My commitment was punctured

Commitment is an ingredient for awesome results in any project that one embarked upon. However, many factors can affect such commitments.

Whatever thing that one is doing, there is a motivational force. The motivation could stem from the change that the project stands to achieve. One could also be motivated by appreciation especially when some selfless sacrifices are involved. If this is expected and at the end of the day it is not gotten, it could kill the commitment.

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A few years ago, I was teaching in a private secondary school. There was an afternoon lesson organized by the school. This lesson wasn't compulsory for both students and teachers.

At the beginning of each term, the teachers interested in the lesson registered their names with the school management. A timetable would be planned for the teachers interested.

In the first term that I spent in the school, I didn't partake in the afternoon lesson and the parents complained bitterly about the absence of Mathematics in the subjects that the children were doing in the lesson. I didn't have interest in the lesson because of the meager payment. The management would collect the money from the students and pay whatever amount they like to the teachers. I preferred to use such time for other productive activities.

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At the start of the second term, some of the students approached me and pleaded with me to join the afternoon lesson so that I could teach them mathematics.

I was touched with the plea of the students and I registered my name as one of the teachers interested in the afternoon lesson for the term.

A few days into the lesson, I discovered that many teachers were very lazy during the lesson. They would use just one hour out of two meant for the lesson to teach and waste the remaining time on different activities including visiting one another in the classes to discuss at the detriment of the students' learning.

The principal noticed this anomaly just like I did and he complained several times when addressing the teachers. Each time he used a collective term to refer to all of us lazy teachers, my heart hurts. The fact that I avoided being caught in the web of such actions made it more painful to me.

I endured it because my greatest motivation was the students that wouldn't cease to appreciate me for going to any length to tutor them.

Despite the complaints by the principal, the majority of the teachers wouldn't change their habits. The principal got angry during a staff meeting that he addressed all the lesson teachers as being lazy and only interested in the money but not ready to do the job. I was pained with the tag and I raised my hand to talk.

I appreciated the principal and commended him for his efficient supervisory role in the school. I thereafter let the gathering understand that it wasn't all the teachers that were lazy as addressed by the principal. I reminded the principal of the numerous times that he met me teaching during the lesson and he commended me for being different. The collective tag wasn't welcomed by me and I told the gathering so.

I received the shock of my life when the principal stood up to use an analogy of one rich man amidst tens of poor people being poor too to address the issue. "All of you are doing it for the money," he concluded.

I was hurt that day. My mind divided right from there about my continuous commitment to the lesson. I am the kind of person that works with the philosophy that anything worth doing should be done well. I managed to participate in the lesson for the rest of the term so that the students won't feel extremely bad if I left abruptly without finishing the term.

My level of commitment was affected but I tried to suppress it so that it won't be too obvious to the students.

The following term, I didn't put down my name for the lesson. The students pleaded with me to reconsider my stance but I didn't because my motivation had been punctured by the principal.

When the principal called me to have a talk on the subject matter, I told him that I can't do the lesson for the money again since that's the reason that I was doing it according to him. He took back his words but I stood on my decision because the other teachers playing with the lesson were still doing the same.

The lesson continued for sometime before being suspended for rebranding. I left the school for another job during this period.

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