Teaching

Recently a dynamic personality, a terrific teacher and a wonderful human being passed away. I had the good luck of having been her student. She was the principal of our school, Sister Anita. Her death is indeed a great loss to all of us, especially the young girls of my city, Jamnagar. She was the one to have brought revolutionary teaching ideas and extracurricular activities to our small town and quite a few girls, are able to cope with the competition from metros in all fields only because of the guidance in the formative years from sister. The tremendous response, messages, and chat columns on all community websites following this incident set me to thinking, has God stopped making such teachers now? Remember a few common good habits that you have, for instance, talking softly on the road, wishing an elderly person, chewing food properly, lifting the feet while walking, each habit will bring back an image of a long forgotten teacher, their words, their punishments. Can our generation even imagine that level of patience and understanding, that our teachers showed to us? My point here is, that we, as a generation are lacking this knack of teaching. How many of us, graduates today would want to take up teaching as a profession? Very few  , atleast by choice. And the reasons are valid, less pay, no growth, no dynamism. But after entering this field, I have changed my views. Teaching is one of the most challenging tasks and one that entitles you with tremendous power. You are the sole ruler of maybe 40 to 50 young minds for almost an hour each day. They dedicate their time, and open their minds to be enlightened by you. They look up to you for guidance, look for care and support in your eyes, try to find the wisdom to solve their trifle problems. It is indeed a great power and with that a big responsibility. Our teachers handled it real nice, but are we as a generation, capable enough to take up this legacy? I wonder. Looking at the treatment of children in schools and colleges today, and the type of students coming out , I really doubt it. Maybe we lack the patience or the wisdom. I don’t know. But I find it a wonderful profession. It’s like showing a movie without a screen, only your words, diagrams and gestures. It’s like being newton to the younger generation while explaining gravitation, like entering the head of wordsworth while explaining his poetry, like acting Pythagoras all over again. A teacher plays a very important role in the formation of an individual. Open your autograph book of school days and you’ll find maximum entries in the ‘role model’, or ‘hero’ sections as long forgotten teachers names. Those impressions have become so deeply ingrained in our sub conscious mind that they have become a trait in us today. All I want to say is that we should develop this knack of teaching. When teaching, we  add to our own knowledge, a deeper dimension and if we take out the time and care enough, we can transform the next generation into good human beings. Have you ever tried telling your younger cousin to say sorry after sneezing or to help a blind man cross the road? Why should you? It sounds so ‘not cool’ and boring, but remember, someone you liked, taught it to you. So take out the time to teach, in small ways, as a profession, as a hobby. Good habits and knowledge is a legacy handed over to us to be passed on. And I feel we’re not doing it very nicely nowadays. I enjoy teaching, so if you’ve read this, try it once. It may turn out to be real fun.