STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts
August 7, 2017
Prof. S. Ramkumar
Education, Life
Teachers: students make them!
Man-making or Nation-building , the teacher is the instrumental foundation and means. This is an attempt to crystallize the thoughts on becoming a good teacher, may it be in schools, Colleges, Institutes or Universities.
- Preserving the curiosity
Primary to PhD , the pristine element of a teacher is the same “creating and leading a learning environment”. However I feel the responsibility is more so with school teachers, especially primary and secondary schools. In fact after the family to which a child is born (the members of which are the first teachers of their life), the inquisitiveness of the child is to be kept alive and promoted by the primary teachers, the foundation builders. I remember Mother Prosperous who was more than a teacher to me when I was in my 2nd standard, whom I met after so many years after she became the Generalite, who recognized me as the child who persistently asked questions. I remember her as a patient listener lovingly trying to explain to a 7 year old on the myriads of life, quite incomprehensible at that age.
- Nothing less than a role model
“The classrooms shape the destiny of a country”- brings out the role of teacher inside a classroom. Teachers are creating the future society, a responsible a and continuous task. This demand that there is nothing less than a role model expected from a teacher. This attributes great responsibility and sense of satisfaction for a teacher. Students learn what you do, not necessarily what you teach or say (except a subject taught). It’s not what is being taught that the children learn; its you they learn!
- Connecting to every student
Every learner, ( irrespective of the varying capacities we attribute to them) should feel that (s)he is being cared by the teacher. Classrooms should not be a generic totality of “one teacher” to “collection of students”(we do not have a collectivity name of a collection of learners like the pack of hounds or murder of crows, which can remind a teacher that each learner is unique with potentials of thinking and reasoning )); rather it has to emulate the feeling of “one teacher” to “each student”. This connectedness to each student is vital to create interest and involvement of students. The method of linking to each student involves innovations on creativity of connectedness on the part of teacher. Think a situation that every student feels that the teacher is his or hers!
4.Teaching doesn’t happen in vacuum
Every student or learner (an infant child to an old person; poor or rich; literate or illiterate) have a knowledge set of his own. Teaching is a process of sharing between two sets of knowledge, which is essentially communication. This should start by understanding and respecting this knowledge.
- Teaching to prepare for life: the litmus test : Teacher need to realize his/her role in a wider context to position himself or herself. Teaching cannot be measured in terms of the books or compositions corrected, examination papers set or answer books evaluated or the number of hours or periods spend in a class or laboratory (though all these are needed!). It is the qualitative change that has been brought out among the students in the “learning for life” that decides the result of teaching. The disciplines or subjects we try to transfer knowledge about are one of the tools effecting this change. Any subject for that matter is important, a tool that should be used in a wider understanding of purpose of education by a teacher. It has a lot to do with fitting into the setting, culture or heritage. “ Education is the perfecting of life- the enrichment of the individual by the heritage of the race. Let this vital process of transmission and absorption be interrupted for half a century, and civilization would end, our grandchildren would be more primitive than savages” Will Durant: 2014 “Fallen Leaves: last words on Life, Love War and God”. Swami Vivekananda’s advice as “ Education is the manifestation of perfection already in man”, is relevant and simple in making realize the role of a teacher to bring out the best in a child, which is already there. Any subject we teach is an opportunity for this.
- Being a Pansophist : Comenius, the famous educationist of the 17 century (sometimes named as Father of Modern education) had his concept of philosophy of “pansophism” which related to education for everyday life and called for a systematic relationship to be developed for all knowledge ( as against the conventional encyclopedic teaching”). He advocated teaching in the common or vernacular language of students rather than in Latin (in his place at that time!), and the establishment of a universal system of education with opportunities that included women and people of all nations. Interestingly India has preached one form of this as Vasudhaiyva Kudumbakom ( the vedic concept of world is a family). Pansophism would make a learner capable of wisdom in any subject and be “able to see any subject in relation to others”. (Robert. R. Rusk: The doctrines of the great educators: 1954). Teachers need to be attempt to be pansophists, at least to the extent that is possible.
- Teacher in the digital environment :As teaching undergoes changes, one of the new and powerful entrants to the field is the “Digital environment”. Actual learning happens now, as in earlier times in family, school and society. But one of the influential factor in all these is the digital teacher. The teachers need to rationalize the application of these for children giving them the opportunity to experience both the virtual and real. Teachers cannot take this as a matter of convenience or inconvenience. It’s a matter of opportunity , the ultimate aim is making the children fit for a successful life within a technology-led day of the present. The world has been so, applying the teachings of the day – logic, religion, science or – from Plato to Dr Abdul Kalam!