HAPPY TEACHERS' DAY!
“Tribute to students… on Teachers’ Day”
– Dr. Bhanumati Mishra [Open Page, The Hindu, Sunday, September 04, 2011]
Last Monday, as I entered the classroom, I was in for a pleasant surprise. The entire class of 50 erupted in cheerful clapping. On my table was a cake – complete with candles, flowers, cards, balloons and chocolates. No, the occasion was not Teachers’ Day. It was actually my last day in school. While I was still contemplating how to break the news, the students somehow got wind of it (I suspect with my daughter’s connivance) and arranged a farewell party.
Amid the hullabaloo and ‘please don’t go’ requests my mind raced back to the day the Principal called me to his office and entrusted me with a specific charge, I must admit I was reluctant to become class teacher of XI Commerce – the most notorious in the whole school. Having passed their class X examination with not so flying colours, these children could not join the elite Science stream, which was traditionally reserved for the brightest. With no other subject option left, these students unwillingly landed up in Commerce.
Thus, I began with a bunch of students whose self-esteem had taken a beating and were labeled as trouble-makers and attention-seekers. Any mishap – be it a broken windowpane in class VI, some graffiti in the boys’ toilet or a lost duster in the junior section – would bring the property in – charge thundering into my class threatening to fine the culprits. Many a time I was at my wits’ end trying to deal with internal squabbles and the complaints from other teachers. But each time I announced in exasperation that I would give up the charge of the class if the students didn’t improve, there would be strong protest followed by a sincere promise to behave better next time.
I soon realized that each one of these students had a specialty. The sleepy looking one was an artist, the quietest one had a beautiful handwriting, the shyest was exceptional at playing soccer, the weirdest had an excellent memory, the naughtiest was a total errands boy and the academically weakest had a tremendous sense of devotion. Why could I not see these qualities right at the beginning? How easily was I giving up on them? Gaining ground inch by inch, I finally managed to crack the toughest nut. Some tiny spark in a child would fill me with hope that these students were not incorrigible. Moreover, having achieved this without ever punishing them reassured me that I was on the right path.
Words of Encouragement: Slowly, with words of encouragement and delegation of responsibilities, I could build their confidence and win their trust. There was a semblance of sanity in the classroom and we began working as a team. My task at English teacher multiplied manifold as the majority in the class were children of army personnel from the Gorkha regiment. I had to first undo Nepali and then Hindi in order to teach English. As a corrective measure, we started collecting a paltry sum of one rupee from anyone caught not speaking English in the classroom.
Very soon, we had a handsome amount. I had planned to spend the money, taking the students on a class picnic. To my amazement, they unanimously wanted to donate it to charity. They unknowingly cleared a crucial test that day.
As I stood facing them for the one last time, I joked that I had no clue they would be so happy at my leaving. As if my words broke a surging dam, I saw tears rushing down a few faces. I was left with no words to reciprocate their feelings, only tears which I too couldn’t hold any longer.
I would not trade their love and adoration for anything in the world. In the course of teaching them, I got enriched. Like the proverbial ‘potter’ showing patience and sensitivity, I could gradually mould these children into caring individuals with self-worth. This Teachers’ Day I wish to salute all my students. Farewell and God bless you!
Do our teachers prepare students for life? – J. Eden Alexander [ibid.]
Teachers’ Day observed on September 5 every year in India is being celebrated in about 70 countries, but on different dates. The birthday of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, second President, who started his career as a teacher, was chosen as Teachers’ day in India as he preferred to be remembered as a teacher always. Teaching is known as the noblest profession because every teacher functions as a ladder for his/her pupils to go up in life while he/she stays at the same place. Teachers are the real nation builders and function as the pivot on which the entire nation revolves. They spread the light of knowledge all over as a candle does and a day to remember their contribution to society is a fitting tribute that the nation can do for them.
William A. Ward said: “The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.” When our class teacher wrote something on the blackboard in English about 55 years ago, on the first day of my entry in to IV form (present IX Std) all 40 of us, who belonged to the Tamil medium, were sitting blissfully ignorant of what he wrote and what it meant. But, that famous quotation from Thomas Alva Edison, “Genius is one per cent inspiration; 99 per cent perspiration” became my motto in life later.
Explaining the quotation, he spoke for one full hour, quoting examples from the life of Edison to imprint in our minds what hard work could do for students like us. Teachers should aim at making sustained and substantive influence on the intellect of students and inspire them, encouraging creative thinking and positive questioning. Ancient teachers Confucius, Socrates and Aristotle followed this method. I am not sure how many of the teachers today are capable of enchanting and carrying their students with them as these great teachers did.
Involvement: A teacher is considered venerable next only to the parents. He should have a genuine interest and cent per cent involvement in the job. Pythagoras, the mathematician, and Sir Isaac Newton, the scientist, were celebrated teachers who exhibited this quality. I cannot forget my English professor who taught us Shakespeare’s King Lear more than five decades ago when I was in my UG class. While teaching the famous tragedy, he would become King Lear himself, making everyone in the class shed tears so that we could forget neither Shakespeare nor our professor. The teachers became illustrious and everlasting characters in our memory because of their deep involvement in the subject. Such teachers achieve unattainable recognition and everlasting respect from the entire student community.
Teachers cannot enjoy unending rapport with their students just by teaching the subject given to them alone. They should also instill morals and discipline in the minds of students to help them lead a successful and happy life later. Classic examples of teachers of precepts and preachers of morals are King Solomon and the Buddha. Nowadays teachers prepare the students for the exams no doubt; but it is doubtful if they prepare them for their life too. Incidentally, there used to one full period allotted for ‘Moral Instructions’ in all schools those days. Now it has been conveniently removed for reasons not known.
