On Teaching

Teaching has over the years been written off as a profession adopted only by the rejects of the corporate world, the so-called “failures” in life. It is not surprising then that seven years ago, when I stepped out of Thadomal Sahani Engineering College with a B. E. (Biomedical) degree and chose to teach mathematics and science at the middle school level, many clucked their tongues sympathetically.

Over the years, I have come to esteem teaching as one of the most high-risk professions entailing a great deal of responsibility. High risk because it is not just money with its erratic ebb and flow that is at stake, but vulnerable little lives that are entrusted to our care.

As a teacher, I have come to understand what a tremendous responsibility lies on my shoulders, the moment I step into a class. To those forty pairs of eyes looking up at me, I am a demi-God and they will take every word I say literally without questioning it at all. Not only my words, even my facial expressions and gesticulations are entering the psyche of my children as a prototype according to which their future behavioural patterns will be shaped, at least to some degree. If I allow myself to get angry or irritable in class, I am acutely aware that it is my own inadequacy showing through. We get angry when we feel out of control and resort to anger as the last tool to restore balance. I am also aware that being irritable with the children damages them in two ways.

Firstly, I am conveying to them that it is acceptable to throw tantrums and to shout. So often during the first few years of teaching, I have caught myself in the paradox of shouting for silence in the class. When these children become prefects in Std. X and will be required to monitor the lower classes, they will also scream and shout to maintain discipline, adding more noise to the environment than the little children they are meant to look after.

Secondly, every time we teachers shout at a child for something as innocuous as not doing homework or talking in class, we are damaging the self worth of the child. For us, the reprimand ends the moment it is uttered but the child will carry it home, harbour it, view it from different angles and imagine things, which were never intended by the teacher in the first place.

Sometimes, however, a child does need to be gently steered back to the path from its erroneous detour. If we are to do this, we need to first respect the child enough. If we view a child from the premise “wisdom cannot be attained, it can only be realized” then we should trust that a child already has all the answers, that we as teachers, are simply facilitators for this innate knowledge to unfold. Every time a child errs, there is this innate sense which would grow within a child as an uneasy feeling of going against its grain. Instead of boring the child with self righteous sermons, if we teachers could simply put the child in touch with this feeling, this inner voice, the child would heal spontaneously. This can be done with the simple question “How did it feel?” Sheepishly the child will admit it felt wrong. Then help the child to explore this feeling.  Scolding a child on the other hand, puts him on the defensive. In his bid to survive, he has to turn deaf to this inner voice and resorts to devising lies and half-truths. Once a child starts disregard its inner call, it starts to get dimmer and dimmer until the child becomes immune to it altogether. Give the child the security of knowing that you love him despite his deeds and that it is his action and not him as a person that you are critical of. Slowly the child will open up revealing to you his deepest scars cleverly patched up with arrogance and a “I don’t care” attitude.

Here, I will share with you one of the most heart wrenching instances in my teaching career so far. There was once a child in my class who was distracted and always sought attention by being noisy and indisciplined. A few days later, she came up to me and showed me a picture of a lady in a bridal attire.  “She is my mother”, the child whispered into my ear. “She is beautiful indeed”, I smiled back. With a deadpan expression she said, “She died two months ago of cancer.” My heart clenched as I tuned into the immense pain this child carried within her. With great misgiving it dawned on me that her behaviour, which I had been so quick to castigate, was her inner pain calling out for help.  It reminded me of the following saying I had read in a hospital once:

“Be kind to every one you meet,
for without your knowing it, 
everyone is fighting a hard battle.”

Yes, how many secret crosses our children carry without our knowing. How much we teachers can do with one kind word, one warm smile to lighten that load. 

This brings us to the key to handling children; the ancient elixir which never fails – LOVE. If we can really bring ourselves to love our children, even the rowdiest miscreant becomes putty in our hands. I have never known a single child in all my years of teaching, who could resist the call of love because that is what we are all seeking in our deepest being.

What a blessed profession we teachers are in! How many people have the privilege of affecting joy into 200 to 300 lives each day? How many are given human clay to work with, to witness its soul stirring unfoldment into beauty?  To how many does God offer Himself in the guise of little vulnerable hearts yearning love? Is there a greater joy than to wipe those precious liquid pearls off chubby cheeks, to see the gossamer happiness spreading over a child’s face as he breaks into a smile; to sow seeds in young fecund hearts which will flower years later bringing the fulfilling fruit of “teacher, it was all because of you….”?

The responsibility is great, but then, so is the reward!

- Anahita Sanjana, India

Keywords: Teaching, Education, Children, Self-development