Teachers’ Day: student perspective

World Teachers’ Day is celebrated on 5^th October annually. We salute all those teachers who transform human raw material into national and global assets.

What characteristics do we look for in a good teacher? The dominant opinion is that a good teacher is always loving and respecting for students. Accepted. But if a loving and respecting teacher fails in inculcating in us the love for his subject, he will not be remembered as a great teacher. The reason is that the grey areas in the study, if left uncrystallised during student life, will continue to haunt the students throughout their lives and careers. The students would never have fond memories of such teachers. The student’s expertise in a subject is directly proportional to the teacher’s successful inspiration.

Another quality in the repertoire of a good teacher is that he has good communication and rapport with his students. Such a teacher knows unasked and unanswered questions, causing suffocation in mind and spirit. The beautifully answered questions and the sternly snubbed questions both leave their mark on the human mind: the former generate mellow memories while the latter scars. Elbert Hubbard says: “A good teacher is one who can understand those who are not very good at explaining and explain to those who are not very good at understanding.”

Nevertheless, the most disquieting moment for a teacher is when he is outwitted by a student’s question. To say touché instead of roiling the answer is the acid test for the magnanimity of a teacher.

A genuine teacher never employs one-size-fits-all pedagogy for all students. He never ignores the individual differences of intellect in students. He knows intelligence is a non-Boolean value. He never labels a student dullard who fails one subject. Howard Gardner, an American psychologist, introduced the concept of multiple intelligences in students. A good teacher must know that learners can be aural, visual, or kinaesthetic.

Students dislike the teacher who makes comparisons among students as per one skill. This develops a rebellious attitude in students, making them stubborn on what they are. Every child is gifted with a particular set of skills, and a genuine teacher brings those skills to the fore to make the student believe in himself and raise his self-esteem. The work of Rosenthal and Jacobson shows that teacher expectations influence pupil performance positively, and they describe this phenomenon as the Pygmalion Effect.

These days, teachers frequently wallow in self-aggrandisement. They get compulsively indulged in personal anecdotes to present themselves as more diligent and successful than their students. Such behavioural aberrations dispel students away from the teacher. On the contrary and factually, students are inspired by the effort teachers put in for the former’s success and understanding of their subjects.

Teachers with a strong command of their subject and a willingness to deliver their knowledge always succeed in inspiring their students. However, the urge to ace his subject sometimes makes a teacher hanker after more knowledge when the bits of knowledge are just a click away. We see teachers glued to their mobile phones even when students are around waiting with empty minds to garner knowledge, but the teacher’s gluttony for flashy information makes him oblivious of his role and duty. Here, the teacher may have an abundance of ‘knowledge’ but not the urge and motivation to deliver what he is meant for.

A teacher can be inspiringly best when he deems his students the national asset, and his duty a national obligation. This approach would serve as the fountainhead of dedication. Actually the commercialisation of education has turned students into commodities for teachers and educational institutions, aiming only at higher grades instead of real learning and education. Consequently, the role of teacher has mutated from inspiration to mere quantitative success. A genuine teacher is never parochial.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2023.

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