Stuart Middleton: Why shapers of young lives are in a class of their own

COMMENT


This could be a good year. A teacher, Graham Henry, will be coaching the All Blacks. The Silver Ferns continue under the guidance of a teacher, Ruth Aitken. And it is reasonable to expect the Warriors and the Kiwis to do well again with their teacher, Daniel Anderson.

This might also be the year during which New Zealand as a nation rediscovers its respect for teachers and all that they do. For there does seem to be some truth in Jacques Barzun's sad conclusion that teaching is not a lost art, but the regard for it is a lost tradition.

It seems to have become fashionable among business leaders and talkback hosts, and around the barbecues on sultry summer evenings, to denigrate the value of one's schooling and the contribution of teachers to it.

Such bravado is strange. While there has possibly been a strand of anti-intellectualism running through the New Zealand character, it seems simply silly to assert that one's schooling had little bearing on later success.

Being proud of having been a naughty and unco-operative student (as several business leaders recently were) or of having learned nothing at school, reveals little of what happened back then but a lot about attitudes now.

An incessant catalogue of the faults of teachers (which characterises most talkback radio discussions of education) does nothing to encourage the young.

How can current students approach school with the eager enthusiasm that comes naturally to the young when leaders are persistently painting schools and schooling in a bad light?

When I went to school there was little distance between home and school, or between business and civic leaders and the education system, when it came to asserting the importance of schools and schooling and, it follows, of teachers.

Trouble at school inevitably meant trouble at home. Schools and teachers were valued and the government and the community were in agreement on this.

There was a realisation that precious little happens in a school that isn't initiated, supported or sustained by teachers. How many of us were introduced to activities, sports, cultural pursuits and such like by a teacher prepared to give up a bit of time after school or at the weekend?

When we look back to our own schooling, it is not the school I remember but the teachers - some were great, others were characters. We knew who the good ones were. And it doesn't take much prompting to get people to talk about the teacher that made a difference to their life.

A huge number of the New Zealand artistic community - painters, writers, musicians - started their working lives as teachers. So did clerics, museum directors, television personnel and, yes, business leaders. To dismiss teachers is to denigrate a very wide slice of the New Zealand community.

Historically in New Zealand the route to many careers was through teachers' colleges and teaching. This was in part because university back then was the preserve of students pursuing high-level qualifications and the careers that then flowed from them.

Teaching (and nursing, too, for that matter) was an alternative track for school-leavers. It provided, in those days, a continued liberal education which in turn became the basis for the development of skills and abilities in many diverse areas.

Of course, supporting teachers does not mean that we ignore the considerable challenges that education and schools face, and the importance of raising achievement levels at primary and secondary schools.

It doesn't mean uncritically accepting all that goes on in schools. But it does mean presenting a positive and enthusiastic picture of teachers and schools to our young people.

Let's value our teachers. In doing so we demonstrate that we value teaching and learning, schools and schooling. Can we expect our young people to do this if we don't?

* Dr Stuart Middleton is Executive Director, Student Affairs at Manukau Institute of Technology and chairs the City of Manukau Education Trust.