What is True Teachership?
“No one ever really teaches us; each one of us has to teach ourselves. The external teacher can only offer the suggestion which may awaken the internal teacher to work, to understand things.” – Swami Vivekananda
The term ‘teachership’ is an elegant combination of being a teacher and a leader. Swami Vivekananda observed that, it is through education, that a child learns about culture and accordingly his behaviour is moulded, and thus he is guided towards his eventual role in society. Throughout these processes, several agents assist him– such as his parents, peers and teachers.
In today’s world, due to the growing dependence on material possessions, man rarely remembers his divine nature and has reduced himself to being an ordinary money making machine. As a consequence, formal education has become more and more institutionalized and the requirement for a lifelong learning or “man-making education” that demands versatile kind of expertise among the teachers has diminished. The role of the teachers have narrowed down to a point where achieving certain goals like completing the syllabus on time or (in some cases) before time, conducting examinations, evaluating the academic performance of students are prioritised over effective guidance, encouragement, support and facilitation of the students for them to become better social beings. For these reasons and more, has our Indian education system at present become a jay-walk? In-spite of being home to great philosophers and educationists, are we failing to pick up their subtle messages?
From very young ages, this complex society puts pressure on us to achieve so many “goals” that we scarcely “live” our lives or get a chance to appreciate what we have gained. But if we are able to find at least one person who along with their professional competences and skills of transmitting the knowledge in possession, can help us to discriminate between good and bad and to appreciate and value ourselves and others, how wonderful that would be!. Would it leave an imprint in our hearts and minds that we can convey forward to others and the generations to come?
According to Rabindranath Tagore, “Children have their active subconscious mind which like a tree has the power to gather its food from the surrounding atmosphere.” If so, then the ways, in which a seed needs proper care and nurture, regular water, sunlight, air and manure supply in order to transform into a beautiful tree, a child too need a teacher who would act as the catalysts to transform him or her into a successful human in all aspects. We need the teachers to come down to the level of the children, peek into their souls and be a friend, a philosopher, a guide and a tyagi. We need them to demonstrate, inspire and persuade the children to discover their potential and the abilities, to help them develop the mind by concentration and deep meditation and at the same time, motivate them to acquire knowledge and civic responsibilities also. Hence, the true meaning of “teachership” will only be justified when the focus of education will shift from “marks-centeredness” to “human- centeredness”.
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