Tuesday 16 December 2014

Teachers Need to Keep their Work at School




Teachers in Jamaica, no matter what level, have a high sense of commitment to their work which is seen throughout all levels of education.  However, those who are from the primary level tend to be over worked thus not having insufficient time in marking assignments.  One of the remedies that this set of teachers made in the turnover of marking papers is to carry the students' work home.


This in itself has always been a bad idea because not only that marking at home takes away contact time from their children but interferes with the social and physical relationship with their spouses.  At times, the partners complain bitterly to their friends about not being able to sleep in their beds in peace, while their spouses mark piles of books in their matrimonial bed.  When emotions get high children and neighbours become audience to quarrels and fights because one spouse complains to the other about not having the intimate services of their teaching partners.



I believe that these teachers need to be more considerate not only to their families, but to themselves.  It is unfair to carry home the stresses of work home, but most unfair to carry the world of fingered books into their beds.  If books could tell the roads they have travelled, the skin would crawl and disinfectants would cleanse the invisible visitors that attach themselves to each book that comes from different homes!  Teachers, over the years have put their families at great health risk when they carry the students' works at home.  It is time teachers put a stop to this practice and manage their time better at work.


Even if the work should be brought home, it is with great wisdom that the students' books/papers should be placed in a work/study area and not in their bedrooms.  Too many times family relationships become strained due to the dedication of the teaching parent.  True teachers always put in the extra mile to ensure that their students get back their marked work on time for them to see how well they have done or how to improve on their learning. Unfortunately, this kind of loyalty always comes with a cost when it is not managed well.


It is best that teachers find and develop additional kinds of summative assessment  for their students and spend more time at  home focusing on fulfilling their roles as good parents and partners  to their own families.




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