As the nation’s schools remain closed and lessons continue to be held exclusively online amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, one Maltese teacher has opened up about the crticism fellow educators are getting due to their different teaching methods.

“I comment and argue with everyone because that’s what I love, because that’s what freedom of expression tells me,” the Maltese teacher, Kenneth Debono took to Facebook to say yesterday. “But I’m not going to criticise in an airy and uninformed way the jobs of specialists who aren’t in my field.”

From loading students with too many lessons and homework to not doing nearly enough, Malta’s teachers can’t seem to get it right with every single parent… but Kenneth had a simple explanation for it all, along with “a word to my teacher-friends”.

“I wasn’t born and raised knowing everything, and I won’t die knowing everything either,” he said. “I’m not going to try and argue with a nurse, an engineer, a fisherman, an architect a farmer or an entrepreneur. I’ll ask them questions, I’ll get interested in their matters, I’ll debate with them, and I might even vaguely suggest something… but that’s as far as I’ll get.”

“But when it comes to education, that’s a different matter altogether.”

“Since everyone’s been through it because they had to do primary and secondary education from the perspective of the student’s desk, that automatically makes people experts in education,” Kenneth said, going on to point at “the colourful wisdom of Facebook on teachers” as perfect proof of this.

“What I do that is good cannot be compared to what another teacher in another school does. If my doctor did not give me Augmentin, it’s specifically because penicillin is not as effective with me.”

Going on to complain about the one-size-fits-all reasoning that some teachers may apply, Kenneth goes on to say that maybe while one teacher only has one live lesson per week, he’s also giving intensive and user-friendly notes to students. “Maybe the feedback he’s given is detailed and he’s putting in a bunch of continuous assessment marks so that this term can truly be valid.”

“There are doctors who believe in certain medicine for a patient, and there are others who believe in a different medicine for a different patient,” he elaborated. “If both patients are cured, then both doctors did their job well.”

“My fellow teacher, whatever you do, you’ll never please everyone.”

And while that might sound like a defeating idea, Kenneth offered an easy solution to making sure the profession goes on.

“The only thing you need to do is bring together three pillars: the commitment, conscience and professionalism that you graduated with through your hard work and sweat at University along with your years of experience.”

The young teacher went on to shout out the students and parents of his school, Rabat’s SPMC, for being “students who understand and parents who appreciate”.

“Have courage, my fellow teachers,” Kenneth finished. “Right now, we’re not frontliners because we can’t heal people. But we’re backstage, behind the curtains, making sure the scene goes on in the best way possible.”