Teacher Feature: Mr Amedume

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Mr. McMahon:

 I am Mr. McMahon, and this is the first edition of Teacher Feature. I'm sitting down with Mr. Godwin Amedume. Godwin, you teach DP Economics and Business?

Mr. Amedume:

No, DP Economics and Global Studies. Global Studies.

Mr. McMahon:

Sorry. Thank you for correcting me. Shows what I know. So, we're going to walk through your journey into teaching, some of your life experiences, and share some of what makes you who you are inside and outside the classroom. So, Godwin, can you start and tell us how long you've been here at Kaohsiung American School?

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah. I've been here since 2022. So this is my third year in Kaohsiung American School.

Mr. McMahon:

And how was it that you decided to come to Taiwan to teach?

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah. For all these years I have been teaching in Ghana, and I have been looking for an opportunity to interact with students from different cultures—a culture that is different from my typically Ghanaian type. And so that really motivated me to move here because I know that abroad I'll be able to come into contact with students who are from backgrounds that are quite different from mine, and then I can learn more about them. They can also learn more from me. Yeah. So it's mainly about having some differences in culture—interact with others. Yes.

Mr. McMahon:

Really cool. So I do wanna ask later on about your experience now that you've been here for three years, but maybe we can look back to Ghana first. Can you share, for somebody who's never been, like myself—how would you describe Ghana to them?

Mr. Amedume:

Ghana is a country that is really thriving in terms of democracy in recent years. In fact, we had been having interruptions in our democracy back in the sixties and seventies, but from 1992, from what I remember, that's when I think I had my first vote, and there has not been any interruption in terms of military takeovers and we've sustained this over the years. It's been growing.

But before the 1992 elections, there had always been military takeovers. They vote a government to power, and within a very short time—military takeover. And they had to… [there was] lots of instability. But since 1992, Ghana has had a relatively stable democracy.

And then Ghana itself is a country that has a lot of tourist attractions because we had the British as our colonial masters. And so they have built a lot of castles and forts all over the place, which are very good places that you can tour. We have a lot of gardens—botanical gardens—that you can visit. We have a lot of tourist attractions.

And because of where we are located, and the fact that Ghana is in love with democracy, it's a source of destination or attraction for a lot of foreign direct investment. So when you come to Ghana, you'd be surprised to see very top hotels, because the place is stable for business. And so it's really attracting a lot of people to the place.

The capital city is called Accra. We have one international airport. The others are for domestic travels. And so that is in the capital, Accra. And we have two port cities. Yes. I live in one of them, Tema, and that’s where we have most of our transaction—like seaport. Yes, it’s mainly in Tema.

Mr. McMahon:

And what was—can you remind me the name of the city or the town where you're from in Ghana, where you grew up?

Mr. Amedume:

Yes. I grew up in my ancestral village. We call the place Aveyime-Battor.

Mr. McMahon:

Aveyime-Battor. Did I say that right?

Mr. Amedume:

Yes. It's a very small… yeah, it's about one and a half hours’ drive from Tema. But that's where I lived with my parents. That's where I grew up, had my elementary and middle school education.

Mr. McMahon:

So, speaking about growing up in Aveyime-Battor, can you tell me what you were like as a teenager? I'm sure many of our students, especially some of your high school students, would like to hear what you were like when you were their age—as a high schooler.

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah. I would say that I was the type who was very calm. And I was always calm because all I loved was about academics. I was so much interested in academic work.

Mr. McMahon:

So you were a very good student?

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah. Because I come from an area that is so deprived economically. And there was this saying that… somebody—one of my teachers—who said, “Godwin, the only way by which you can leave this community and come out of poverty is to study hard and go higher in education. If you're able to do that, one day you will see yourself out of this community and become a great person.” What he said about education—it really planted a lot of things in my mind. And since then… So when growing up, I was that calm type and all I did was my books. My books.

Mr. McMahon:

So you were very studious?

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah.

Mr. McMahon:

And economics, then—you mentioned that was something that you were interested in all the way back in high school?

Mr. Amedume:

Yes. So, if you talk about my elementary education, for instance—elementary school—those days they used to give positions in school, and I was always first. I was always first throughout, and I remember I was the only one who had distinction at middle school when we completed. And then I passed the common entrance and went to high school.

In high school, I was actually studying science. I was doing physics, chemistry, and biology. And then one day I just visited the economics class, and I realized that this is a subject that sounds so interesting because of the way the teacher taught. And I never struggled to get a top grade in economics. So after O-level, I said, why don't I continue with economics?

And so, this is how I moved completely out of physics, chemistry, and biology, and into the arts. So at high school A-level, I studied economics, government, and geography. Yeah. Those were the subjects I studied at A-level.

