Workers Day (or May Day) began in what many would consider an unlikely place: the United States. Led by Philadelphian carpenters all the way back in 1791, the original struggle was for a 10-hour working day.
It took another 50 years or so before an eight-hour working day was won overseas, and it’s been a fraught and convoluted process since then to secure the rights of workers and regulate acceptable norms in their places of work.
Now that many of these battles have been won, Workers Day has also become a day to celebrate the contribution of workers to society. In South Africa today, the Constitution and legislation protect the rights of workers.
Easy enough it may be to state in law that every educator should have a shelter to teach under and textbooks to guide their learners. But many still struggle to fulfil their professional obligations under a tree not knowing whether or not they will be paid their salaries at the end of the month.
But beyond the issues of material support, the aspect of teaching that falls like quicksilver before policy and law is this: passion. For how do you legislate that every ‘worker†who occupies the position of teacher carries out the enormous responsibilities with the commitment of someone who sees this job as a ‘callingâ€?
Basically, it gets down to the notion of your work as a job and your work as something profoundly meaningful. Educators are in the business of moulding and inspiring people, giving glimpses to the world of knowledge and skill that open up horizons not yet dreamed.
In some ways the qualities of passion, love and a spark for the vocation, can’t be taught. But perhaps there are processes that encourage it. The Development and Appraisal System is one such process, for it’s all about empowering educators to improve their practice. Perhaps this acknowledgement of the value of their endeavour as teachers will provide the levels of confidence and inspiration that can change a worker-bee into a teacher who believes their pursuit is a calling.
The work of an educator has long been derided. Take this comment, made by the maverick writer Oscar Wilde all the way back in the late 19th century:
‘Those who can, do —
those who can’t, teach.â€
If he’s right, then we should change the name of this publication to the Loser. We can write advice columns on the art of dodging to shebeens without being detected, and draw out the learning outcomes you can hide behind to justify a week lying around in the sun, smoke-and-mirror approaches to pretending your time with learners is anything more than just waiting for the bell that rings for home time.
But ultimately there’s no doubt that civilisations are built or otherwise on the strength of these workers — educators. So we’ll stick instead to the name that rings with purpose and pride: the Teacher.
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