This may be a wrong thought of a cool teacher

What does being cool mean? One of the answers I find cool in Quora.com is that being cool means having a certain style --not the fashionable or popular style, but a style of your own, not just in fashion, but your attitude(s) in all aspect of life.

As an educator who is not an Education grad, I have this tendency to be cool in my classes, not the typical one that we see in movies who wears a loose shirt, ripped jeans, chews gum in his mouth, and crosses his legs on his desk while sitting in front of students. I am not that kind of kid. I am cool in a way that I can discipline a student by just talking to him/her alone after the class without calling the attention while I’m talking in front. I am cool by accepting that each student needs different treatment to learn. I am cool not to believe that being a terror in the student’s description, or by having a lot of academic achievements guarantee someone as the best teacher. I am cool to believe that learning takes time. Lastly, I’m cool that we are now in the 21st century doesn’t mean everything in education has to be modernized and accredited, especially in private schools, so as to make a good market both local and international. If that defines what is best in education then, for me, we are teaching students to seek for truth in a relative way.

Are we now doing education depending on what is the trend in technology? Most educators believe that 21st-century learners are predetermined to a life with technology, social media, programs, internet, or applications. We believe that this is the truth of the Gen Z people, we, therefore, go with them and give the tasks based on what this age likes to do. There are classes in a classroom and sometimes online too. Projects are now also getting trend online; video film, music editing, application, etc. But the crucial thing here is all the eight or ten subjects are doing the same as per required by a school head(s) to make the school suitable to what we believe to be a demand of the 21st century. Perhaps, many would see this as a practical way to implement outcome-based education but how I wish the school is also considering a real encounter with human beings and not with robots. We need young learners today who are more intelligent by emotion not only competitive learners who are relatively intelligent by their own reason.

I am not criticizing the whole of education or even all private schools. The advent of technology is not wrong. It promotes advancement, linkages, or innovation. But are we now doing education based on what is the trend in technology? This opinion is formed because of a situation and a system of a particular school which could seemingly be true to other private schools.

As a cool teacher, I only have two things in mind either to try to criticize some walls of education when it comes to advancement, particularly in private sectors which strive to level up, that box the teaching-learning way in education or to accept the fact that there is no room for a cool teacher like me; therefore, I better get myself a drink and stay wondering how could today’s education possibly produce true and traditional leaders for the nation who consider the value of life and not just the progress that may also lead to what is politically known as corruption, mass destruction, and mass extinction. This may be a wrong thought of a cool teacher.

Edmer John Caballes

Cebu City