Teaching and elitism

(Elite Teachers Supply would probably be a rather unfortunate name for a Singaporean company)

Reading the blog post From an elite school really stirred a chord in me. I’ve been recently thinking on a similar issue myself – I am currently teaching in an ‘elite school’, and have had a fairly ‘elite’ educational background all my life. If I were to be posted to a neighbourhood school to teach, would I be able to handle it? Would I be happy there?

It bothers me the amount of criticism the beginning teacher is receiving, since I can see where he is coming from. Teaching at a neighbourhood school and an ‘elite school’ is a different ballgame altogether, with a greater emphasis on classroom control and pastoral care in the former, and a somewhat more academic focus for the latter. I find it quite understandable for a teacher to prefer one over the other, and his statement didn’t seem particularly judgemental to me – “我是XX初院出身的，不能适应这种环境。” I am from XX Junior College, I would not be able to adapt to such an environment (of course, the printed word fails to convey tone, so I can’t judge if he was indeed being condescending with that statement, but that’s probably beyond the scope of this entry).

So I have been thinking about this issue recently, and I think that if I do intend to stay in education for the long-term, a stint in a neighbourhood school will certainly be a good experience for me, at least to better understand what happens at other schools that I am less familiar with. However, I do have reservations about being unable to connect with the students, and being rather frustrated at the nature of teaching I might need to focus on (e.g. pure drilling for the O-levels). Even on the pastoral side of things, would I really be able to offer much for the students? Would I be able to advise them if they are embroiled in gang problems, for example?

Although it would probably be a beneficial learning experience for me, would it be a beneficial learning experience for my students?

If a teacher’s personal interest and aptitude do not tally with his assigned posting, I think perhaps the blogosphere should avoid such harsh judgement when he expresses his preferences. Somehow I suspect if it’d been a non-’elite’ teacher expressing his personal preferences, the responses would have been much less harsh.