As an English teacher, it has always been my habit to keep on teaching new words to my sons, their meanings, synonyms, pronunciation etc. My children simply detest this habit of mine!! I keep on telling them that good command on language and communication skills are important for any person, for any career. They hardly care. But to my utter surprise, they learnt one word very easily during these days of covid when all youngsters are on social media all the time, i.e NEPOTISM. After an actor’s sad demise, the whole country, especially the netizens are talking and discussing only about nepotism. Daily tweets by celebrities keep on fuelling this debate over how a parent passes on his career or profession on his children. Be it an Ambani or a doctor or actor, or lawyer or shopkeeper so on and so forth. This made me think…that there is one rare profession that no parent wants to pass on to his or her children i.e. TEACHING!
No parent would imagine his child taking up teaching as his profession and the wise, evolved youngsters of today would never imagine becoming a teacher!! They may love some of them, respect them but would not like to become them!!! In a recent conversation with one of my friends whose son’s favourite subject in class XII humanities stream is Geography, she mentioned rather anxiously..what will he do by liking Geography… geography ka teacher banega kya?… She herself is a teacher for the last twenty years or so!
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This made me think…how low an opinion we teachers ourselves have about our profession and work. No wonder human teachers are on their way out and we have hardly any good teachers left at the school and university levels. Those who are there are also because of wrong reasons, not that they are passionate about their subjects or love teaching, but because of reasons such as it’s kind of half day work, considered to be a noble profession, suits women with kids at home etc…
But, I truly think that we need good teachers (human) more than anything else in this country today. One who not only love their subjects but are also able to inculcate that love in their students. Those who go beyond the realms of books and syllabus and teach and discuss about larger social, environmental issues, issues related to life. Teachers who don’t consider themselves as masters or Mr Know Alls but one who feel that together with my students, I will endeavour to gain more knowledge, one who teaches them values for life such as humility and honesty by being humble and honest herself . One who doesn’t discriminate between students on the basis of their liking her subject or not, or being good in her subject or not i.e. one who treats all students with equality. Lastly, a teacher who could tell and motivate her students not to be selfish in this selfish world, but to think about others too…teach them a thing or two about patriotism, to make them question what they can do for their nation rather than what their nation has done for them.
It’s a rather long post and long list of wishes from a teacher. But, I would like to end it by just asking all those who read this as pondering over teaching as a career option. Believe me, its rewards are many.
