Should One Know Everything? Part 1

Star Q

i.  Beef Dendeng

ii.  Pre-U Raya Open House

Image sourced from Google

A small minority (double stress) of the public has urged that teachers should be able to teach or knowledgeable in more than one subject!  It pains them so much to see teachers only teaching one subject and then (they claim!) are totally oblivious on how to teach other subjects!

There are two responses to this predicament.  One, the teacher should teach only one subject; and in that subject the teacher should be well-versed and knowledgeable to the point of being a referral either to his (or her) colleagues or students.  By this I mean that, when anything about the particular subject is queried upon, the answer is almost immediately (or referred) obtained and satisfactory.

The second response to this is that, teachers can actually teach more than one subject; that is why in universities they are given a major and minor subject.  In one example, a teacher majoring in teaching English (be they TESOL, TESL or Linguistic majors, to state some examples) are offered to teach Geography as the minor.  Even though the second subject is the minor, the teacher is also required to be well-versed in that particular subject.

However, the present trend in the education system is such that, teachers teaching examination subjects are usually required to teach and focus on that one particular exam subject.  If (and when) the teacher is asked to teach a second subject, the subject is usually a non-examination one like Physical Education for example.

Having said that, on a more personal note, I have had the experience (and pleasure) of teaching two examination subjects (eons ago!) and have found that I managed to do so (my ex-students can attest to this!)  The only difference then, is that teachers teaching two examination subjects (and other teachers for that matter!) were only required to teach (stressing on the words 'to teach'!)  Thus, even though the burden is there, the stress isn't.

So, to answer the question of 'Should a teacher know how to teach more than one (examination) subject?'   I respond with a sounding 'Yes', but only if (like eons ago!) a teacher is only required to 'teach'!  After all, the root word for teacher is teach!