Last night my ex-student sent me an email that said, "Do you prefer life as a manager or as a lecturer? Do you regret your decision to change your career from highly paid position in private sector to so, so paid position in government? I really admirer you dare to change your career at age of 40!”
So, here I am changing my life at exactly 4 months before my age turn 40 on year 2007. I always said that before, I’m going to get the life I always wanted and never had the first 40 years of my life. It’s going to be a long journey but I’m going to do it, I need to do it.
I start my job career at my age of 18 (1986) with various positions and jobs, from part time basis as a contract worker, durian seller, motorsports journalist cum office boy to full-time worker as machine operator, technician and my last two positions are a senior engineer and manager.
I'm university drop-out on 1986 from UM because I spent most of my time in Batu 3, Shah Alam Racing Track. Later after 10 years I come-back to study in Mechanical Engineering, USM from 1995 to 2003. I'm getting my first bachelor degree at age of 35 and a year later I obtained my master degree from UKM. I complete both studies during my employment.
After all these 20 years employment, I told myself, I must change my career. I have to do it for my wife, my son, my parents and most of all to myself.
Please! I’m not tired of living my life the way I have been. It’s just time for change.
I'm not running away from the any places I worked before, Yes, I made a mistake but I'm meeting it head on, taking the steps necessary to make it better, and learning from the mistakes that I made.
Sometimes people think when you dare to change you highly paid career to so, so paid career because you cannot performed your job. You only talk big during interview before people hire you and later just do NATO (No Action, Talk Only!).
Have you ever heard the phrase "those who can, do; those who can't, teach", or its variation, "those who can't do, teach"?
My close friend worked with me nearly 10 years before (currently he is a head of Audit Firm in KL) make some joke about this phrase; “You can’t do, teach. You can’t teach, be an auditor.”
We don’t believe it at all! To us, you can’t do here, you can’t do any where. We were glad we managed to perform our job successfully during our employment before. Later, everywhere he went, good positions offered and highly salaries were showered upon him. Yes, it happens to me too and few more ex-friends where currently worked in petroleum and automobiles companies.
Both of us believe on other phrase; Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
Yes, we teach everyone those who want to learn! I teach my friends. My friends teach me. Our boss is our great teacher. He teaches us lots and we shared with others. Not only in our job community, we have been appointed by few authorities to teach and guide our neighbouring factories related to our expert knowledge. All these we do it without any charges! But we are proud of what we do.
Frankly speaking, I must admit that I am still missing the year-end news announcement about salary increment and annual bonus, gratuity or other benefits enjoyed by friends from private sectors.
By the way, I’m thankful (and still thankful) to Allah to let me make that important decision in my life to change the career at my age of 40. With my new career as a lecturer I can spent more time for my family, my parents, my PhD study, my social and welfare works and perhaps at the same time to carry out my duty as a real Muslim.
To those who have a dream to be a lecturer by changing their existing career, the following article maybe related.
lukmanw@gmail.com
http://orangkecilorangbesar.blogspot.com/
Those that can't do, teach.
Source.
Occasionally this saying (or a close variation) pops up in casual conversation. It is a saying of unknown origin which more-or-less suggests that teachers are failures.
The implications of this phrase are many:
if one fails to get a job in their studied skill of interest, the default alternative is to become a teacher of that skill;
a general contempt for teachers;
and that teachers of a trade are inferior to workers in the same trade.
Any professional (in any field) has probably heard this phrase in one variation or another, at one time or another. In the classical music profession, it is usually meant to say that teachers are failed performers.
Teaching is one of the few professions that requires a higher education, yet it is commonly suggested that those who take that career path are inferior in some way. This is mostly untrue of course - a myth perpetuated by misguided cynicism and pessimism.
Teaching is an occupation not only requiring a college degree but also a variety of acquired social, pedagogical and psychological skills. A teacher is required to be any numbers of things at any given moment, including:
a mentor
a counselor
a psychologist
a career counselor
a colleague
a surrogate parent
a fund raiser
an inspirational motivator
an adjudicator
a negotiator
Being a teacher, whether it be a college professor or classroom teacher, requires more than the standard Bachelors degree, but still many view it as a profession for dropouts or people with inferior skills.
A typical "anti-teacher" anecdote is one about incompetence - teachers who teach topics related to professions in which they have never been employed. Of course, strong and weak examples can be found in any profession, whether it be teachers, musicians or politicians.
Yes, the issue of incompetence may occasionally be true but more often, it is not true - or it is an irrelevant argument.
To a skeptic I would suggest this:
If you feel that teachers lack knowledge in what they teach and how that applies to the real world, then you are perhaps missing the point of education. Education is not about memorizing and regurgitating information as needed at a future job.
The teacher's ultimate role is to help students learn how to be smart enough to figure out things on their own - to teach themselves.
A classic quote I use to counter the "those that can't do, teach" quote is from one of the greatest teachers in history, Aristotle.
It is:
Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach.
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