Excerpt XXV from Moral Goodness In Our Life-time, By Pastor Ajayi James B. C.
The builder of this bridge is the teacher.If he uses moral goodness in his construction,he passes on a virtuous and virile hybrid of adults to govern the nation.If he neglects his moral duties to his students,he does an incalculable damage to the nation and the future generations of the people.
A teacher would have failed woefully in his duties if his students scored “A’s” in all other subjects taught but failed in the tie-breaker subject of Moral Goodness. There should be oral tests to be conducted on Moral Goodness as it is done in foreign languages so as to expose not only the cheats in those written tests but to shame their collaborating teachers as well.
We cannot correct evil with evil. Such teachers would have succeeded in breeding more villains to run and ruin the nation economically, socially and spiritually. That is why any teacher aiding and abetting commission of evil in any form or way should be given the stiffest penalty in the nation’s law books.
The influence of the teacher on a student is as strong as that of the parent on the child.The examples of the teacher as well as the quality and quantity of his speech often form permanent impressions on the mind of the student.Many a time nicknames given to teachers are often derived from the former’s habits and mannerisms.Worse still, the students imitate those mannerisms which may include derogatory remarks and unwholesome manner of dressing, speaking and walking.
In the course of such imitation, students subconsciously acquire the same bad habits.In my own secondary school days, a teacher used to pronounce the word “caution” as “cousin.” Now he is a big lawyer and Senior Advocate Of Nigeria (SAN). I still remember today after fifty years other teachers with even much worse mannerisms and phonetics. A child’s memory is a life-time memory, at least until senility sets in.
2.2.1 MANAGEMENT OF SELF.
Proper management of self is a pre-requisite to successful class management or students’ administration. A teacher who…(TO BE CONTINUED IN EXCERPT XXVI)
LEGENDARY QUOTES: “GIVE ME A FISH AND I EAT FOR A DAY. TEACH ME TO FISH AND I EAT FOR LIFE.” – Chinese proverb.
“A TEACHER AFFECTS ETERNITY; HE CAN NEVER TELL WHERE HIS INFLUENCE ENDS.” – Henry Brooks Adams.
