Acharya devo bhava
Manaswini Sridhar
Takes a Village to Raise a Child….
And yet we insist that the entire burden be borne by the teacher community!
A cousin’s five and a half year old granddaughter, on a visit, said that she wanted to play the teacher game. She would be the teacher and the eight of us who were gathered there would be her students. It was a delightfully engaging drama wherein the little one comfortably slipped into the role of the seasoned teacher instructing us students to sing a rhyme, repeat the sounds of the alphabet after her, and mime the actions. She did it slowly and steadily with the right amount of eye contact, encouraging us all to imitate her… and chiding those who failed to follow suit. It was a treat to watch because she switched effortlessly from Hindi rhymes to English rhymes. When some of the reluctant adults lapsed into conversation, having tired of the game, the little one, raising her voice, demanded, “Do you think this is a fish market? Why are you making so much noise?” Even as the adults chuckled, she continued, “When you come to school, you have to study!” There was an earnestness in her voice that was very refreshing.
The child’s teacher had clearly established routines and rules in her classroom because there was no hesitation on the part of the child while doing the activity or even when cleverly switching to a transition activity. The language was confident and the body language was truly magnificent. The child had undoubtedly imbibed the positive qualities of the teacher, setting the tone and pace for a class. The child was the perfect teacher because she also had the perfect teacher! When an audience encourages such children, what they are actually doing is lauding the teacher… and children sense this! And that is where And then they lived happily ever after… actually begins! The signals that we emit to our children in their early years form their attitudes towards teaching and their teachers.
Teaching is a trying profession because you are under the microscope all the time; the microscope size and type varies because principals, the other staff members, your own students, children who are not yet your students, and parents are constantly examining you to ascertain whether you are doing the right thing, and more importantly if you have said anything WRONG! Quite a challenge, but as teachers, if we promise ourselves that we will be mindful of our language, we will be respected for being that teacher who did not contribute towards a distorted perspective of life… and that speaks volumes!
Today the world believes that we are all meant to be different from one another and no child should be compared to another because it gives them a complex. How will this same child who decides to opt for a teaching career then cope with life when comparisons are being made all the time of how one teacher appears, teaches, grades, conducts himself/herself, etc.? Doctors and lawyers get paid more but no one spends so much time analyzing the quality of service they deliver. Teachers get paid far less, and yet the newspapers splash stories of their inadequacy, their incompetence…, everything under the sun.
Teachers have their own bag of problems. Although everyone is firmly convinced that Kindergarten is where the blossoming takes place, schools are not really looking for competent and qualified teachers there because they feel that the teacher is after all handling a three and half year old, and how demanding can that be?
A teacher rather hesitantly told me the following: Sometimes the nursery teachers are not very qualified or knowledgeable. Schools feel that these teachers deal only with tiny tots. If a teacher is capable of managing the 20-odd children and taking them through the routines of the day, then they are to be retained. However, when these very same children are promoted to the primary section and the teachers start teaching the different subjects more systematically, sometimes the complaints pour in, particularly relating to the English language since so many parents are so ‘obsessed’ about their children mastering the language. Parents are forthright and ask whether what the nursery teacher had taught was correct or whether what is being taught now is correct. Either way, it becomes a problem for the teacher. Does one then allow the mistake to remain and carry on, or does one explain, and how does one explain?
It is these things that make the more knowledgeable teacher’s job a little more difficult because then that teacher has to try and erase that wrong knowledge and then introduce the new knowledge. As we all know, unlearning is more difficult than learning, and the question that children (and parents) keep asking us again and again is, “But why did that teacher teach me the wrong thing?” https://www.reddit.com/r/Teachers/comments/5wvsj4/should_i_correct_a_teacher_that_teaches_wrong/ has an exchange on how to try and correct a teacher without embarrassing or angering her. If an adult is aware that a wrong concept or a wrong skill is being taught, it is mandatory for the person to step in and correct it, and not allow the child to retain facts and practices that are wrong… it is in no way helping the child at that point of time or at a later point of time… as a matter of fact, it is detrimental to the high school teachers also who ultimately need to tackle the issue. Such instances remind us that no matter how elementary the class is, we need to know everything there is to teach in that book so that we do not make mistakes. When there are teacher resource manuals and CDs available with every book, it is necessary that as teachers we study the manual and listen to the CD so that we do not make even the simplest of mistakes.
It was disturbing to learn of a recent incident in a school during the time when parents and students came to pick up their report cards after an examination. Around 30 students, along with their parents, surrounded a teacher who they felt had set an unreasonable question paper and therefore had deprived students of their marks. The teacher had no assistance, and was assaulted by questions from her own students. There are ways and means of handling such a situation. If a child cannot respect the teacher because the parent has taught him/her not to, where will the learning happen? What would happen if teachers too formed teacher associations to protect themselves from such harassment? Can parents and students not work in unison with teachers? How many parents would have the patience, the time or the knowledge to homeschool their children?
http://www.daviesskyschools.org/userfi les/1710/My%20Files/GV%20News%20-%202016-2017/2%20-%20LFC%20-%20Kevin%20Thompson%20OMS%20-20Parent-Teacher%20Collab.pdf?id=31103 is an article that outlines the importance of parents and students respecting teachers. Acharya devo bhava….let’s nurture this healthy respect for teachers.
Tip of the month
If you need an extra class to complete your portions, ask the teacher concerned first. Do not tell the class that you will talk to the teacher to give up a few of his/her classes so that you can complete your portions. This shows scant respect for your colleague and the subject he/she is handling. You are shaping the attitude of your students!
The author is a teacher educator and language trainer based in Hyderabad. She can be reached at manaswinisridhar@gmail.com.