Mr. McMahon:

Really interesting. And you mentioned—I think it was a teacher who told you when you were an adolescent—who gave you that advice, that it was through studying and learning in school that you could improve your circumstances, right? That was the way forward?

Mr. Amedume:

Yes.

Mr. McMahon:

And you were, I think, already naturally and intuitively a good student, and very curious. When—at what point did you decide that you wanted to become a teacher? When did that occur, and how did you arrive at that?

Mr. Amedume:

Yes. My journey to become a teacher is so interesting…

Mr. Amedume:

Yes. My journey to become a teacher is so interesting. Back in middle school—or even, let me say, in elementary school—I was taught by my father in Class One. That's Stage One elementary school. And my father always taught with passion, and anytime he was teaching, it was like the whole school—people would come and surround and just be looking because he made the class so entertaining, but very educative, informative.

And so I took a lot of cues from my dad, and I said, “Oh, what a profession.” I could see my father didn’t have money, but he was somebody who was enjoying the profession.

Mr. McMahon:

He was respected.

Mr. Amedume:

Yes, respected. He was also the Methodist Church secretary because of his level of education in the community. So I said, “What is this profession?” My father hadn’t got money, but—yes. Then I got to Stage Six—Class Six—then I met this teacher who was also very interested in me and was giving me, beside the normal class, special tuition, because I was ahead of the class. So he would give me special extra lessons beside what the others were receiving.

And the way he taught me made me love teaching. And I noticed that most of my colleagues were coming to me to seek explanations. And anytime I explained to them, they felt so satisfied. They would organize lessons, and I’d go and teach them—elementary school, middle school, even in high school.

So I said, “I think I have passion for this job.” No wonder that when I finished high school—in Ghana, those days when you finished high school, you were supposed to do one year of national service—I decided to go into teaching to do my one-year service. And I went to this community, where I taught in an elementary school.

Mr. McMahon:

And that was your first experience? As a teacher?

Mr. Amedume:

Yes, My first experience in the classroom as a teacher.

Mr. McMahon:

And how did you find that experience?

Mr. Amedume:

It was so exciting. The children loved me because I was teaching with passion. And they realized that I loved the job, and I was so interested in whatever they were doing, in and outside the classroom.

And I remember in that community, the school had what we called a school farm. I would take them to the school farm—even to go and work on the school farm. We had produce we would sell in the market.

The chief of the community also just fell in love with me. He gave me free accommodation for the whole one year that I lived in the village. And because of my level of enlightenment, I was able to help them. That community was endemic with guinea worm because they drank from a river that was infested with guinea worm. So I was able to help them. There was World Vision International—we connected with them, and they came to give them a borehole.

Mr. McMahon:

Like a water purification system?

Mr. Amedume:

Yes, fresh water. They dug a borehole and then they were fetching from it. So we were no longer drinking from the river directly. So I stayed there for one year.

Mr. McMahon:

It sounds like you had a huge impact.

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah—huge positive impact on the community. So when I was leaving, they felt so bad. But I told them that I had to leave because that was just after high school. I needed to continue. And just as I was leaving the place, I got the news that my father had passed away. So now I couldn’t continue to the university—I needed to take a break for two years.

Mr. McMahon:

To look after your family?

Mr. Amedume:

Yes. That’s why I left the village and came to Tema to live there with a friend. Then I got a private school job—started teaching. So I taught for two years, saved money, and then went to the university.

Mr. McMahon:

So it wasn’t a straight path.

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah. For me, teaching has really helped me to overcome that vicious cycle of poverty which we had in our family, because our family was really poor. But today I can say that because of what teaching has done for me—and I did this with passion—when I came to Tema, I went to the university, came back, and I was teaching. Every student wanted to come to my class.

We had remedial classes for people who wrote their exam and couldn’t do well. They would come back and re-register. Everybody wanted me to organize classes for them. So my classes were always full, and I had to even give students to some of my colleagues to teach. Because anytime I entered the classroom, I didn’t look at my pocket—I didn’t think, “Oh, I don’t have money,” or “I have problems.” When I finished teaching, then I would think about my problems.

And this is how I have faced the teaching journey. And I have been very successful with that. And so from there—the high school in Tema—I moved to this high school that’s an IB school. And I had been teaching there since 2004 till 2022, that I left for KAS.

Mr. McMahon:

Interesting. That's a fascinating journey. And you mentioned how, over the course of your teaching career, education and then becoming a teacher was a means to uplift yourself—out of poverty, you said. And now I know you’re not only a father but a grandfather. And you’re a provider for a pretty extended family back home in Ghana.

How many children do you have?

Mr. Amedume:

I have five.

Mr. McMahon:

Five children. And how many grandchildren?

Mr. Amedume:

One.

