How many teachers do you remember in life?

Teaching as a profession has not got its due in India. Probably because most (not all) of our school teachers were there for a job and not for passion of teaching. Simple test which I ask many people to do is recall the names of your teachers and mostly people are able to recall around one or two, at the most three. Then I ask them what about rest, they don’t seem to remember, and my personal take is probably they didn’t leave a mark on your life. Teachers don’t earn that much money but what they earn is the gratitude of the students and that is priceless. But understandably in our country our first contact teachers in school are not necessarily driven by passion to teach and most likely are there for livelihood. And they fail to ignite the same fire that a passionate person would. On a more senior level in post graduation and beyond particularly in medical sector I notice a sense of insecurity in many people and fear that the student will go beyond them. Problem is people who are really passionate about life and things probably in India don’t end up being teachers and people who end up being teachers are there for reasons other than teaching. Then who will inspire our children for future. 

I sincerely believe that both government and private sector should encourage volunteers to teach. Why can’t they have volunteer registry and invite them to schools/colleges as per their convenience and get them to interact with students. Give them a token of appreciation, like a certificate or momento and I am sure many of us would spare sometime for them and talk to students.

Teaching is a noble profession and I really wish that we restore the nobility associated with it.

This is a quote which a student many years back sent to me with thanks for the help in DAMS- “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” and made a difference in my life.

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