“Good morning!” – to whom did you say these words last time? Most of the youngsters will promptly respond as “either to their boss or wife or girlfriend”! That’s how things have changed for the youngsters nowadays. Now, let’s tweak the question a bit – instead of asking you the “last time”, I ask you the “first time”. I am sure that most of the guys would have to relive their childhood moments to come up with, perhaps a probably correct answer. Remember those days when all of you stood up in a room when a wonderful lady, with a register in her hand, walked in and with all the energy and integrity, you melodiously sang – “Gooood Mooorrrrniiiiing… Teaaaachhheer.” To her response – “Sit down.”, you again sang “Thhaaank yooou.. Teaaaachhheer”. By now, you have already got the answer!
Most of us might still remember the first day of school, the day we cried like hell upon missing our parents. But it was the teacher who gracefully embraced us with eternal love and assured the parents that she will take care of their child and asked them to sit back, relax and see their child progress in their life. From that day itself, the teacher transferred their knowledge in the best possible way to the child and the child slowly and gradually grabbed all the incomings. The teacher, at this point, has the toughest job to not only teach the students but also make sure that they feel comfortable there. This is evident from the fact that how annoying it becomes when a small kid disrupts the entire silence, say for example, in a train. The teacher takes care of all her students and keeps an exhaustive track of the progress of every kid. She also keeps their parents updated regarding their progress and teaches their parents what to teach to their childlike manners, etiquette, respect, etc. The child, depending upon his learning capability, slowly understands and develops himself to the point where his teacher indirectly wants him to be at.
The child slowly climbs the ladders one by one. Each teacher joyfully performs her role and transfers that role to another teacher thereby continuing this eternal chain of ownership. The child starts developing communication skills to powwow with his peers and he is now introduced gradually to the real world by having small competitions amongst his peers. The child learns how to make simple decisions in the best possible manner, how to make honorable requests, how to be responsible by monitoring entire class in the absence of teachers to maintain peace and integrity and various other personal development skills. With the knowledge imparted by different teachers, the child gradually finds his interests and gets to know what suits him the most. The most grueling of all courses shall be none other than physical training. It is one of the courses where everyone complains and criticizes the P.T. teacher in some way or the other in their minds but at the very same time, they love that teacher the most. How many of you agree with this? I guess most of you do agree with this. The gratitude is so high that every student wants to gift to their teachers something or the other on this very auspicious day – “The Teacher’s Day”. Girls dress up in saree or the suit that typically their teachers wear. Boys, on the other hand, dress up in a professional outfit. Everyone is joyous at that moment and I am sure you are also reliving those amazing moments at this instant.
The child soon enters the metric where he, perhaps, for the first time competes with his state counterparts. The teachers work very hard on the child to make sure the child does not stumble in this very important time of his life. The child gains various experiences in this process and that marks the beginning of the “EXPERIENCE” taking some share of being a TEACHER. The child goes through making some tough decisions that in India apparently marks the “onset of his career”.
The child then enters the most crucial phase of his life. Suddenly the incoming knowledge tends to infinity. But again, the teacher knows her role better than anyone else. She makes the journey so effortless and graceful that the child doesn’t feel that pressure. The teacher guides the child in such a way that he learns how to stay focused and composed in tough times. The child also gets exposed to coaching classes where the role of the teachers becomes different and they teach the child how to hone a particular skill, how to work hard on one aspect, how to prepare for something bigger. During this entire journey, the child gains a lot of experience and gets immensely matured enough to make tough decisions. The “EXPERIENCE” now starts becoming a major teacher in the child’s life. After succeeding and valiantly surviving one of the toughest competitions, the child then gets ready to enter the most to-be memorable phases of his life – the college.
The college days, as they all say, are the most entertaining, memorable and fun-filled days of one’s life. Unless the child is Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates, he will definitely complete college without any dropout. The faculties also understand the maturity level of the children and don’t force them to do certain tasks. They no longer need to track the child’s progress and the child is all on his own. The so-called “College life” is all about doing assignments, writing reports, attending classes, attending seminars and getting good grades. The major role of the professors here is to manage all this in such an efficient manner that each student can at the least complete it with ease. The professors at this moment tend to share their experiences with the students for learning. The final year projects, if any, bring the student much closer to one of the professors and they both talk to each other in a much more friendly manner as compared to professional manner. Post-college the students get placed in some corporate company, a hospital or something of that sort depending upon their domain and they start earning and learning from the experiences. The Experience now officially becomes their sole teacher.
The child somehow, depending upon his domain, develops enough expertise to make his decisions and express his gratitude towards all the teachers he faced during this entire journey of his life. He feels complete with the way he has succeeded in his life. He can now enjoy some luxurious living standards and create one for society. Maybe he can go on to become a teacher to give the same feeling what he has after achieving such great success.
One of my professors has greatly described life with the perspective of how dynamic your learning is and has provided a simple but deep co-relation:
25 % of your learning comes from your “teacher”;
25% of your learning comes from your peers;
25% of your learning comes from other sources;
The rest 25% of your learning comes from experience.
He goes further to express and exactly classify what you actually learn throughout your life:
The things you know that you know;
The things you know that you don’t know;
The things you don’t know that you know;
The things you don’t know that you don’t know.
The role of a teacher is clearly to bring light towards the last two aspects of your life in the above description. And if you sit back and think for a minute that is exactly what a teacher does.
Although there are some unfortunate instances where education is being sold instead of being imparted, the role of a teacher cannot be replaced and replicated. We all need good teachers for ensuring overall development of the country. And when one understands that no one can stop this country from developing.
A great Teacher takes a HAND, opens a MIND and touches a HEART.
This “Teacher’s Day”, I take a pause and thank all my teachers to be a part of my journey and provide me with such eternal love and care.
This article is dedicated to all the teachers and professors as an expression of gratitude towards them.
