop around” visiting several therapists before they find the best fit and she says it was drilled into them very early on as psychology students not to be offended or dismayed if a client comes to you for one session and never comes back. It’s nothing personal. It doesn’t mean you’re not good at what you do. It’s all a part of the process.
That being said, think about this: in a population of roughly 1,500 students, all with different backgrounds and personalities, is it likely that all or even half of them will find that their spirit aligns with (“tek tu”) the one or two guidance counsellors there are in the entire school? And no matter how much they are going through, in the face of rape, domestic abuse, not having enough to eat or to travel to and from school, struggles with insecurity and bullying, stress, learning disorders, eating disorders and the host of other issues the modern teenager faces, they will not bare their fragile souls to someone with whom they do not have a connection, no matter how highly qualified the counsellor may be. Are we willing to have our young people carry the weight of all these woes by themselves simply because, as a people, we are afraid to take mental health seriously and to invest the resources that demonstrate that we take it seriously?
Good guidance counsellors are becoming more important than Deans of Discipline
The palpable shortage of approachable and highly qualified guidance counsellors is one of the reasons why the burden of counselling our nation’s young falls so squarely on the shoulders of our teachers. Teachers interact with students every day. They get to know them personally. And somewhere along the line, students often find a teacher who their spirit will just align with or “tek tu.” Some students have a first form teacher whom they still visit and share their problems with even in sixth form or college. They just have a connection. I have ended up being “that teacher” for many of my students. In fact, I have even ended up being “that teacher” for students I don’t even teach who just see me on campus and think that they would like to open themselves up to me. While I am extremely honoured and grateful that little people trust me so much with their hearts, sometimes I feel that I am not the best fit. I provide them with a listening ear, empathetic probing, a laugh and a warm hug (pre-COVID) and for some, that is all they need. For others though, I feel that I am only stopping a gap as these students need more time, resources and professional expertise than I am able to provide in dealing with their deep and torturous emotional pain.
So what’s the solution? As with the other myriad of problems that face our Jamaican education system, I don’t have all the answers. What I do know is this: in this age of insecurity and turmoil, of school shootings and terrorism, of children being kidnapped on the daily, of overexposure, of social media, of bullying and cyberbullying and revenge porn and all the chaos that faces our young people, good guidance counsellors are becoming more important than Deans of discipline or vice principals. We need to treat them as if they are the first line of defence in saving our children’s lives and so they have to be top-quality and it starts from the hiring process.
Here are the principles at the core of the issue:
Hire a variety of guidance counsellors: Guidance counsellors need to be emotionally accessible to students; they need to be “kid-friendly.” Furthermore, there needs to be a variety of counsellors, not just 2 or 3, but counsellors of different sizes, shapes, genders, colours, personalities and backgrounds. This initiative may look different in different places. For example, in an American school where there are Latinos and Blacks, all the guidance counsellors can’t be upper-middle class White people. Students will be less likely to confide in a counsellor who does not look like them, talk like them or appear to understand their story. Similarly, in Jamaica, counsellors need to come from different backgrounds, have different personalities, dress differently, act differently, talk differently from each other so as to create a variegated pool from which students can choose a best fit.
Two counsellors per school is simply insufficient: This might be ambitious in an age where schools don’t even have enough adequately qualified teachers but my suggestion is that there should be at least two guidance counsellors assigned to each grade level. This will minimize the counsellor to student ratio and will make it more likely that every student will find at least one counsellor whom they feel comfortable approaching with their issues.
Free up counsellors to counsel: One counsellor colleague of mine explained to me that school counsellors are often so swamped with Ministry-mandated paperwork and classes to teach that they often have little time or energy to actually help students in the way that they would like.
Ensure counsellors themselves receive adequate ongoing counselling: To see and hear devastating stories every day and bear the emotional burden of little people, to hold their secrets, to sometimes be powerless to do all that you want to do for them and to know that your own life is often in danger (at some schools) is a lot for one human — no matter how trained or qualified — to bear. Counsellors need counsellors too.
