Saluting the teachers of Uganda on National Teachers’ Day

By Rwamahe Frederick,

Teacher by Profession,

A day like this is a day to reflect, jot down our blessings one by one, our pride, our joy, our achievements, and our efforts – the pride of a teacher. A teacher is not just a parent, a mentor, a coach, a role model, a builder, a moulder, and a co-creator. A teacher is a builder, not a builder of buildings, but a builder of people, from one level to another, building a person metaphorically!

Who has never passed through the lovely hands of a teacher? Who doesn’t remember a teacher struggling on the chalkboard, luring you to write “aeiou,” holding your fumbling hand with love, and sometimes slapping you on the shoulder to write well, but not volongoto, sometimes pulling your hair to align your discipline? Yes, the Bible says, “Spare the rod and spoil the child,” while the government says the rods (punishments) are abolished, and western says, “If you want peace, prepare for war.” Now, which way should teachers in Uganda go? Let’s maintain a stick-and-carrot approach, for active teaching and learning, for we understand a child better than anyone else.

The teacher, the architect of a child’s growth and development, traverses the complexities and intricacies of trust and mistrust, shame and doubt, integrity versus despair, social interaction versus cultural context for cognitive development, from the oral to the analytical until you become a complete human being. Teachers spend sleepless nights comparing Montessori, Erikson, and Sigmund; realism to idealism. Whoever missed out on these lovely teachings is grappling with fixation in society and is behaving like a ship without a compass at an old age, repeating errors of a toddler.

Teacher, you have shaped society and enabled steady progress. Teacher, you’re an innovator; you have handled every difficult situation with a smile. You have been slapped on one cheek, but instead of revenge, you have offered another cheek to an enemy so that peace prevails. Teacher, you’re a hero!!! You have many a time slept on an empty stomach, sometimes gone to class with shoes whose soles are halfway gone, and You’re named Fish,Kigeeto,Kisweeta, Amoeba, – it’s ridiculous, painful and shameful. As if this weren’t enough, you have been pulled forcefully outside the classroom by bankers because you have multiple borrowings in an attempt to answer great questions of scarcity versus choice to opportunity cost.

Teacher, teaching children of others while your own children are at home due to lack of school fees, crying, and you must love other people’s children more than yours faithfully, though you hear the discord voices of your children at home haunting you – it is painful and shameful, like swallowing a bitter pill! Teacher, you’re a patriot.

Teacher, what offense did you commit to deserve such rejection? Used like ladders and discarded in the mud after achieving their goals. Forgotten quickly like a mist. Today, you have even been divided into Great Teachers of Science and Poor Teachers of Arts! What offense did you commit on this planet earth? Are you the one who killed Jesus Christ?! Yes, being a teacher means you will be judged with scrutiny and higher judgment, with more punishments than others, whether corporal punishments – punitive or remedial – James 3:1.

On this National Teachers’ Day, reflect on all the good practices you have done. And thank yourself like Mr Lizard.Don’t read the book of Lamentations; read the book of Acts(actions).Be happy as you marvel at why these things are happening the way they are. Get a cup of African coffee if you can afford and drink, as you prepare schemes of work and lesson plans, and as you prepare for marathon teaching with compensation after the industrial action, and be happy.

“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”

I am proud to be a teacher!

fridayrwamahe@gmail.com