Mr. McMahon:

Really exciting. So I’m sure you’re very excited.

Mr. Amedume:

Excited.

Mr. McMahon:

It’s a very young kid now. How old is he?

Mr. Amedume:

Oh, she was born in September.

Mr. McMahon:

That’s okay. So very few months.

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah, just September last year.

Mr. McMahon:

So it’ll be very exciting, I’m sure, to get home this summer to visit.

Mr. Amedume:

Yes. Nice girl.

Mr. McMahon:

So Godwin, you’re a teacher of economics, and we live in very interesting times—both geopolitically and with technologies that are emerging now, like AI. Obviously these are things that have an effect on economics. Considering your vantage point, what’s some advice that you would give to students today? What’s a piece of advice that you would leave them with?

Mr. Amedume:

What I tell students is about the fact that whatever their parents do today—it’s a sacrifice. They shouldn’t think that it’s because their parents have so much and they’re just interested in sending them to school. Any fees that their parents pay or any expenses they make on them—it’s out of sacrifice. Because no individual has enough. Yeah, everybody—no matter your level of income—you realize that there are more things you want to do.

Mr. McMahon:

People always want more.

Mr. Amedume:

Yes. People always want more. As human beings, we are never satisfied. Our needs and wants are unlimited. But at any point in time, we have to make a choice.

And I tell students that we are confronted with many challenges. Recently in the world, we are open to so many forms of technology—positive, negative sides—but we need to take advantage of the positives.

Whatever we are learning, whatever experiences we are having as learners—it is important that we focus on the fact that whatever sacrifices your parents are making, it is to your own benefit one day. Because whatever they want—they have it now. So they’re investing in you. And you should also be focused, study, and—it's like procreation. Let it continue. Let the generation continue.

Mr. McMahon:

It's give back, right?

Mr. Amedume:

Yes. It’s give back. Because one day, they have made it and they’ve given it back—they’re giving it back to you. You should also make it one day and give it back to society. It should not end there—that they invested in you and then you are not able to let society benefit from you. Then your education is of no use.

So for me, what I tell students is that it’s not about being self-serving. It is about developing yourself and contributing to your community. If you receive an education and you are not able to impact your community, then you have achieved nothing. Because education is supposed to bring positive change to your community—wherever you find yourself.

In your classroom, outside the classroom, as a student, in your club, at your club level, in your family—let them see the knowledge and skills you have received so far, and how it can benefit them. Benefit the family. Benefit society. Globally.

Because if you receive knowledge and it’s not beneficial to society, then of course… that’s… Because if you talk about the 21st-century skills, students are supposed to have what? They’re supposed to have problem-solving skills. So if you receive the knowledge and skill and you are not able to help society in any way, then of course that education you have received is of no value.

So it’s important that whatever we do now, we should focus on it. We should develop ourselves. Students should develop themselves well with whatever knowledge and skills they are receiving, so that they become somebody useful in society and can contribute their quota to the development of their respective country. Wherever you find yourself in the world, you should be able to make a positive change.

Mr. McMahon:

I think that’s very sage advice, Godwin, and a good place to end the interview. Is there—before we do, though, with that amazing advice—is there anything else you’d like to share with students or the school community?

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah. I think what I want to say about Taiwan—for the time I’ve been here—is I think the people are very friendly. Within KAS, outside KAS, I have interacted with people and I’ve realized that this is a very friendly place. No intimidation. Yeah, very hospitable. And above all, the peace, the security, the safety in this place—I think it’s amazing.

Mr. McMahon:

I agree.

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah. And the students, the staff—everybody should really take advantage of it. Because there are countries where—let me say this—I left my mobile phone and my wallet in a taxi. And then I got to the security and when I said, “Oh,” they asked me to give them my number. They called, and then the man brought—he brought everything back.

Mr. McMahon:

Yeah. I've had similarly—I’ve had many experiences like that.

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah. But I have lost things in Ghana many times—I never got them back. So we are very particular. You can’t just say, “Oh, let me leave this thing here and step out and come back.”

Mr. McMahon:

I think Taiwan, in my experience, is the most honest country that I have ever lived in or traveled to. And I think the Taiwanese are exceptional in that and other regards.

Mr. Amedume:

Yes. Very exceptional in that regard. For me, I think that this is something that everybody should cherish. Everybody should cherish. And I like also the community—the fact that the school… there’s no discrimination. It’s like everybody’s accepted, irrespective of your background, irrespective of your color, your race, your educational level, whatever. The differences—whatever. I think that is also a good thing. Because there are places where you go and you can see clearly that, hey, there’s discrimination.

Mr. McMahon:

Thank you very much, Godwin. I appreciate it. And I know that many of our students will as well.

Mr. Amedume:

Yeah. Thank you.