It is wonderful to see the sun rising over us; over everything that exists tall in itself but falls short when the giant comes shining. The time of completing this post is a 'sun rising' morning when, as a teacher, I am travelling to my workplace.
Before I enter the classroom and start the wonderful exchange of learning, it is worth accepting that we teachers are thankful to the creator of education. Sometimes I wonder, what could I do other than teaching! This Thanksgiving is important and deserves expression.
Let's change or make a perception about teaching and teachers. I shall cite a set of marvellous words by Robert Frost: " I am not a Teacher, but an awakener." I believe in these words and that way I believe in the Teacher who resides in me. This teacher has been proudly alive and living on the wishes of students.
How many of us (we all are teachers actually. Some are appointed and some do by default.) feel that we are vocal in expressing and acknowledging the fact that our success depends less on the examination results or grades but more on with what they leave the classroom. Is it a feeling of 'justice to them' or 'we did not understand'.
When it is the later we need to work out the alternative routes to reach their heart and conquer their minds.
When it is the former and you get to see the magical charm and delight on their face, grab it and broadcast freely to the world. Once you, as a teacher, establish this affirmation about yourself, it will significantly improve your delivery of learning in or outside the classroom.
As a doctor is habitual of saying that he feels really satisfied when a patient gets well and tells the doctor that it's because of the goodness of treatment along with the affectionate behaviour.
The doctors, I have met, ritualistically share their contentment and say that the best reward for them is when a patient walks out with smiles after getting well. They feel proud of such testimonies and do boast of such rewards.
As a Teacher, I have come to the same serene understanding that I am also assigned with the same responsibility of helping them getting well.
Kids are seriously unwell and are gradually dying from within. The picture looks tragic and nightmarish. We, teachers, can cure them to a large extent.
I am not pessimistic about the future of the world but do know that we are moving away from the utopia and unfortunately falling prey to Satan. As a Teacher, I, and a million others wake up each day to fight the devil of downfall. We sweat and toil to diagnose and then neutralise the lack of fundamental learning. We have the 'have-nots' of the universe in our classrooms. They are living in the world but significantly unaware of what the world has accomplished. They don't marvel nor they appreciate the things and people around. And the absence of appreciation is a death-like condition as humans have mind and judgement and the unused mind is like dead wood only.
As a Teacher, the Doctor of Learning, I have much to do. Along with the competence and compatibility in the classroom, I need to make them carry my presence out of the classroom walls. Once I am able to penetrate into their lives, it is possible to activate the dead cells. My Teachers did this to me. Till date, they are present in my life and drive me. In fact, they make me give the driving strings to their presence. This inner engineering mechanism has to be developed among the coming generations. The list of 'must have' credentials for a Teacher can include the following personality traits:
1. Life Long Learning
2. Critical Thinking
3. Empathy
4. Credibility
5. Consistency
6. Forgetfulness
7. Forgiveness
A girl walked out with a truly smiling face seeking permission to leave as she was to catch a train to travel for the remaining part of the daylight. They were all shining like the sun and were illuminating me to marvel at this divine assignment of teaching I have taken.
The reward of the day, I realised after a few hours of the class, is this elevated feeling of being a Teacher.
At a time when my community is drastically failing its own existence, I stand tall amid diminishing appointees with the words of Frost recurring around:
I am not a Teacher, but an awakener!
