We spend hours of our lives within the walls of the educational institutions in which we work. That is, yes, the trust that we have chosen to carry is heavy, but the memory is full of what we have to tell this world. In every department in which we happen to teach our students, there are many stories that deserve to be told; Words we said, moments of joy that we happened to live, and other very difficult moments passed and passed, shocks and clashes, people we knew, people we parted with, people we disappointed in, and others we found opposite our bad thoughts of them. Indeed, everyone who said and affirmed that education is not just a job has believed.
Education is really not just a job, education is a self-contained life, ages pass there, and events take place there. Bells are ringing announcing the end of certain educational classes, and the beginning of other educational classes, tears, victories, suspicious silence, resounding smiles, chewed voices, and others are heard in spite of everything and anything.
Whoever enters the field of education and knows it is not like someone who hears about it. There are women and men alike, who cannot bear the screams of their children and the pleasures of their livers for a few minutes. their homes. The professor is a professor in his department and the educational institution in which he works. He is also a professor at certain times in his home. Educational notes besiege him even when he wants to sleep, papers for assignments and tests awaiting correction, and before that preparing topics for lessons, and topics for expressions if he is teaching languages.
Education is a reality that does not resemble anything but itself, with successive chapters, reflecting reality in all its details. Features of familiar and unfamiliar faces, different mentalities, the names of those and those and their aspirations, what they say in public, and what they say in low voices in secret. Education is another world, its main protagonists know it as it should, and each of them has something to recount if he had the opportunity to do so, or perhaps if he had the desire to make him think of doing so! Here in our world in the field of education, people meet almost every morning or evening to accomplish what is required of them. Success is possible, of course, and failure is also possible, but there is no way to stop. The field in which I work is continuous as life, continuous and uninterrupted, not because of the absence of so-and-so or the illness of so-and-so, or the death of this or that. Even if we claim that it is only part of our lives, it is a whirlpool that sometimes distances us from it, to bring us back humbly to its bosom.
Some of you may be wondering what next? In other words, should some of them, for example, flee from this sector, in order to live and not chew their lives silently between the walls of the departments of certain educational institutions? Of course not, I do not mean that, and what the Gentiles understand depends on their understanding and not on what I said. And I gladly admit, in spite of anything and everything, that education is a unique, wonderful, and enjoyable experience, enjoyable to a large extent, and personally I learned a lot from it, and I learned in it what I did not imagine that I would know through it, and I was happy to delve into it, but on the other hand, I imagine that most of those who work are teachers, They have an overwhelming desire from time to time, to move, after a certain period, to administrative work, or perhaps to another sector. The matter is not an escape from professorship, or contempt for it, as much as it is an escape from getting used to it, which over the years will turn into a gradual extinction, and complete self-denial. This does not mean that the tasks of the administrator are easy, on the contrary, at least the function of the latter exempts him from talking continuously, without stopping; Exempting him from pretending that he is in good condition while carrying out his duties, even if he is not.
In short, education is a very great friend, but I find it logical that there comes a time when those who have truly and truly befriended him think of separating from him at once. In this regard, I recall what was stated in the immortal masterpiece of Nikos Kazantzakis, the novel “Zorba the Greek”: “How bitter it is to slowly separate from great friends! It is better to separate from them at once.” The meaning is that education needs us for its sake more than we need it for our own sake, and therefore we often have to be so that it is, not to be us. Of course, in other countries, things may be different, but despite this, the love of most students for their teachers, their sincere gratitude to them, and their appreciation for any effort they make to benefit them make it easy for them to what God alone knows. And because the people of Makkah know best about its paths, as it is said, it is not a shame for any professor to think of moving to administrative work or promoting with the passage of a handful of years, to enjoy hours of silence during his work, as rest in administrative work is excluded for those who work conscientiously, but as I imagine, their work does not require talking in Most of the time, as is the case with professors, of course in light of the work approach with competencies, the educational process does not depend on indoctrination, but the professor despite that, cannot proceed with his lesson without speaking, and that is what makes any sane person in certain situations think about changing and changing the job I don’t mean leave it here, let’s agree on this point.
And what I said remains just a fleeting blip, and my opinion may change with the passage of days, as things seem clearer by trying them more, not just by talking about them.
Fayrouz Sharif / Arabic language teacher – Algeria
