Teaching is not my occupation, but a passion
My
travel as a college teacher is for 30 years. It is a travel full of challenges,
hard work, brickbats and invisible incentives. The teaching profession has
provided me an opportunity to act as a ladder to the students through which
they can achieve the goals of their lives and to play a role in character
building activity of the youth.
I am not a born teacher. I became a college teacher accidentally without any
idea about that career. On the day of my appointment in a women’s college, at
11 am I entered the class room with anxiety, fear and utter lack of confidence
about my communication ability, since the class allotted to me had a strength
of 110 students. The whole class stood up till I reached the chair and wished
me “Good morning.”
With shivering legs and controlled emotion I wished them back. I was warned by
my seniors that they were the most mischievous lot and may rag me. Hence,
without allowing any time gap for them to rag, I did the self introduction,
talked about the subject allotted to me, made them copy the syllabus for it and
gave them a list of reference books, In the remaining time I asked them to
state their goals in life. They enthusiastically shared their ambitions. Thus,
without any trouble I completed my first hour of my teaching career. The daily
greetings from the students inside and outside the class room made me feel that
it is a very respectable job. In my first year of service I confined strictly
to the syllabus allotted, evaluated their performance through tests and
prepared course material in a standard format. That means I was performing as
an ordinary teacher.
Before starting the second year of my service, I came across an article on
“teaching not as only as career but as a ladder to future leaders.” The content
of the article was very inspiring and motivational and made me understand the
magnitude of the teaching job and the society’s expectations from the teachers.
The article, stated that, “No body is a born teacher, but, every teacher should
take conscious efforts to become outstanding and excellent teacher in course of
time, not only to command the respect of the students but, also to play a role
in character building activity of the society. ” This description of the
teacher’s role stuck in my mind solidly and from that day it became my Mantra.
I started thinking about the various strategies I have to follow to convert
myself from an “ordinary teacher” into an “outstanding teacher” in the first
phase of my career. I realised that, only when, teaching becomes a passion for
me I will be able to workout those strategies.
It indeed became a passion in the next few years after starting to enjoy the
rewards of good teaching in the form of respect and recognition for the work
done; especially when I saw students faces light up with understanding of
complex theories or concepts and their good performance in the examinations.
During that phase of my career I took extra efforts to prepare brilliant
lectures through collecting additional points from subject related magazines,
news papers, television debates and use of internet. I started making power
point presentation for complicated topics for better understanding of the
concepts taught. These extra efforts helped me improve the quality of my
lectures and course materials. I could also relate the theories to practical
situations with ease due to improvement in my communication skill. I decided
that I will not resort to teacher-centric method of teaching but rely more on
participative learning in which students will also participate with vibrancy in
the class room discussions.
My inspiration in this method was Swami Vivekananda who stated that, “education
is the manifestation of perfection already present in a man.” That means the
teachers have to only act as catalysts to induce the questioning minds of the
youth to explore more and more in the subject of their specialisation. That
also means that, the teacher should have more knowledge in the subject taught
with up-to-date information which would be possible only if they become
constant learners. In a way it even helps the teacher in academic brilliance
and quality enhancement. Only then a teacher can organise and guide class-room
discussions with confidence. Greek philosophers such as Aristotle, Socrates and
Plato went on teaching the world with passion. This passion helped them to
engage in effective dissemination of knowledge which brought forth development
of ones innate qualities. For such passionate teachers, teaching is a way of
life and not a job.
In
the third phase of my teaching career I decided, that I should strive hard to
become an excellent teacher. Hence I formulated certain strategies to achieve
that goal.
They are as follows:
• I should help the students not only in academic excellence but also, in
personality development through identifying their skills in co-curricular and
extra-curricular activities and encourage them to participate in such events.
• I will allot 7 minutes of my class hour for open discussion on any news they
have come to know from the media pertaining to global, national and regional
matters, so that they can use the class room, as a training ground for
improving their communication skill.
• I will tell them about the need to become economically independent, since
they are women students and their total dependency on others would render them
helpless during crises in life.
• I would motivate them about the need to develop positive attitude in life so
that, they will face the challenges of life with confidence.
• I will educate them about the need to learn time management skills and apply
ethical values in their life.
• I will din into their minds that higher education is a powerful tool to
empower themselves, because education gives knowledge, knowledge gives
confidence and the confidence helps them to face the challenges of life.
• I will identify disinterested students, talk to them privately to find the
root cause of their disinterest in learning and reach out to their parents to
improve home environment.
• If they have financial difficulty in paying the fees, I will strive hard to
get trust scholarship for them. I will tell such students that education is the
only tool with which they can climb up in the social and economic ladders.
• I will go beyond teaching the subject and give them guidance in career choice
or higher studies up to research level.
• I will go beyond class room to earn their confidence and will become their
guide, friend and philosopher so that, I can give a helping hand to climb up
the ladder slowly and steadily, so that they will shine in their future life.
I truly started adopting these strategies to the best of my ability. I always
used to maintain strict discipline in the class but, became warm hearted when
they approached me privately with their problems. This approach helped in
commanding their acceptance as a caring and friendly teacher Even after a
decade of retirement when my students run towards me wherever they come across
me, introduce me to their family members as “my teacher” with broad smiles on
their faces, I feel that I am duly rewarded for all my hard work during my
professional period. This profession has given me dignity in society, a place
in the hearts of students, a good income and decent pension and a purpose in
life.
Teachers are in the privileged position to make a mark in the youngster’s
lives. They should realise the seriousness of their job and understand that,
teaching will become a passion only when the teachers realise that, they are
entrusted with the task of knowledge and character building responsibilities.
These are very crucial and challenging responsibilities. To exercise these
responsibilities perfectly, it is not sufficient to engage in intellectual discourse
and it is human aspect of teaching that will convert an ordinary teacher into
an excellent teacher. It is unfortunate that, the tribe of passionate teachers
in India is fast dwindling and the number of burned out, frustrated and
exhausted teachers is increasing because they have entered into the teaching
profession not out of their choice but as a lender of last resort.
