She walks into my class with her granddaughter, and after signalling her to her desk she came to me, "Sir, good morning. Please I want you to take care of my child and I will reward you." Of course, she did not say this in English but Twi, that morning she got me a bottle of Malt. Right after the words came out of her mouth, I'm sure I SCREAMED in my head. "WHAT? Am I the one to raise your child? I came to work, not to babysit!"
I did not like that grandma came to my class to tell me to raise her grandchild in a classroom. Some of you reading this might say, no," she did not say you should raise her grandchild, she was saying to keep eyes on her". Well, continue reading... There were about 30 students in my class at the time. Averagely, there are about 20 students in a class. Being employed as a teacher came with the responsibility of making sure all students in my class felt safe. Every teacher can do that, some do try their best. The thing here is that I have been a student and 90% of you reading this have been too (especially in a classroom setting).
Parents (not all of them) tend to dump their children off in school wanting their children to come back reformed. It rarely happens. Most parents see teachers as some "step-parent" to raise us(their children) right. A child goes wayward and they blame the school. A child fails in class every term and the teacher is blamed. The homework of the child is not done and the teacher takes the hit. What happened to parenting in the 20th century? Did things change?
Am I attacking the school system? Not at all. I'm saying parents should have time for their children and raise them. "What if both parents work from 9 to 5?" Do you mean to say to me, Abena, that the parents see their work to be of much value than their own baby or babies? I wouldn't be shocked if Abena answers "yes" to that, after all, it's 2021.
Most of us had rough childhoods. Most of you reading this came from a broken home or a home without a father which is none of your faults, relax. We were put in the school system because our parents were convinced that without degrees, it's impossible to have wealth, basically. That's the major reason why people go to school. Yet, I've got a question. Children who do some of the very bad things did not learn them from their parents but the school system. How can I say this? Well, because, that child spends more time in the school than with his or her parents.
She had her first sex in the dormitory! Kojo smoked his first weed in the bush close to the canteen! Sule got exposed to pornography in primary school. Most of you can attest to the fact that you learnt some bad things in school. Yes, some bad things can still be adopted from the home environment, but how far can one go if they are carefully supervised by their parents?
The problem here is that children are not being parented! Children are not guided in the school system. Lots of logarithms, fractions and photosynthesis and nothing on family and responsibility. Boys and girls looking forward to being parents. Know this. Teachers will come to teach your children what they've been told by their superiors (the education service) to teach, nothing more. Truth be told, they do not have time for any child. There are lots of students in a class. We've all been students in such a setting. Answer me this, do children with some disabilities get special treatment?
Your child should be special to you. Your child should be your treasure. The teacher came to work. He came to a job. He wants to be paid. He will go on a strike when he is not paid, then who educates your child? When a child goes wayward, the parents say," this is not how we raised him or her", true! Because you did not raise him or her, the school did. And what did you do? How did you treat your home?
You treated it like some motel where you only came to sleep.
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