THE MOST NOBLE PROFESSION

It was only when I started college that I understood how a teacher is supposed to be. It would be a gross error to say that I did not have any good teacher during my school days. On the contrary, I was taught by many wonderful teachers, and a few horrible ones too. But this man put them all to shame when it came to the honourable duty of imparting knowledge to young minds. It was the first time in my life that I looked at a teacher and wished to be like him when I grew up, not including my parents of course.

We were nearly halfway through our first semester that we had our first class with him. At the end of that hour, everyone of us were mesmerized. It was apparent that this man was born to teach. He loved to stand infront of a group of people and talk. His eyes literally lit up when he started teaching. He did not expect undivided attention of the entire class either, which, surprisingly, made every student all the more keen to listen to his lecture. I can honestly say that he is one of the best teachers I ever had.

I met the other end of that list recently as well. Unfortunately, it happened to be my driving instructor. I was very eager to learn how to drive a car, so eager that I was up and about nearly an hour before the class was scheduled to start (definitely a first for me). But it turned out to be one of the biggest disappointments in my life. This guy seemed to be mortally offended when he found that I displayed no aptitude for driving at all. My touch had only two levels: too hard, or not at all. I could not, for the life of me, figure out whether the car was moving in a straight line or drifting towards the edge of the road. My sense of time and distance seemed to be non-existant. And this guy kept getting on my nerves with comments like “You made my blood pressure shoot up” and “You’ve given me another headache”. I was under the impression that he was supposed to teach me what I didn’t know. Sure, I was a dimwit, a dunce. That’s no reason to insult someone who has come to learn something from you.

Teaching is one of the most important professions in existence. Not for nothing do we Indians place Gurus right up there with God. A teacher is one of the most important people in an individual’s life. The way we are taught what we are taught could decide which path we follow in our life. When I had just finished 5^th standard and was about to enter 6^th, when we would diversify from just science to botany, zoology, physics and chemistry, I was thrilled. I was especially interested to learn about animals. But all I was told to do was mug up this definition or this diagram and reproduce it on the exam paper. Of course, one can’t blame the teachers, they are after all, the servants of a flawed system. But my point is that teachers can either cultivate or kill the interest of a student. Those who kill it, in my opinion, have no right to be a teacher.

Now, a bad teacher need not necessarily be a bad person. But there are those who believe that just because of their chosen profession, they are divine. I had a teacher in high school who really believed that he was almost divine because he indulged in the noble art of teaching. He believed that he deserved our respect no matter what he did. What such people don’t realize is that respect is not earned by what you do, it’s earned by how you do it.

Teachers, with the values and knowledge they impart, have the power to change this nation, to push it towards progress. I just wish that every one practicing this profession realizes that. Not every Tom, Dick and Harry can become a teacher, it requires much patience, moral sense, some knowledge of psychology and most importantly, a love for it. You don’t just become a teacher in a day, you have to born for the job.