I was told of a mechanic who specialized in Mercedes Benz and worked for close to 10 years in a Company. This man was not a first-class material but well qualified for the job. He once made a mistake and stole some spare parts but got caught.
He accepted the mistake and accepted to pay back. This man was liked by many clients because he handled his work with a high sense of responsibility. However, the manager could not keep him around, so, he got dismissed. A new mechanic was brought to replace him. He knew his work way too well and highly gifted. He lacked personal responsibility… It does not matter how much you know if you fail at the details that matter, your skills, and talent would be wasted…
The growth of our learners requires a teacher who has the authority to guide, freedom-giving to allow creativity, and with a practical approach for development. A teacher must know the task that lies before him. Jansen (2008) suggests that the best teacher teaches the skills he/she expects his pupils to emulate by living them. We teachers, therefore, have the role of developing a total person who has direction in life. According to Chirwa (2009), Peterson (2008) and Krilik (2008), life skills teaching is different from the teaching of other subjects because it deals with values and virtues which are best taught by living them. Two values come into my mind that every family or school should nurture in all learners if they are to be successful in life. In the first place, a high sense of responsibility and the second, the right attitude to work remain the key values that provide the foundation for academic excellence and societal development.
A healthy life in any family, school, training colleges, and universities that will transform a learner or community will have to consider inculcating a high sense of responsibility into the developing person. Self-educating is more transforming than lectures. And this is a fruit of work that instills in a learner a feeling that all depends on him/her; thus, responsibility. It is what compels us to creativity, innovation, quality, output, timeline or deadlines, ethics and so on. A well-trained young boy or girl must join the job market with knowledge that it is up to him/her to bring the difference in society. I use far less than 5% of what I was taught in class for livelihood. The high sense of responsibility takes you where grades may not reach. If your staff get to know that no one will do his/her job, then the company will make more proceeds than before. Unfortunately, this value cannot be acquired by lectures, preaching, workshops, refresher courses, and retooling. We are trained from home and school to be responsible and to take a lead in our occupations. It is important to train learners to be initiators other than imitators to stand out in the job market.
I was told of a mechanic who specialized in Mercedes Benz and worked for close to 10 years in a Company. This man was not a first-class material but well qualified for the job. He once made a mistake and stole some spare parts but got caught.
He accepted the mistake and accepted to pay back. This man was liked by many clients because he handled his work with a high sense of responsibility. However, the manager could not keep him around, so, he got dismissed. A new mechanic was brought to replace him. He knew his work way too well and highly gifted.
However, many clients began to complain and it was brought to the attention of the MD. Some clients left. The company could not cope with the generated income and sometimes loses because of the reduced number of clients. The manager discovered that the new man was not time conscious, opted for easier tasks and avoided difficult ones, he never cared about the details of his work. The clients demanded that the former mechanic be brought back even when they knew what he had done. The company was forced to call back the man who had made a grave mistake because his high sense of responsibility made the difference in his work. He attracted clients to the company and was the invisible pillar of the company.
The MD got to know his value in his absence.
Personal responsibility transforms and creates a difference among workers. It is the main function of a responsible teacher and parent. Namilyango College imprints at the back of every learner ‘Education for Responsibility’- Nisi Dominus. And that is the school motto.
Ngonians know that education for responsibility is what makes the difference.
Those who miss this value at home, school, training colleges or universities are at the receiving end of the society. A responsible community or teacher has to make it known to the young person to feel that all depends on him/her. Problems at home or places of work or society do not go away. They must be solved and that demands a great deal of one’s time and energy. Students ‘drilled’ for 12 hours daily because the school must be among the best in the country may not go far with life. Providing handouts with no research work, equipping learners with UNEB question banks, and summoning several experts to give talks is simply rote education and does not transform life. It will only train a dependent at home, at places of work, and society. Nowadays, many schools, training colleges, universities, and homes are too structured that we give the children virtually everything.
There is no room for creativity because there is no freedom. The young person will, therefore, take it as our responsibility, not theirs to study because we are fully involved in their life. To avoid the risk of ‘failing’, teachers run a risk of ‘walking the day to day life’ of the young person. Where there is no risk, there is no growth. Free and open people are growing people. Learners are trained to be imitators and not initiators. The young person must, therefore, be given frequent tasks to accomplish that makes them learn the value of being responsible. We must take the risk and not succumb to the fear of not making mistakes. We need to teach the learners to be in the driver’s seat.
Written by Prof. Patrick Ogwok, edited by Mustapha B Mugisa.
Copyright Mustapha B Mugisa, All rights reserved