This initiative needs to be a joint effort between the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education. It would take a lot of work, time and resources but it would drastically improve our students’ functioning and overall well-being in school and in their future lives. School is a place where students should feel safe and loved and the way the school treats students’ mental health is an important ingredient in that process. While the value of mental health care is not yet fully appreciated in Jamaica, we’re getting there and we need to. Mental healthcare in schools is crucial in bringing up little people who will become fully functioning happy, healthy adults. Guidance counsellors are key partners in the big picture, in making a future for all of us that feels safe and whole and bright.
DISCLAIMER: In this article, the terms, “apprenticeship” and “internship” are used interchangeably and simultaneously. I have chosen to intertwine these expressions because the system I am proposing in this article combines features of both. For example, apprenticeship is often tied to a curriculum, which is true in this case. However, unlike internships, apprenticeships tend to be paid and generally lead into a full-time job which may or may not be true in this hypothetical system. I’m still working out the kinks.
The only thing students leave high school capable of doing is being students. Think about it. They spend years buried in books, submitting assignments and cramming for tests. When they leave high school, the only thing they are trained to do is to study (and even that is questionable)!
The only natural funnel then is into university and, after university, many students still have very few employable skills and so, the next best thing is for them to become a graduate student. The next thing you know, they are in a second Masters or a PhD programme. Many times, we praise such students. “Look at her go! She’s rising straight to the top!” “Look at him; he’s so ambitious. He never stops upping his game!” Admittedly, many students are simply trying to stay ahead of relentless educational inflation. However, the sad truth is: ambitious and self-aware as they may seem, many of these students are simply insecure. They are fearful, confused as to how they will find their place in the world and convinced that they are not capable of functioning in the working world—and, in many cases, they’re right!
The only thing students leave high school capable of doing is being students.
We often complain that employers are unreasonable in asking candidates applying for an entry level job to have 3-5 years of work experience. With indignation, we ask, “Where are they supposed to get work experience from?” But think about it from the employer’s perspective. Often, these demands for work experience are borne out from past disappointments with candidates who were highly qualified on paper but were unskilled, incompetent and difficult to work with, despite being “high achievers.”
Employers know that time is money. They want to know that you can hit the ground running and immediately start adding value to their company. To an extent, this is still an unreasonable expectation, as each company is different and the new employee will at least need some training in the company culture, company policies and the specifics of this particular position to which they are being assigned. Many companies do not put enough thought and resources into succession planning and training of new employees and then blame it on poor schooling or inept applicants. But I digress. The point is that, despite all this, a company rightly concerned about their bottom line has every reason to expect that the candidate they are employing has some experience in doing the job that they are being hired to do.
So again, we ask, “Where are they supposed to get work experience from?” Well, couldn’t they get it from school?
Level with me for a minute. What if schools partnered with public and private sector companies to have apprenticeship and internship programmes each year? What if that was a foundational part of a student’s learning experience from the time they enter high school? What if, instead of summer schools, we normalised national summer work programmes for teenagers that are integrated into their schooling? Students would shadow a professional in a particular field, see how they work and even get a chance to do some of the work.
Apprenticeship is a rudimentary facet of human society. It was once the only way anyone learned anything. However, for one reason or another, this useful tool has been relegated almost to invisibility. Still, it holds some distinct advantages for our modern world.
It better aligns with the way the modern student learns. Today’s students learn by watching and doing. With online video tutorials and increased access and exposure to tools and software, students are learning anything and everything right at home! They like to watch, learn, try things on their own and produce results that they can show. Sitting in a classroom talking about the thing instead of doing the thing is becoming less and less appealing. Give us something to see, something to touch, something to do.
It adds to productivity in the labour force in the short-term. Duh! Free labour! In an apprenticeship or internship programme, students can initially learn valuable low-level skills and gain experience working as a small part of a larger entity. This is invaluable training for the working world. At the same time, relegating these low-level skills to trained interns and apprentices frees up time and energy for the rest of the work force to do the more meaningful big-ticket items on their agenda. For example, someone apprenticing at a law firm can take care of the menial secretarial aspects at the office, such as filing. This would allow the lawyer and the paralegal more time to do the work of preparing cases and drafting communications.
