Wednesday, September 4, 2013

The Changing and Challenging role of a teacher now a days…



Dear  students..........Suffering and humiliation are part of journey to success  and   ego is the main hindrance. 




What  made  me to write this is the fact  that  under the changed scenario of education ( commercialization ) system, the role of a teacher is becoming more and more challenging…and complex .

Earlier a teacher was like a pot maker who makes pots using a special kind of clay (mixture of suitable soil and water in required proportion).  

If the clay has the required consistency, then with his rotating wheel the pot maker can give the clay any shape he want. The beauty of pot making is that, the clay completely surrenders itself to the pot maker and allow him to mould it self . And an expert pot maker can make clay take the shape of a beautiful pottery which not only looks good , durable  but also useful for society. 

So the most important point here is how the clay surrenders it self completely to the pot maker allowing his hand does the rest of the magic. It was a true magic. But for that to happen the clay has to surrender itself completely without an iota of resistance to pot maker and also undergo certain amount of suffering. Suffering is the essence here. Suffering is the essence of life too…




In this context a teacher is like a pot maker and students are pieces of clay of required consistency ( To bring the students to that required consistency is the job of parents which now a days are failing at ) . If students surrender themselves to the teacher with a strong belief on him , then the teacher will have an easy job mould his student into a good scholar as well as a good human being. But for that happen the student need to undergo some amount of suffering in the form of hard work and discipline. 

But today under the changed scenario no student want to undergo that suffering. He wants the things  to happen as it is automatically. He don’t want to earn his marks and grads the hard way ( as it was earlier )  but expects the teacher give it or rather distribute it liberally. He doesn’t want to surrender himself , but want to act like a free bird, which makes the teachers job more difficult. And on top of it the parents now a day’s supports their kids. Even they don’t want there kin undergo suffering which is very very  essential for the success of their kid. As they have paid donation , they probably want their son or daughter sail smoothly. But they forget that doesn’t always happen like that. 


 Here students need to understand that suffering and humiliation are part of the journey of life and makes a man complete and successful too….Most importantly in a struggle for success there should not be a place for ego. 

Look how great personalities of yester years whom we so adore were suffered and more than that humiliated which brought their inner character and talent out and shine.

 Mahatma Gandhi was kicked out of a train in South Africa along with his luggage’s into plat form just because he was boarded on a first class compartment which was meant only for whites.  What a humiliation it was…?  Mr. Mohandas K. Gandhi  who was  just a lawyer then turned into a rebellion of his own kind and retuned to India to fought against British’s in his own Ahimsatmak way which helped India to get freedom. 

Mr. Subhash Chandra Bhose was humiliated again and again  in his class room by an English ( British ) teacher with racist remarks. That made young Subhash  rabel against British. Later he become a great warrior.  

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar was another person who was humiliated by his own society , by his own people , just because he was born in a lower cast. That made Dr.Ambedkar a rebellion of another kind who fought against injustice that was met out to the people of lower caste and bring reservation system. Later on his stature went so high that he wrote the constitution of Independent India.

Dr. Alberst Einstein was humiliated / suffered when his experiments failed again and again  to create a light bulb. After hundreds of trials he met with success. He found a suitable metal that can be used as a wire in the light bulb called tungsten.

Gallileo has to suffer humiliation when his won countrymen called him as a traitor and a non believer of GOD when he is presented his point of view that Earth is round and there is a solar system in which all the planets including earth rotates around Sun which creates days and night.  Till then people ( And Bible ) believed that Earth is flat.

I will give you a a more contemporary example of an actor called Rithik Roshan.  

As a child he was fat and ugly as a result of which he was a shy kid. Added to that he was a spatter (could not talk fluently / speech disorder). That’s why his father Rakesh Roshan  wanted him to be behind the camera rather than in front of it as a director. But Rithik wanted to be an actor. One day he has to face humiliation in a party hosted by his father , when a film maker told him that he can not become an actor because of his speech problem and his fat body. 

That humiliation made Rithik to introspect into him self and his priorities. But he didn’t gave up. He used to stood up for hours in front of a mirror talking with himself  for days/weeks and months which improved his speech tremendously and he become confident again. Then he started working on his body and looks. Three to four hours of training every day in a gym made him a hand some hunk. But for that he has to sweat and suffer for years together. Today he has a most admired body in the cinema industry. Even his un paralleled dancing skills are a result of his hard work and dedication for the cause of being a successful hero. 

Even at the age of 40 Sachin Tendulkar even today toils hard below a scorching sun for his net practice to keep his cricketing form which shows that even when you reach your pinnacle you should not rest. 

I am giving all these examples to emphasize the importance of suffering (hard work ) and humiliation ( which he rarely undergo these days) .   

But today a student shy away from leaving his comfort zone leave alone suffering. And humiliation is his worst nightmare. Just a few angry words from teacher, he takes it personally and thinks that that particular teacher has a grudge on him. His ego hurts. He becomes a rebel ( of no use ). Start to bunk the classes of that particular teacher.  And in this ago clash (between himself and faculty )  he may hurt academically also. 

So under this changed scenario the role of a teacher has become more and more challenging…He is not a teacher alone any more. He should be a mentor , a friend and a philosopher carefully moulding  his peer. . 

But for enacting  this new role he needs cooperation from students which should be ego-less.So my request to students is that ….

Respect your teacher, believe them ( that they always think about your good future ) and obey them so that they can lead you to success in you academics…

All the best ….

 And lastly  to my teachers...who have inspired me ...


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