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Wednesday, March 9, 2011

What is the ratio?

Today as I waited to give report before leaving work, a certain someone showed up lamenting about budget cuts and how Teachers are losing their jobs. I was very sad and a little amused at the same time. I think Teachers deserve better and should not have to lose their jobs in order for someone's budget quota to be met but the thing is, a lot of people suffer this kind of injustice in their owrk place day in and day out.

The said person kept going on and on about how they want teachers to teach a class of 60 kids! Now I had to pause and munch on this for a minute because growing up, some of my classes were bigger than 60 and some of theses folks from these classess of 60 are some of the most brilliant people I have ever met. She went on to talk about how the level of education will drop etc. Maybe the so called developed countries can learn a thing or two from the "developing" countries when it comes to what makes these huge classes work. Perhaps because of the large sizes, no one has the time to lable us as bipolar, ADD, ADHD and whatever alphabets there are and so we are saved from the stigma at such an early age.

I have not conducted any research into how the student teacher ratio affects the learning habits or the intellect of young minds yet but if all humans are considered "almost" equal, then dear readers, as a person from the so called "developing" country, I have been done a great disservice and my education has surely been in vain. Maybe it did teach me to pay better attention in class so that I would not be lost in the crowd. Perhaps it did teach me a thing or two about disciplining myself and holding myself to a certain standard so that I do not fall into the bottom third or two thirds of the class.

I am not saying that the workload is easy or that it is justifiable to put these teachers in these situations. I am just peeved that anyone can suggest that a teachers ability to motivate or encourage students to learn will diminish depending on the class size. Oh well, once again, my opinion ;p