In the long-term, it leads to a more competent, more confident and more productive labour force. If children get even a small feel for what it is like to be employed in an organisation from the time they are in school, then naturally, when it is really their turn to step out into the world as full-fledged working adults, they won’t be as intimidated. They will also have developed many hard and soft skills that they can immediately utilise in the working world.
It helps students to build up their professional network. Children get to build relationships with adults who can help them access the opportunities that they will need when it is time to enter the world of work. Not to mention, the organisations get to scout out young and upcoming talent!
It can lead to entrepreneurship opportunities. Skills that students learn in an apprenticeship can be honed to the point where students can even begin offering these services as temps, freelancers or full-fledged entrepreneurs.
Students get to use their education in real-time. An apprenticeship programme that is integrated into the school curriculum would allow students to use content and skills as they learn them, instead of several years later. This would make their education more relevant, meaningful and long-lasting.
Students will make better career decisions when the time comes. Students today are so confused. Even the most brilliant and capable students often find themselves leaving school with a lot of uncertainty regarding what career to choose because studying something in school is one thing but actually doing it is another. Having had a taste of apprenticeship in different industries though and hearing the experiences of their schoolmates who have apprenticed in industries different from theirs, students will get a better sense of what different careers involve, what they really enjoy, what they don’t enjoy, what they excel at and what their weaknesses are.
It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge that reintegrating apprenticeship into the modern world has some attendant drawbacks.
It can decrease productivity in the short term. Apprentices and interns are not skilled at the outset and will make mistakes which cost time and money. Skilled professionals have to take time to train these apprentices which detracts from the time these workers spend doing their actual jobs. They also often have to spend time fixing the mistakes that apprentices make or teaching apprentices how to fix their own mistakes.
It seems like an idea more suited for developed countries. In a developing nation where wages are low and people are eager to earn, will apprentices be willing to work for free, especially when they have to find money for food and transportation to access these apprenticeship opportunities? If they are not willing to work for free, where will the money come from to pay all these apprentices? What if, to address the productivity problem addressed above, we appointed skilled professionals in each company whose sole job was to train apprentices and interns? How would these trainers get paid?
It is currently perceived as an avenue for low-income professions. Yes, it is just a perception but sometimes perception matters more than fact. Currently, the only people who seem to work as apprentices are manual labourers and artisans. Teachers also participate in a kind of apprenticeship programme when they complete their practicum for their degree or diploma in education. All these careers have one thing in common. They are low-wage professions that lack prestige. Apprenticeship can be valuable for all professional classes but people just haven’t started seeing it yet. On the far end of the spectrum, one prestigious high-paying career that has always benefitted from apprentices and interns is medicine. Focusing on that angle would be a great avenue to market apprenticeship as a valuable tool and to offer it some prestige.
If not correctly balanced, it can be perceived as child labour or even become a cover for child labour. Proper supervisory and accountability systems would need to be put in place to prevent this. Perceptions would also have to be cleared up with good public education. Clearly, there is value in exposing children to good hard work but to what extent is it helpful and at what point does it become abusive?
It is not a popular idea right now. It would take a lot of selling to the relevant stakeholders because it’s an investment but once the benefits become apparent, even the sky would be no limit.
It may be perceived as a distraction from school work. Parents and other stakeholders may say, “When children spend all this time and energy working, what will they have left to spend on school work?” They would have to be convinced that this too is school work. It is a valuable learning opportunity that will be just as beneficial and even more beneficial to a child than sitting passively, taking notes in a classroom.
Many of these drawbacks are easily solvable. For example, my idea of the ideal apprenticeship programme is one that is integrated into the school curriculum. Students learn concepts in school and then they enter into an apprenticeship field where they can immediately apply the things they have learned. That way, students and parents are incentivised by the fact that these apprenticeship opportunities will not be detracting from their educational process but rather will be adding to it and intertwined with it. Moreover, it will not be putting a strain on their budgets which may already be stretched thin, as the apprenticeship opportunities will occur during school time so whatever money they would have spent on food and transportation for school would be simply be redirected to take them to their apprenticeship jobs.
