Millennials and Gen Z readers, bear with me, OK? I promise this is not about Tina Turner or that song with the same title.
“Employees who felt they worked in a loving, caring culture reported higher levels of satisfaction and teamwork. They showed up to work more often.” That’s the result of Harvard Business Review’s research titled “What’s Love Got to Do With It?: The Influence of a Culture of Companionate Love in the Long-term Care Setting.”
In these crazy pandemic times, the world is still suffering as COVID-19 now has 30+ million cases globally as of September 19, 2020. That means work from home is still the way we do work in most places. Can you just imagine how difficult the adjustment is for our teachers who are not “digital natives” like the millennials and Gen Z people?
All of a sudden most of our teachers need to learn how to use Zoom, Google Classroom, Skype, etc. to conduct their classes. This is especially true in third world countries like the Philippines where the internet speed is the slowest in the Asian region. “The global average internet connection speed is 7.2 Mbps, but the Philippines falls short with an average of 5.5 Mbps.”
This also means that the Philippine government does not have enough funds to provide a proper platform of “study at home” education for its citizens. But still, our beloved teachers are doing their very best to rise up to the challenge of our really difficult times, even as they struggle to adjust to the new normal.
One thing I can assure you, it’s not money or the perks that motivate our teachers to do all the things that are already way beyond their call of duty. In 2019, it was reported that Philippine teachers’ salary is way below Asean average.
The thing that drives our teachers to wake up each day ready to work at home to teach their digital classes, even if they’re ill-equipped to do it, is that thing called love. They love their jobs so much that even if it’s already hard for them to learn new technology at their age, they still go through the pains to learn them.
It’s their love for their calling and their students that made:
- Teacher Modesto to appeal to public to donate unused smart phones to poor students.
- A teacher in Ilocos Sur climbed a mountain to get Wi-Fi signal and enroll students online
- A teacher went viral after giving these simple treats to her students with honor
I’m sure this is not only true in the Philippines but also in other parts of the world.
Our teachers are doing their best to give students the best kind of education they could get despite the challenges brought about by this global pandemic.
Dear reader, if you are a government official, a school leader, or a parent who has children studying, please give our teachers the support that they need at these trying times.
Maybe it’s time we also give back some love to them who have given so much of their lives to advance humanity’s future in the lives of our children.