The great philosopher, Dr S. Radhakrishnan said that, “an educational institute is what it’s teachers make it”.
From as early as the days mentioned in our scriptures, teachers or ‘guru’ as they were called, played a very significant role in the life of not just their student or ,’shishya’ but also society in general. This was possible because society considered the teacher as the supreme power. A power that would build the new generation. A power that was never doubted. A very powerful sanskrit shloka sums up the importance of a guru.
The above lines mean that a guru is the representative of Bharma, Vishnu and Shiva. He not only creates knowledge but also sustains it and removes the weeds of ignorance. I salute such a Guru !
Does this shloka have any significance today? Why aren’t teachers given their due respect?
Is it because we perceive the education level of teachers lesser than any other profession?
They are, however, still looked down upon, to some extent, because they don’t work 9-to-5, and they have all of these holidays.
We don’t truly understand what teachers do in the classroom. We have all been to school and therefore, we all assume that we understand what goes on there and it doesn’t seem that hard.
What’s so great in showing up five days a week for six hours a day, talk for a while, and go home early. Never mind being able to get through to kids, never mind developing lesson plans and making material ready for the class, never mind the difficulties of understanding how your students’ minds work, never mind the theory and difficult practices of pedagogy, and particularly never mind the rising administrative and safety hassles and the cross questioning of the parents.
It looks, from the outside, as if teachers have a very easy jig. Of course, if most parents were to try teaching for a couple of weeks, their perspectives might change—but the chances of that happening are pretty slim.
Teaching is a hard, often thankless, stressful, and emotionally taxing job – so much so that many of new teachers quit within the first five years of their appointment. Teaching requires passion and we need to learn to respect this aspect of a teacher. I still remember that as a child I had once made a frivolous remark about a teacher in front of my parents. In a flash of a second my father had given me a good one on my face and my lesson for life was learnt. I still remember his words so vivid, he had said, “If you doubt your teacher, you can never learn”. I remember this till date.
Thanks to social media, today we have these WhatsApp Groups of every class where parents get a fabulous platform to criticize the teaching methodologies. When we aren’t able to trust and respect the teacher of our child how and why should the child ever respect his or her teacher?
So let’s all try to give this profession it’s real due. The most important thing that we can do is, to give teachers the credit that they deserve and to value education in all facets of our lives. Let’s just not remember or appreciate our teachers on Teachers Day, as believe you me, everyday is Teachers Day!
Teachers are saints, not just hard workers. Let’s give this major value to our new generation and not forget it ourselves!