Whether there would be one day each week, one week each month, one month each semester or one semester each year when students would be allowed to pursue these apprenticeship opportunities is left to be decided. How students will be assigned to the industries and companies in which they will apprentice is also a factor to consider. Will students apprentice in one or two industries for their whole high school experience or will they get to intern in a different industry each year? What incentives would the government offer to companies that participate in these internship and apprenticeship programmes? How would the syllabus be shaped to accommodate these apprenticeship opportunities? What would classroom teachers do during the time students are away interning? Would they maybe have apprentices of their own? They too are professionals with transferable skills after all. These and many other questions are left to be answered.
The system I am proposing is a radical shift from the way education is currently structured. It may never be realised and, if it is, it may not be realised in our lifetime. However, we can still reap the benefits of apprenticeship and internship opportunities even now, as they are still an invaluable and heavily under-utilised resource.
If you are a student, seek out opportunities to get a foot into an industry that you are interested in. Just ask. Hardly anyone will turn down free labour and some may even pay you. Whether you do it on the weekends, after school, between classes (if that’s an option for you) or during the summer and other holiday breaks is something you can negotiate with your teacher or company but there is much more to gain than you will ever lose. Whether it’s a professional white-collar job or a manual skilled job, you will learn a lot. Whether you actually end up entering this field or you decide you’re no longer interested, you would have learned something about the industry, about the world and about yourself.
For parents in particular, this is a good avenue to consider if your child seems really driven towards one particular career field or maybe does not seem particularly academically inclined. Academia is not for everyone so give your child an opportunity to explore a more practical hands-on field. On the other hand, maybe your child does have the potential to do well in school but they, like many children, just need to see the relevance of it, the real-life application. Where is this school thing going? they may ask. Show them. Show them where it is all going. It may make all the difference.
If you are an employer or anyone with teachable skills (which is everyone), seek out opportunities to share your knowledge and experience and don’t reject someone who asks for such an opportunity to learn from you. It will sharpen your own skills and you will be making a small but significant impact on the future of your work force and a palpable impact in the life of your apprentice, mentee, intern or whatever you like to call them.
Did you know that it takes 8 months to train to become a police constable? 8 months — let that sink in. Maybe you can’t see the value of that information right now but you will.
“But I thought this blog was about education, not police,” you say. Don’t worry. We’re getting there.
It is said that what you put in is what you get out and from whom much is given, much is expected. How much do you think is really given to teachers? No, we’re not talking about salary (yet). I mean, how much is invested in teachers, especially compared to other professionals?
Teachers, police officers, doctors, nurses and lawyers are traditionally known as the backbone of society. As a unit, we protect, we educate, we inspire, we serve, we defend, we heal and we care. In theory, these professionals hold an entire society together. However, if you see enough of life, you will realise that there is a hierarchy within the backbone. Some careers get more funding, more education, more pay, better infrastructure, more resources, more status and more perks than others. This inequality is systemic. It starts long before one even enters the profession.
I got a 3-year Bachelor’s degree in Language Education at the University of the West Indies, Mona. I studied on a full scholarship that covered tuition for any field of study I chose to pursue plus maintenance money for housing, food and books — a great deal! When the lady at the scholarship desk asked me what I was studying, I told her I was studying education.
She then proceeded, “What do you really want to study?”
“Education,” I said, bemused.
“Are you sure?” she said, looking intently into my eyes.
I caught the drift. I replied, “Yes” like someone who had just been asked to swear on the Bible that I would tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God.
She said, “OK” with a hint of resignation and proceeded to guide me through the rest of the paperwork.
How strange, she must have thought. I was getting a clean break — a full scholarship to study anything I wanted to study, no matter the cost and I chose to stick with education? I had all the qualifications to study Law. Why condemn myself to education?
I was likely the only person in my class who chose to be there, the only person who chose teaching above all others.
This woman, like many, likely believed, as I once did, that bright people don’t teach. Why would you take the talents you have been given to box yourself into a profession that is highly stressful and will ultimately condemn you to poverty? For many privileged or intellectual people, education is the charity work that you do after you have established yourself in your 6-figure career, just to “give back to your community.”
