Thursday, September 08, 2005

HAPPY Teachers Day ???

Well, 5th September came and went and I had another gloomy Teachers' Day for the 4th consecutive year. Well no, I'm no teacher, but I just miss the way I used to celebrate Teachers Day before I started college. 4 years ago, when I was in school, Teachers' Day meant staying up awake late in the night and making hand-made cards for all the teachers. Then buying roses the very next morning and enjoying this deep sense of satisfaction each time I saw a teacher admire my cards. When I was in school, I had teachers whom I really cared about, whom I was really attached to. I tried creating the same kind of bond during my first year of college, but it miserably failed...So I stopped trying any further to save myself a lot of embarrassment. Maybe the culprit here is the changing scenario in the teaching profession and not just in India.

Acharya Devo Bhava - The teacher is equivalent to God. This is what our Indian scriptures say....but ask any person today and no one wants to be a teacher anymore. A lot of teachers love their job, but they do not love their profession. Isn't it pathetic ? India is the only country that celebrates Teachers' Day and yet we ourselves don't know its true meaning.

Till my mother’s generation, people, especially women dreamt of being teachers. But can my generation dream of such a thing? I wanted to be a teacher as well, but it changed when i saw the plight of people in this profession. With the best brains getting into other professions, only the mediocre take up teaching and in many cases they are unable to clear doubts on complicated concepts. This is why we have coaching classes. But that's another issue and I'll talk on that later.

Inspite of low remunerations and low levels of motivation, we still have teachers who are like a breath of fresh air...People who are true to their profession....Hats off to all of those teachers who continue to teach us with utmost sincerity, dedication and care.

I now understand why this profession is called the noblest of all, because probably for them money and status mean nothing.

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