Monday, February 22, 2010

Those who can, Do. Those who can't, Teach.

Listened/I/Loved/I/Voice/Because/Her

Can you decipher this line? I’m sure most of us can. I was appalled to know that 9th class English teachers were not able to decipher this rather simple question. (I listened, because I loved her voice) Some truly incompetent wise heads got together and decided that the question was probably wrong. So they put in place of it a question to which they already knew the answer.

Another example is from a class on social studies. In one if the chapters there was a small passage on Population. And at the end of it was a question: What is population? Within the passage, there was no direct answer to this question. Outside references should / could / might have been used to come to the right answer. But strangely enough the teacher marked out a few lines within the small passage as "THE" answer to the above question. The only connection it had to the question was that the word population was mentioned in it once. I asked the student about it and he said that if they do not write the answer that the teacher has dictated, then the answer is marked as wrong or not entirely appropriate. So they are forced to mug things up, even if they are wrong. Now 9th graders should be given the liberty to use their brains just a little bit. But if they start using their brains then the teachers also have to do the same and at a much larger scale.

But the teacher simply made his/her job easy. Instead of having to read, correct and mark 40 to 50 different answers he/she simply got the whole lot to mug up one single version of it.
In both the above cases the teachers acted lazily and, to put it a bit harshly, refused to make much use of their mental faculties.
These are not just lame examples to condemn teachers. They are real life stories. But in order to understand it better, I went and asked some students in my locality about what they felt about it? Do they feel suffocated at not being able to express themselves? An angry 11th class student told me how he was restricted to “follow the book” and not allowed to experiment with harmless salts in the chemistry lab(he just wanted to check what reaction would happen with a different salt and all the salts were totally harmless). On asking the lab attendant as to why were they not allowed to experiment with different salts, the lab assistant smiled and said “teacher ko kudh aata hoga to aapko samjhayega na?” (The teacher will explain only if he knows anything beyond what’s there in the book). He narrated the incident where that particular teacher was embarrassed in front of the entire class long back when one student had asked questions on performing similar experiments.
“Do you find your teachers worthy of their profession?” I asked an engineering student.
“There are all types of teachers in my college. Some are truly great and are really concerned about us making a good career out of our education. Some are not bothered. They just wait for their salary slip. Some are jealous of us and don’t teach as well as they should.”
“Jealous?” that was an interesting thought.
“Yes Didi, there are teachers in my college who are jealous of us because they think that after we pass out from the college with an engineering degree; we would be earning much more than them. I don’t know if they are sadists or morons, but they are not worthy of a noble profession as teaching”, replied the upset student.
I thought it would be a good idea to know a parents perspective also. How satisfied are the parents with this system of education? I met a parent who has a master’s degree from USA. I thought he would be able to give a fair picture of both worlds.
“Teachers can be categorized in three categories. First are the ones who just do their work for money. Second are the ones who are really passionate about teaching. Now, this category can be further divided into two subparts. “
“Ones who can and others who can’t.”
“The ones who can are those who go the extra mile in making their lectures as interesting and informative as possible. They encourage students to be proactive. They engage each student in the learning process. The ones who can’t have all the knowledge that is needed about the subject, but they don’t know how to deliver their thoughts in an interesting way.”
“Unfortunately, our country has more of either the first category teachers who teach for money or the passionate teachers who don’t know how to teach. That is the prime reason why we all end up being book worms and are unable to grasp the real essence of any subject. “
When parents hand over the responsibility of education of their child to the teachers, they actually place an unspoken trust in the teachers that they will help in molding their child into a learned individual. But does “learned” mean cramming up few lines and producing the blueprint of dictations on the answer sheet to score good grades? I’m sure you all disagree with such a psyche. Cramming up is nothing but learning something for a short span of time and forgetting it after it has served its purpose. So how can such a short lived knowledge prove useful in long run?
So, what does it take to make a good teacher?”
A good teacher has great responsibilities on his shoulders. He is responsible in making a difference in the lives of his students. For this, teaching demands a lot of enthusiasm, an open mind, a broad knowledge of subjects, a caring attitude and most importantly a love for learning and sharing that knowledge.
A good teacher needs to be passionate about his work. Why do we applaud Mark Thackeray (from the movie To Sir, with Love) or Mr. Hand (from the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High) or any such character? It’s because these characters portray the zeal which differentiates a good teacher from a sadist who tortures his students in history and algebra classes. And, we all have always wanted to have such teachers for ourselves and our children.
A good teacher knows that knowledge cannot be acquired in closed classrooms only. He understands that theory needs to be balanced well with practical lessons. He encourages the “why” from his students and comes prepared to answer the queries.
A teacher can make or mar his students’ growth and development. Therefore, it is very important that only those people who are sure that they can serve as a guide, friend, confidante and an educator should take up teaching as a profession.