I came to fully appreciate the low value placed on education when I was studying to become a teacher. Many of my classmates were only in the School of Education because they were rejected from other schools, other degree programmes, other lives that would have been more glamorous and more meaningful to them. Others deflected to education because it was the cheapest course of study. Some saw it as “stable” and “secure” so highly likely that they would matriculate from university into a real paying job. Still others were afraid to pursue more “ambitious” and challenging fields. One classmate waited desperately all throughout her degree programme to be accepted to law. Some were only studying education as they figured out what their next move was—what their real career would be. I was likely the only person in my class who chose to be there, the only person who chose teaching above all others.
What does any of this have to do with my opening statement? Well, let’s look at it again: it takes 8 months to train to be a police constable. That’s 8 months to learn to protect and serve, 8 months to become an upholder of law and order, 8 months to hold a gun. 8 months. Now, let’s compare. It takes 3-4 years to become a trained graduate teacher. That seems like a reasonable time — your standard 3 to 4 year degree. You can also become a trained teacher with a simple teaching diploma that takes about a year and a half — significantly shorter. Some teachers even start teaching straight out of high school. Now, let’s compare again. Let’s compare the time it takes to become a teacher with the time it takes to advance to the other “noble” backbone professions of our society. How long does it take to become a lawyer? Well, in Jamaica, you complete a 3-4 year degree programme and graduate with a Bachelor’s of Law (LLB.) However, at that point, you are not yet fit for duty. You are not competent to practise in this most esteemed field of work. Now, you have to spend another two years in law school and then be called to the prestigious and ethereal bar before you can tote the title of attorney-at-law. There is a similar track towards becoming a doctor. You graduate with a degree in medicine after 5 years. However, you have to work your way up to being a consultant physician through internship and residency. Basically, your degree is just the beginning. As a healer, saviour and preserver of lives, you must keep training. You are held to a different standard, a different kind of bar.
What am I saying? Well, here’s what I’m not saying. I’m not saying training for teaching, policing and nursing need to become as rigorous or expensive as medicine and law. What I’m saying is: don’t you think there is a correlation between investment and returns? Don’t you think that all the investment of time, training, money, respect and infrastructure that goes into training doctors and lawyers is what has led to the robustness of the medical and legal professions in Jamaica and to the numbers of brilliant students flocking towards these fields each year? Conversely, do we really believe that students are going to flock to education as a profession or that we will maintain a picking of high-quality educators without that same investment of time, training, money, respect and infrastructure? And if the students who do enter the profession are mostly there because of the low standards of entry, low cost and low investment of time, relative to other “noble” professions, then who is really there for the love? The minority. And if the minority of students enter the field of education for the love and passion while the majority enter out of convenience, then what quality of teachers are we really graduating and how can our education system ever be any better than it is?
Don’t you think there is a correlation between investment and returns?
Let’s jump across the world to Finland. There has been a lot of hype over the past few years about education in Scandinavian countries. Some of it is on-point and well-deserved; other times, things are lauded and compared without context. However, the merit of the Scandinavian way of doing things cannot be denied. One thing about the system in Finland that impressed me was the fact that almost all teachers are required to study for 5 years and hold a Masters degree before they can enter the profession and only the top percentile of high school graduates are accepted to train to become teachers. While I don’t believe we should or can adopt this practice wholesale in a developing country, I do believe it says something about the value these people place on even basic education and the depth of understanding they possess about how systems feed into each other both from the top down and from the bottom up. I mean, if you can’t get a job as a lawyer or doctor without at least five years of schooling but you can get a job as a teacher with three years of schooling or sometimes even no tertiary education at all, what does that say about what an educator is worth? The message this conveys is: anybody can teach. In the same way, if someone just wants a career — any career — and they want it fast plus they’re short on resources and time, they can just become a police in 8 months for a small fee. Couldn’t a man with ulterior motives just figure that 8 months is only a small fraction of his life to sacrifice to get his hands on a gun and some police connections? So what is the true value of “protect and serve”? I’m not saying that teaching or that every essential service job requires five years of training and a Masters degree but the disparity between the time and resources allocated to train different public servants speaks volumes about how each profession is viewed.
