Happy Teachers’ Day

Education…is a painful, continual and difficult work to be done in kindness, by watching, by warning, by praise, but above all - by example.
 
John Ruskin
 
I was thinking a lot about the topic to choose for blogging. When Teachers' Day has come I thought what better topic to choose than teachers, I being one of them!

I had thought of talking about my teachers but then I remembered that I had written the same on last year's Teacher's Day. Then I came across a few articles in the newspapers which touched my heart. The first case was from the life of a principal of a school. He stated that now-a-days, not many people respect teachers the way they used to earlier. He described an incident that happened in his school. One of the parents had come in a swanky car to pick up his son from school. As his son was getting in the car, he pointed to the principal and said "My son, you study well otherwise you'll become like him when you grow up." The second article was about the respect that students showed to one of their teachers who taught them 20 years ago. This happened in Chennai. Tamil teacher, SV Ventakraman, retired in 1985 after working for 41 years in a school. He had to support his wife and son with the amount of Rs. 9,000. All his savings were spent on the marriages of his two daughters. He was not able to pay the rent of the house where he was staying. MA Arthanari, a retired municipal commissioner and an old student convened a meeting with other 500 students in 2007, collected Rs ten lakh, bought a house and gifted it to their guru. Teaching is a tough job.

There are days when I feel very low because the class drives me crazy. Sometimes, students just don't listen to what I say. Of course, in situation like that I have to punish students. But I have never beaten anybody nor have I humiliated any student in such a way that it demoralises her. May be, that's why students feel comfortable discussing their problems with me. But then one of the senior teachers told me that, as a teacher, one should never be very friendly with students. Otherwise they won't respect you. I do not know how far this is true.

One of my former students (I taught her 3 years ago. Now she's gone to a different section.) sent this SMS to me. "The things I appreciate about you are nature, voice, personality, simplicity and sense of humour. You make an amazing teacher. I am glad I was taught by you." When a student comes up with such a message, a teacher feels humbled and honoured.

To sum up, I would like to state the message that one of the students had written on the Teachers' Day card that she had made on her own. "A teacher is someone who teaches us to think, imagine, apply and take action and whose efforts try to make us perfect." Isn't it a wonderful message?