TEACHERS DAY
They say “teacher is the builder of nation.” The student, as such, is the building block by dint of which the edifice of the nation is raised. As we know that an architect never compromises on the quality of the material which s/he uses for raising a building, so does a teacher. Rough material and coarse material can never raise an erect building which would resist calamities and disasters, natural or of human origin. So, an architect or a builder doesn’t plan a building over night. S/he drafts the plan so well that each and every step taken to construct the building is in accord with the building plan. This minute and intricate planning on the part of the builder(s) could be seen throughout the human history. Although modern technology has added sophistication and intricacy to the engineering skills of man, but one is still humbled to see the awe inspiring structures of the past civilizations, whether the Egyptian pyramids or the square cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro or the structures erected by any other civilization. The common feature of all these huge and high structures is the execution of the work as per planning and a definite methodology.
Now, in the building of a nation, the builder, that is, the teacher has to use the generation next of students as the building blocks. And, these blocks are to be chiseled out, sharpened and smoothened so that they could fit in the scheme of things. This “smoothening” process by dint of which the “character and behaviour of a student is modified” is called education in the simplest and common terms. If this is not done, the “raw material” in the form of students would not be suitable for the grand edifice of the nation or the society at large. Again, if this material is used without taking into consideration the importance of the building or the nation, simply, the structure would be raised on a weak foundation, always susceptible to crumbling down due to its fragility. As such, the teacher has to groom the student and enrich her/his capabilities in such a way that the community of students works in unison for the strength and durability of social development and national building.
Symbolically, the teacher’s smoothening process starts when s/he sharpens the pencil of the student which the latter has to write with. Even before this process is begun, the teacher makes the student habitual of the new environs of the school. Here, the teacher makes the student to feel at home and, as such, the school becomes just the extension of the mother’s lap for these little ones where they start the process of learning by “hearing” what not only the teacher speaks but also what the other students utter. Moreover, the student also minutely observes the new environment and then starts making the “innocent judgments” by the word of tongue (speech). It is the “stage three” that the student starts “recording” her/his observations in the form of writing.
In this “three dimensional” process of learning, the teacher basically acts as the observer, supervisor, guide or friend of the student. The teacher, as such, is not here to thrust anything on the student against her/his will, liking and aptitude. If the teacher, for example, tries to use force, material or immaterial (corporeal or incorporeal), to speed up the learning process of the students, it will end up not only in failure but it could be counter-productive at times. “Force teaching,” as it could be called, could result in dropping out of a student which would consequently lead to psychological disorders in these students. Such students, naturally, would indeed be detrimental for the social fabric at large.
So, to make the teaching-learning process an interesting and wholesome enterprise, what the teacher does is that s/he, by and large, uses the “play way” or the “learning by doing” methods to actualize the latent (hidden) potential of the student(s). Although these two methods are not the only methods which education, as a process, can depend upon, but through these methods the teacher behaves like a gardener who takes every care of the saplings which are planted in the garden. A gardener, we know, doesn’t uproot the flowering plants of the garden to beautify it. What s/he does is that these plants are weeded, watered and pruned.
As the students are just like the flowering plants on which depends the effulgence of the generation(s) next, therefore, the teacher becomes and behaves like the gardener or the custodian of the students. The teacher, as such, doesn’t thrust anything on the student on her/his part. S/he never considers the student a receptacle which had to be filled from without, that is, from outside. The student, on the contrary, is filled to the brim with potentialities which need to be carved out or diffused. That is why the teacher encourages the students for anything except the mistake, because here the teacher, as the custodian, corrects the students. This is because the teacher knows that “the bullock is thrashed if it doesn’t walk to plough the land, but it isn’t punished if it doesn’t fly!”
Thus the teacher uses her/his expertise to put the student on the track of learning. As this path of learning has no end, therefore, the teacher inculcates in the student the spirit of learning not only from the written words of the book, but also from the larger book (canvas) of the nature whose lessons are ever changing and never ending. Also, the teacher doesn’t confine the teaching process only to the walls of the classroom or laboratory. S/he instills such a spirit of “knowing” in the student that the student finds the vast laboratory of the society open for gaining new experience and expertise. Such a student never considers herself/himself jobless for s/he applies all his knowledge and experience to ameliorate the living condition of the society which he lives in and which he is a part of.
As such, the teacher, as the custodian, instills a sense of confidence in the student who is always ready to take up any role for the benefit of herself/himself as an individual as well as the society at large. However, the sense of confidence is never shorn of the sense of responsibility. Such a student always remembers all her/his benefactors and well wishers especially her/his teachers. And, when such a student takes the role of a teacher, in one way of the other, s/he continues to remain a student to continue the process of learning and to take forward the torch of knowledge and enlightenment because the society can never afford to remain without its custodians, that is, the teachers!
(The author is Assistant Professor at HED, J&K. Email: [email protected])