Ghandigiri

I had to get my driving license made from Chandigarh. On our way, I asked my husband what his opinion was regarding the relevance of gandhism in today’s world.
“I don’t deny that if we all follow Gandhian values, the world would be a better place”, he said. “But it makes more economic sense in today’s world to not follow them”.
“Economic sense?” I was curious to know what he meant.
“Yes, economic sense. Let’s take the example of your driving license. You have two options. First, you can spend days or even weeks standing in queues and getting your license made in the so called correct way. For that you will not only invest a lot of time and energy but also will be asked to go to n number of government offices. The second method is to bribe the person responsible for the entire process. In fact, even if you don’t want to bribe him, he would expect it from you.”
I asked myself inwardly about what I would do. Did I have so much time to invest in merely toggling from one queue to another? More importantly, did I have that much patience? Sadly, my answer was no. He was right. I would not think twice in shelling out a few bucks to get my work done in lesser amount of time if I could.
“Corruption has seeped into every system to such an extent that even if you try to bypass it, it won’t let you do that. Time is money today and no one has so much patience or time to follow the rules.”
“But aren’t we responsible for this corruption. Had we all followed Gandhian values right from the beginning, this situation would not have emerged?” I asked.
“No. Think of a house where there are three people and there is a basket which has three apples. Earlier, each person could get one apple each and the thought of stealing never came to anyone’s mind because each person was content. Now the number of people in the house increased to 6 but the number of apples remained the same. Though, the 6 people tried to be content with half an apple each but how long would that be with the number of people increasing more rapidly than the amount of resources to fulfill their needs.”
I could not question his analogy. Can you give an answer to this?
Finally, we came to Chandigarh and after eating food I asked the maid of the house if she knew who Gandhi ji was. “Bade neta the na (he was a great leader)?” she said. I nodded. “Do you know what values he taught us?” I asked her. “Padai kahan se Karen bhabhi (how can I study)?” She said. She told me that she had 6 sisters and 2 brothers. Her father had died long back. Her mother and all the sisters were working in order to run the house and support the education of their brothers. “pad likh lenge to naukri mil jayegi. Phir shayad aise kaam na karna pade (if my brothers study, they will get jobs. Maybe, then we won’t have to work like this)”. Gandhi ji was just a big leader for her and nothing else. I’m sure it is the same for her other sisters also.
I went to the license office the next day. I didn’t have to stand in the queue because the person in charge knew my father-in-law very well. I was asked to go to another room. But I was not alone there. There were 5 more people like me in the room.
“You all have to take an online test. “
A girl was made to login first. She scored 4 out of ten and was declared fail by the computer. The officer wrote “pass” on her file and told her to go to the next room. “Do I have to give the driving test also?” she asked the officer. He just smiled and told her that she had cleared all formalities necessary and she didn’t need to worry.
The same process continued for all the other. Some people passed the online test and some didn’t. But that made no difference. They all had passed the test of being affiliated to someone who knew the officer or had bribed him enough to overlook the results of the test.
“If this test result means nothing then why are you making us take it?” I finally asked him. “Madam, formality to poori karni padti hai (we have to do this formality).”
I asked him what Gandhi ji meant to him. Is he respected merely because of his status as 'Father of the Nation'? Do people say Gandhi ji and Mahatma as a mark of respect or they simply do to appear politically correct? Or is it because of indoctrination by the educational system?
He smiled and said that if he were to follow gandhism, we all would have been waiting in a long queue without the certainty of our license being made today. He was candid enough to accept that Gandhi ji and his values sounded good only in books and lectures. He added that gandhism didn’t hold true in real world.
I stepped out of the office, onto the road. I asked the same questions to a rickshaw walla on the road. He gave me a confused look and asked me, “bethna hai ya mein jaaon (do you want to go somewhere in my rickshaw or should I leave)?” It was not his fault. It was his poverty and illiteracy which made him react like that.
After interviewing people from different spheres of life I realized that it is not Gandhi ji’s principles that have become irrelevant today; it is the impatience of modern times that has lead to the growth of corruption. The root cause of existing disharmony is the egoistic attitude and mutual distrust amongst people and nations.
Gandhi’s ideology about patience, persuasion and perseverance being the three crucial elements for attainment of peace and harmony, have become the need of the hour. Truth and non-violence alone can fight the existing global intolerance and hatred.