Teaching

After 40 years working in international business and on retirement, I started teaching in Asia courses related to business, environmental science and English. Although I have a degree from Cambridge taken in 1958, I have tended to assume that since this was 50 years ago, that qualification must have very little relevance or meaning to 2007 conditions. However that is not the way academia works, and it seems to be the case that a teacher with a PhD is supposed to be a better teacher than a mere BA. I do not see myself why a good teacher has to have a high academic honour! And that may explain why education is not entirely well-thought of! Does possession of a piece of parchment really demonstrate teaching ability?

In fact I have studied Medieval History and Theology more than science over the last 50 years: But no! My ability to teach was indeed measured on an exam that I had taken half a century ago - almost as if nothing I had done since was worth very much! It also seems to be the case that a degree from Cambridge somewhat outweighed any paltry English qualification! It is odd that I took a degree in sciences, which might suggest to some I cannot write English well. I think I can! The overall, result is that I teach, but not in the UK where I suppose the standard of teaching must by now be of a very high standard!

About ten years ago for fun in Riyadh, I took a theoretical course in teaching English from a Scottish college and passed with an 'A' grade. They liked the philosophical content of my essays! Subsequently I failed in 2001 a practical course on teaching English in Brighton, which was very far from being academic. It was slightly annoying to be told that my English was archaic and that the use of 'whom' was obsolescent. More lately I see that the Americans still teach the use of 'whom'!

I also have the impression that I would not be allowed to teach in the United Kingdom as I do not have a Bachelor of Education degree! This is all the more puzzling when one reads that many undergraduates at University in the UK cannot read or write well. I think I could teach almost anyone to read and write given ten years to do so, but I am told that might be forbidden as my methods might be out of date or even cruel!

To be fair, it has taken me five years to learn how to teach. At the beginning I just lectured and told my students what I knew. Five years later, I try and get the students to learn by doing - a distinct change from merely purveying knowledge. Nevertheless, there does seem to me to be a tendency in the teaching world to aim for passing exams and getting a piece of parchment showing that one has a degree. What happens to a graduate beyond the age of 23 seems of little interest to the teaching profession. I noticed in my 50 year career when nterviewing new young employees that I took a degree as evidence of a smattering of intelligence and not much more. Their overall performance in work was a combination of many other skills; some of which are social, diplomatic and political - not academic or technical - and always related to an ability to communicate whether by writing or by speaking.

Teaching also seemed to have rules! Appearance often seemed more important than intellectual ability. I am not too sure that our best brains care much for mere appearances, but I suppose we are training most of the population to obey orders and to be socially/politically correct.

There seems to be a hierarchy in teaching - professors, deans, faculty, academics, tenure - fearsome words which at first rather intimidated me. Words from the distant past when academic authority was to be feared came back to haunt me. I have never been very good at obeying orders from on high and found much in teaching that might not help students - and they knew it. There does seem to be a gap between people who do practical things and people who teach! I hear in the UK that the teaching profession is chiefly in the hands of women these days and that this is producing a generation of boys who see themselves as inferior. All my teachers at school were men! Does that make a difference. I can see it may do.

It is odd to be teaching business courses after I have retired. What was it I knew for a business career og 40 years that I had no written qualifications for? The perception of the business world as to what is needed for a successful career may be rather different from a dry academic approach.

Teaching English brings one to the threshold of what is politically correct and what discrimination means! I am told a have a clear speaking voice employing the accents of southern England - the only place in the world where I shall/we shall is used instead of I will/we will! Many seem to like the accent which is often better recognised in Pakistan, India, Hong Kong and Malaysia than in England these days. I have Chinese students who deliberately want a British accent instead of an American one. When some UK English teachers are teaching the accent of Newcastle, Liverpool and the East End of London instead of the Queen's English, we begin to get into problem areas. I am always surprised how many foreigners are employed by the BBC and CNN who speak a British English when American ought presumambly be the dominant accent. I teach British English too but I hope with a sense of humour that recognises the cultural differences!

So perhaps what I am saying is that the world is full of wonderfully skilled people who don't possess parchments that confirm they have degrees. These I see as merely a ticket to get on the fast train of life. Education should be honoured for making us civilised and much less related to what money we can earn.