September 5 is round the corner and it is time to think about the teachers that left a mark on what you are today......Like everyone else, I had many good teachers and some bad ones. While it was easy to recognise the good ones from a mile away, the bad ones came out as bad many years after they taught me.....
My earliest memories of an excellent teacher are those of Ms Papali. She was the principal in my kindergarten school. I remember that she made me feel special and that was her charm. And, I believe she made every child feel special.....
As I grew, I had the privilege of having Ms Manali for my Class 3 teacher. To me she was some sort of a genius who taught all the subjects very well - English, Maths, Science - and pint sized too......well, they don't make them like her anymore.
Most teachers in my elementary school did little to make me remember them after all these years. No wonder those years remain the bleakest in my memory and I have few fond memories of my days until Class X.
I met the most wonderful teachers during the two years that I spent at Ida Scudder School. Even the worst of the lot were reasonably good. I began to love Mathematics under Ms Sudarsanam's guidance, enjoyed English Literature with Ms Richard and Ms Oomen, mastered Physics under Dr Parameswaran and took a fancy to biology under Mrs Rangam.Each teacher challenged you to test the limits of your own capabilities. They made you love the subject and love learning itself. All that I consider as my foundation from an academic perspective were laid in those two years. Those were the best years of my academic life.
My next stop was Women's Christian College. Well, teachers morphed into lecturers and professors in college. They also began to seem more distant with their students. In these years, you got inducted into the reality that is life. From the idealism of innocent youth, you were introduced to the cynicism of adult life. My three years at college went like a breeze. I remember more of my non academic pursuits than the purely academic ones..... For one, I made great friends and met some very impressive ladies, some who I still admire and many who continue to fascinate me. A few professors like Koshy put some sense into my head, nothing academic though. Mrs Mohan who never taught me, treated me like an adult and I was taught what responsibility was all about. But that was it.....
The professors at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences were the dreariest of the lot. I cannot remember much of what happened in the classrooms. But living in Mumbai was a lesson in itself which no classroom could substitute. And, learn I did.....lots, indeed.
Teaching is considered a noble profession but there are few takers for a career in teaching these days. Though salaries of teachers have grown in the last few years, it is still not good enough to attract the best. I hear that teaching mostly attracts those that could not make it elsewhere - in engineering, in medicine, in management, etc - which are the chosen professions these days. This trend does not augur well for the country.
I have come across many teachers outside of my own academic world. I see the love and affection that my mother in law receives from her young students, I know how teaching energises her and keeps her ticking at her age (she is nearing 80 and still teaches). I see how excited my sister in law is about her job, her students and her school. She has the undiluted respect of her students and it is evident every time we bump into her student in tiny Singapore. My cousins were known as children of the school headmistress for many years in the village that they lived in - their identity derived from their much admired mother. In his small way, my husband who teaches a course at a city management school revels in the attention that he receives from his students.
Recently I came across a gentleman in his early fifties. He lived on a school campus some 150 kms away from Bangalore. He has been a teacher ever since he completed his graduate degree in Engineering from India's premier Indian Institute of Technology, some 35 years ago. He spoke of teaching in a way that I had never heard before. In the time that I spent with him, I felt tempted to become a teacher. And, what stood out about this gentleman was that he did not look a day older than what he did when he first embarked on his teaching career.
Teaching does not give you grey hairs......teaching retains your youth..........teaching keeps you an eternal student.......
Shouldn't those be good reasons to pursue teaching? I think so.......
My earliest memories of an excellent teacher are those of Ms Papali. She was the principal in my kindergarten school. I remember that she made me feel special and that was her charm. And, I believe she made every child feel special.....
As I grew, I had the privilege of having Ms Manali for my Class 3 teacher. To me she was some sort of a genius who taught all the subjects very well - English, Maths, Science - and pint sized too......well, they don't make them like her anymore.
Most teachers in my elementary school did little to make me remember them after all these years. No wonder those years remain the bleakest in my memory and I have few fond memories of my days until Class X.
I met the most wonderful teachers during the two years that I spent at Ida Scudder School. Even the worst of the lot were reasonably good. I began to love Mathematics under Ms Sudarsanam's guidance, enjoyed English Literature with Ms Richard and Ms Oomen, mastered Physics under Dr Parameswaran and took a fancy to biology under Mrs Rangam.Each teacher challenged you to test the limits of your own capabilities. They made you love the subject and love learning itself. All that I consider as my foundation from an academic perspective were laid in those two years. Those were the best years of my academic life.
My next stop was Women's Christian College. Well, teachers morphed into lecturers and professors in college. They also began to seem more distant with their students. In these years, you got inducted into the reality that is life. From the idealism of innocent youth, you were introduced to the cynicism of adult life. My three years at college went like a breeze. I remember more of my non academic pursuits than the purely academic ones..... For one, I made great friends and met some very impressive ladies, some who I still admire and many who continue to fascinate me. A few professors like Koshy put some sense into my head, nothing academic though. Mrs Mohan who never taught me, treated me like an adult and I was taught what responsibility was all about. But that was it.....
The professors at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences were the dreariest of the lot. I cannot remember much of what happened in the classrooms. But living in Mumbai was a lesson in itself which no classroom could substitute. And, learn I did.....lots, indeed.
Teaching is considered a noble profession but there are few takers for a career in teaching these days. Though salaries of teachers have grown in the last few years, it is still not good enough to attract the best. I hear that teaching mostly attracts those that could not make it elsewhere - in engineering, in medicine, in management, etc - which are the chosen professions these days. This trend does not augur well for the country.
I have come across many teachers outside of my own academic world. I see the love and affection that my mother in law receives from her young students, I know how teaching energises her and keeps her ticking at her age (she is nearing 80 and still teaches). I see how excited my sister in law is about her job, her students and her school. She has the undiluted respect of her students and it is evident every time we bump into her student in tiny Singapore. My cousins were known as children of the school headmistress for many years in the village that they lived in - their identity derived from their much admired mother. In his small way, my husband who teaches a course at a city management school revels in the attention that he receives from his students.
Recently I came across a gentleman in his early fifties. He lived on a school campus some 150 kms away from Bangalore. He has been a teacher ever since he completed his graduate degree in Engineering from India's premier Indian Institute of Technology, some 35 years ago. He spoke of teaching in a way that I had never heard before. In the time that I spent with him, I felt tempted to become a teacher. And, what stood out about this gentleman was that he did not look a day older than what he did when he first embarked on his teaching career.
Teaching does not give you grey hairs......teaching retains your youth..........teaching keeps you an eternal student.......
Shouldn't those be good reasons to pursue teaching? I think so.......
