The ManicaPost
Morris Mtisi
PSYCHOLOGISTS say: ‘every picture tells a story.’
Rod Stewart made a hit song with that title many years ago. Journalists say: ‘One picture speaks more than a thousand words.” How true all that is!
We are talking about this week’s picture. Look at the speaker….look at the listeners, carefully. I said very carefully.
Two weeks ago I quoted Marianne Williamson: “People hear you on the level you speak to them from. Speak from your heart, and they will hear with theirs.”
Emphasising a concoction of sardonic humour, facts and public speaking prowess, Morris Mtisi addressed not only senior students, but teaching staff as well. The above picture illustrates the power of speaking from your heart. (Not motivational speaking).
The first principle of good public speaking is to respect your listeners. They must not only be sure you have respect for them. They must believe you. Then, second, they want to trust what you are saying is true; it’s coming from your personal experience, not educational books and the whole paraphernalia of ‘motivation’ authors who themselves copy other authors who copied from those who were also copied from.
Listeners want to relate to you in a certain way. They want to believe what you are telling them. Charm them with truth. Facts of life supported by experience. Don’t tell listeners your dreams and visions. Speak to allow them to think and choose.
Don’t lie to them they are ‘diamonds’ when they know they are charcoal-but charcoal that ignites minds and little brains. Don’t tell lies that living people are saints, saints are angels and angels are God. There is nothing like that-not even on the minds of dreamers and wishful thinkers.
Listeners want you to touch them where it matters. The charm of the spoken word is in the truthful resonance it makes in the heart first, and then mind of the listener.
A good public speaker speaks ideas, not people; analyse and criticise ideas, not people.
Of course, many people feel personally attacked or condemned once they are guilty they could be the subject of public speaking. That is natural. That is human. No one can do anything about this guilty conscience and fear of the unknown.
It happens even in churches where those with long noses always think the Bible or the preacher is referring to their successes or failures. If an idea stabs your guilty conscience; don’t blame the speaker. Blame the message-the idea, not the messenger.
Academia is full of agreements and disagreements. These are not personal battles. They are intellectual diversities. And that is very healthy to the open-minded people whose brains function like an umbrella which is only useful when it is open.
I talked about a good public speaker respecting his or her audience. Respect for the audiences does not mean fantasizing and hiding the truth. You don’t motivate teachers by telling them there is money in teaching…when everybody knows there is none-No!
Even the banks that assist in squeezing the little they have know there is nothing in the accounts of all the teachers who faint in long queues in scorching heat or biting cold to get the little that remains after the notorious, merciless and unkind financial bank charges. Even those who report them to debt collectors for not paying their debts and the collectors themselves know teachers have no money. Don’t lie to teachers that you can make money in this industry.
Teachers all over the globe including the countries where they are better paid are not rich people. This is not a job for rich people. How about that for the truth?
“You are nation developers; nation builders because you are foot-soldiers in a war against ignorance and poverty for coming generations. That this does not always happen as expected is not your problem. You are bridges over which hundreds and thousands pass to the other side where there is fame and fortune-for others and not for you. Good teachers join the profession knowing this cruel truth.
At the end of the day (excuse the tired and stupid expression, end of which and what day?) there is honour in living for others, which is not only a Christian principle, but also a philosophy of real life. We live for other people, don’t we? If you say no, you are not yet grown up.
You think all the sons and daughters of Zimbabwe who died for our country or lost all they had including family and dignity, died for themselves? Losing arms and legs, some whatever members of their bodies! Eating ‘rubbish’ and exposing themselves to wild animals and diseases! For themselves? If you say yes, you are not grown up.
You teachers must be proud you train minds; give learners growth and a sense of direction; discipline and seriousness of purpose in the marvel of education. We teach children because we understand the danger or tragedy of ignorance. If no one wants to pay you what you deserve; pay yourself with performing you duties with a smile and aiming for the best you can.
Because, even if you sulk or mourn every day, teaching will never change from being a profession to a business enterprise. The honour and dignity of a teacher is not in the suits he wears or the cars that he or she drives; the money in their bank or eco-cash. Of course we all love that ‘sitting pretty.’ The satisfaction is in knowing that he or she is on national service; national service to develop the nation, to build the nation through translating lives into meaningful projects. And that satisfaction is honourable.
If you are a teacher and you don’t know how to live joyfully within the trials, tribulations, challenges and fears of teaching, quit the profession. Quit the job, look for money, beg, steal or borrow and start a business.
A school head must not waste his or her time boasting a school he/she does not own and give the teachers under him or her hell every day.
Teachers are human beings, not animals with no feelings, anxieties and problems. Put up a human face and show that you care and you work with people.
Be a head; not a headache. You are not a prison guard supervising the work of prisoners or criminals. These are professionals who need your love, professional guidance and understanding. Find out what these human beings need, what their problems anxieties and fears are. Help them whenever and wherever you can.
So much for the school head for one day.
It is not the teachers’ responsibility or duty to cause the school head sleepless nights because you don’t do your work, you drink all the beer in neighbourhood; you exploit all the girls who are battling with the crisis of growing up; particularly the dangers of puberty.
You don’t cooperate with others teachers and kill all the team spirit the school head has painfully laboured to build before you joined the school. You hate him or her the way he or she hates you. And what next?
The school must not be a theatre of war. Love one another. If you cannot, simply pull together, in the same direction, for the sake of the learners. None of you owns these children but their parents.
Why do you civil servants gossip, backbite and backbite? In a school? A school which one day you shall leave because of transfer, retirement or expulsion, whichever is better for you.
Teachers, please don’t make life miserable for the school head. You can’t all be heads at the same time. He or she is with you now. Respect them and remember the child is paramount; not your egos, airs and graces; not your kumakanamakana-stupid traps and snares that benefit not even all you who push ahead wicked agendas against each other. Counter-productive, Primitive! Uncivilized! Backward! Barbaric! Those are the adjectives. 21st century education skills and the new curriculum don’t have space for such people in a place called school.
No one will bring you joy at your school but yourselves! Love one another, leave alone those who don’t want to be loved- but work with them with a genuine smile, work hard and stay stress-free. You can achieve this by transforming even your attitudes, characters and personalities. As the curriculum changes as it does every day in your face, so must you change your own social and mental curriculum.
If you think your teaching staff, students, company workers, church groups, need a pep-talk, public speech from an ordinary but deep-hearted speaker (not a motivational speaker), you are a phone call away. 0773 883 293 email: [email protected] with a similar gift and passion, contact me so that you and I together can be part of it.