On the matter of resources allocated, there is no question about the value placed on law and medicine in Jamaica when you look at the state-of-the art medical school on the University of the West Indies campus, flanked in sophistication only by the faculty of law and the post graduate school of law. Both these facilities come equipped with their own libraries for students while the rest of the students on campus share one central library facility. Naturally, with all that is invested into these students, the students themselves must invest much as well. Students and their families invest volumes of work, rigorous studying and loads of money into a legal or medical education. On the topic of tuition, medical students, by my last inquiry, were spending approximately 2.8 million Jamaican dollars (USD $19,000) on tuition each year. My tuition (about 0.5 million JMD or USD $3,400 per year) as a student in the School of Education at UWI did not total anywhere near that for the three years combined!
The fees, the duration of the programmes, the rigorous studying and the sleepless nights are prohibitive measures that have, no doubt, served over the years, to weed out potential doctors and lawyers who simply were not fit for the job, didn’t have the mettle to endure the profession, and had no real passion for the all-important work that would lie before them. They couldn’t stay the course and in some (not all) of those cases, maybe the nation was better off for it. So while such a capitalist system is fraught with challenges, there is some merit to it as well. So where are the prohibitive measures to weed out the potential teachers who are no good for our children, who have no passion or interest in children or education or who are simply unfit for the job? Where are the prohibitive measures to weed out the potentially corrupt cops or the ones who are unfit? People complain about teachers and police in a way that they do not chide doctors and lawyers. Sure, they get their own flack but it’s different. Everyone, from young children to even the very government, often has negative remarks to make about the work of teachers in particular.
“Not conscientious enough”
“Waste of tax-payers’ money”
“Lazy”
“Unproductive”
“Lacking in integrity”
“Underqualified”
“Unqualified”
Some of these remarks are unfair but some are very true in the case of some teachers and they are true for a reason. They are true because, if the standard for entering and staying in this profession continues to lie so low, then how can the quality of the profession ever hope to improve?
And now, for the most obvious comparison: the perks. Doctors and lawyers tote well-respected titles and many carry a trail of letters behind their names like ants marching to a nesting hole. They are well-paid comparative to the other “noble” professions (though some may say they are still paid less than they deserve). They are aspirational careers, viewed with awe by children and adults alike. From the very first year of the medical degree, the doctors-to-be are invited to a prestigious pinning ceremony, where their enviable white coats are tagged with a gold pin with their names on them. The law students too dress professionally for law school, dragging pulleys filled with books, a symbol of the stature they have and are yet to attain. Essential workers like teachers and policemen often receive more criticism than respect. The greatest disrespect is the salary they are paid. The only workers in education who receive a salary and benefits nearly commensurate with the volume of work they do are principals and vice principals and, let’s face it, there are only so many of those positions to go around. There are few titles and letters behind their names to speak of.
Realistically, if these professions, though noble, carry so few benefits for almost equal work load in some cases, what is going to pull enthusiastic qualified young people to join and remain in these ranks? And if enthusiastic qualified young people are not entering the profession, then who is? And what does that spell for the fate of the profession and the people, particularly the children, that it serves? And if children are not being adequately educated by enthusiastic qualified professionals, then what of our future as a people?
Of course, this issue is complex and deeply rooted in history. Thus, the solutions will be deeply rooted in the future. However, it can start with a few simple steps:
(1)Train teachers better — increase the rigour and depth of teacher training to market it as a career that is not just a walk-over or a last resort career scheme but a career that requires dedication and passion
(2) Pay teachers better — once the qualifications of teachers increase, it should be a no-brainer that their pay can and should increase
(3) Train teaching assistants — just about every one of these backbone professions has ranks to climb and people to assist with a lot of the grunt work until it’s their time to climb the ladder and continue the cycle. Doctors have interns and nurses to help. Lawyers have paralegals and associates. Even the police field has ranks. However, a teacher can stay doing the same scut work from the time she enters into the profession until retirement and even teachers in administrative positions like supervisors or even vice principals still do the same entry-level work to some degree, though their load may be reduced in this regard. A career with such limited upward mobility is not very encouraging and if good teachers can’t get promoted in teaching, they’ll promote themselves out of teaching. High levels of attrition by design!