Alexander the Great once said: “I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well.” The whole society is concerned with the future of children which is in the hands of teachers because the teacher is the one and only person capable of influencing the thoughts and deeds of the future generation.
Every eminent teacher, dead or alive, stays in the minds of the students forever and his/her degree of distinction very much depends on how efficiently the sacred job is handled.
“As time marches on” – Sudha Mahesh (Magazine, The Hindu, Sunday, September 04, 2011)
Throughout history, teachers have always come from different backgrounds – with varied experiences, motivations, expectations and preparations. There is a story in each of their decisions to become a teacher, and quite often there are wonderful anecdotes from their work that tell us a lot about them.
My grandfather was a teacher in a school in Thanjavur. Even several years after he had retired, he was often surrounded by people wanting to learn Tamil, English and Mathematics from him, though he was 70-plus by then. Many of his students were foreigners who visited The Theosophical Society frequently. His passion drove him to put extraordinary efforts to his classes. This would always amaze me. I used to wonder what could be driving him to do such things. Definitely not money for, he earned nothing from all this.
He also taught my grandmother to speak and read English and instilled in her a great interest in reading the newspaper daily, so she was well informed for a woman of her time. This helped her carry on a conversation with his pupils who came home, and made people look at her with awe.
My husband remembers Professor A. L. Krishnan, past Principal and Head of the English Department at A. M Jain College, who taught him more than 50 years ago. Professor Krishnan would mono-act roles like Shylock and Portia from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”, taking his students back in time. His oratory and style of teaching must have been something special, to have left such a lasting mark on his student.
The more I think about these things, the more I am convinced that only passion could have been the driving force for such teachers. For the best teachers, the challenges come from within. They take it upon themselves to pass on what they knew to the next generation. And the way they do this brings them an exalted position – liked and remembered well by many of the students who pass through their classes during the teaching years. I am sure this is the way it has always been with teachers – and it may remain so in the future too. In fact, teachers have greater opportunities and better facilities available today than what obtained earlier, so they should be able to engage even more strongly with their students as a result. But there are also many challenges.
New Challenges: Many parents today are well educated; this is especially true of mothers, who in the past were considerably less educated than their husbands but not so nowadays. So, there is greater support and involvement with children’s education and holistic development form home. On the other hand, the same development has given opportunities for both parents taking up jobs, which leaves them with very little time for their children. These developments bring challenges to the classroom too.
With the rapid developments in technology, and with the consumer market being flooded with very well researched and developed educational products, children can find a lot of information at their fingertips, along with a great variety of methods for imbibing it. This no doubt sharpens their wits. But in the process, their dependence on and confidence in the educators sometimes take a back seat. So there is great demand and obligation on the part of a teacher to teach using a pedagogy that encompasses the knowledge and information so gathered by the students.
Here I am remembered of a Grade VII student in our school who was unwilling to agree with the teacher’s explanations on global warming. According to him, from what he had read, there was no such thing as global warming and that it was an exaggerated phenomenon. In such situations, where a student brings in different opinions into the classroom, the teacher is confronted with two challenges: one, to make him appreciate what she wants to teach and, the other, to recognize varying skill sets and degrees of knowledge in the class.
Educators must now teach to the higher order thinking skills of students. This means the teachers themselves must be highly accomplished, and be able to recognize these higher order skills and incorporate the same into their lesson plans and assessment process.
Testing times: Teaching apart, in any society, there is also the emotional challenge that students confront, especially when they go through adolescence. For instance, the strong influence of the visual media exposes children instantaneously to different emotions through a window with both audio and visual effects. But some of them also lend themselves to revealing to children things they should not be watching yet.
During the teen years, students are also more likely to believe that teachers don’t understand their emotions or needs, or give sufficient weight to their views and opinions. This shows up as attitude problems in the class. The challenge here is for the teacher to be abreast of all that attracts their attention, and use such things to guide them effectively.
Problems and opportunities: The ubiquitous gadgets – cell phones, ipods and mp3 players – take students to a dream world from which it is quite tough to pull them out. Added to these are the social networking sites which blur the line between knowing things and merely seeing/hearing them. Online, the ‘truth’ of what a student learns is also less clear. At the same time, one cannot take away the opportunities for learning through these devices and the worlds they connect to. It is for the teachers to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses that students have picked up through these exposures.
To be able to manage these challenges, a teacher should also think of strategies that will make her deal with the situations better. She must be well prepared, have all kinds of learners in mind while preparing and delivering a lesson, be ready to answer a variety of challenging questions form students, and be prepared to respect and appreciate children for what they know.
What makes an exemplary teacher? (Magazine, The Hindu, Sunday, September 04, 2011)
In a study on creativity, psychologist Csikszentmihalyi finds that while a “school itself rarely gets mentioned as a source of inspiration, individual teachers often awaken, sustain, or direct a child’s interest”. Teachers who kindle a spark in their students, first and foremost, notice them as individuals, believe in their abilities and genuinely care about their charges. Further, these teachers challenge students without making lessons too boring or frustrating. Another study by Marica Gentry and Colleagues indicates that a teacher’s enthusiasm, ability to give concrete feedback and knowledge of a subject are essential for motivating students. Most importantly, an exemplary teacher coaxes the high performers to straddle great heights while also encouraging those who struggle to maximize their potential. Finally, an outstanding teacher leads by example. As the American psychiatrist Karl Menninger says, “What the teacher is, is more important that what he teaches.”