(4) Provide better resources for teachers — OK, I’m just talking from my own experience but, to be fair, doctors, teachers, nurses, police, all of us as government workers could use better resources! Period!
An educated work force is our most valuable asset but it all starts with passionate, qualified and well-respected teachers. So let’s put some respect on that name!
Sure, adding more value to education might deter some people from entering the field and you may be saying, “But we need more teachers, not less!” But law and medicine, with their high standards, rigorous training programmes and high fees are doing just fine and churning out high-quality results.
Let us not fear the future! Let’s add value to education and put in the work from the ground up!
Thoughts? Please share them in the comments or email me at misseducationja@gmail.com.
#20Greateen is almost over and what a year it has been! What does 2019 hold for you? If you’re a teacher, you’re probably thinking, like you do every year: How can I make more money? How can I maximize my impact? How can I make more time to be free and to live the life I want?
Here are some jobs that you are probably in a prime position to do in 2019 if you wish to make some extra cash on th side or venture out on your own:
YouTuber / ContentCreator:YouTube is the new classroom. We live in a DIY world where people of all ages are taking their education into their own hands. But even with the emergence of YouTube, IGTV, Vimeo, Facebook Live and other video-sharing platforms, there is still a palpable shortage of quality online content, especially for school-age students in the Caribbean. Do you have high-quality lessons, worksheets, videos and other content? If you don’t, could you make some in the coming year? You could even create a website to offer your content to the public or create an online course on a site like Udemy. The world is your oyster. You are the pearl.
Blogger:You have a special field of expertise in both your content area and in education itself. Can you help students get more out of their education? Can you help other teachers do their jobs better? Can you highlight major problems in your field, open discussions, create community and offer solutions? Then, welcome, my friend! You’re a blogger!
Author:Everybody has a story. It could be the story of your life, your job, your field of study or something else. Commit to writing one chapter a week or even one chapter a month. Set aside a day and time each week to work on it. Even if it’s rough, just write; you can edit later. You can even ask someone else to edit with/for you. But don’t hold back. Just go for it!
Tutor:This is probably something most teachers are already involved in. Are you? Could you get involved? If you are already involved, how can maximize your reach? What can you do to stand out by offering something no one else is offering?
Consultant:You are an expert in your field. You have knowledge and skills that people want but don’t have the time or skills to acquire. Give the people what they want, what they need. What they need is you.
ProfessionalHobbyist:I know so many teachers who are super talented at things that have nothing to do with their jobs. An English teacher who is a vegan chef. A Math teacher doubling as a party decorator. A dancer/choreographer posing as an Economics teacher. You might be a skilled nail technician, gardener, editor, baker or public speaker. Maybe, thus far, you have only used your special skill for fun or to help out friends and family. But why not take a leap turn that passion into a career?
I know it may seem daunting but here’s how to start:
Do some research by asking questions or using the Internet.
Get a support group made up of people who are willing and able to offer technical assistance, advice, critical feedback, inspiration, encouragement and emotional support. Ask for help.
Stop doubting yourself. There are lots of people out there who are less qualified than you are, who are doing the things that you’ve only dreamed of doing simply because they believe in themselves.
Stop waiting for everything to be perfect.
Stop procrastinating.
Surround yourself with inspiration daily.
Give your goal a date and break it down into micro-sized pieces.
Keep your phone off and far away while you work.
Just start.
You can do it and you have everything to gain.
When I started this blog, I had a burning desire to do something new and all I knew was that I just didn’t want that fire to die. So I just started. And even though it’s not some major sensational success just yet, I felt, from my very first post, that something inside me shifted. I am changed and I have no intention of turning back. I realize now that as I am molding my dreams, my dreams are molding me.
Let’s make 2019 #20ShineTeen #20FineTeen #20MineTeen. (We’ll work on the hashtags but you get the point.) Whoever you are, whatever you do, take control of your life. Take the lessons you’ve learned this year and make next year the best ever. Let the miseducated rise and grind.
Miss Education JA 