"I think the teaching profession contributes more to the future of our society than any other single profession" - John Wooden
So true, yet teaching is one of the most underrated and thankless professions because every successful student believes the reason for his success was his own talent and merit whereas every failed student squarely blames his teacher or school for his failure. Or maybe that's sheer human psychology.
Teacher-student bond that's formed in very nascent stages (like around 2-3 years) is very strong. That's the age when kids' mind would be very ripe and fertile and they subconsciously yearn for knowledge, learn language and are usually curious to explore the world. A very sensitive age when they try to repeat, re-enact elders. While parents are most responsible for child's mental development, it's also the initial set of teachers who make or break a kid in that phase.
I strongly believe that a person's character, aptitude and attitude is formed based on what one learns and experiences during primary and middle school phases. That's the tender age when one needs to witness a live person demonstrating knowledge and inspiring young minds towards wisdom and ways of life. No books or internet sites can replace a sane teacher's ability to transform an innocent kid to a thinking and aspiring adolescent.
This is the age which decides if the kid would become a responsible citizen abiding by certain duties and collective consciousness or turn into a bum, thug, criminal or a terrorist. Those teachers who could ignite the imagination, creativity, awaken latent potential and inspire some hope in young minds could make a lasting impact on students' life. And those students go on to change the world around them.
Personally, I didn't change the world around me but I strongly believe whatever I learnt and practiced till now is a direct result of all my teachers who taught me, inspired me, created awareness, demonstrated how to utilize the knowledge in the best interest of my career and life. Wikipedia and Google have lately occupied the stature and respect which usually teachers deserve. Reasons could be partly bad quality of teaching and equal vulnerability and naivete of students to believe what they see in internet is more accurate than what their teachers explain. I admit that I learnt a thing or two through wikipedia but my ability to grasp and extract knowledge from these internet sources was instilled by my teachers.
My tryst with the profession of teaching was accidental and least expected. After studying engineering and MBA and further working for few years in IT field, I never ever in my wildest dreams did imagine myself teaching a bunch of grown up corporates or aspiring students. I should credit the unflinching support and faith of my ex-employer who saw something in me that he wanted me to teach his students as makeshift arrangement while he was attending something more important. I initially reluctantly took the job but discovered I enjoyed the work, eventually started loving it. And it's been 7 years without looking back.
In these 7 years of teaching, I grew as a communicator, negotiator analyzer and acquired many more traits while transferring my knowledge and experience to others. I learnt that teaching is not just telling or explaining stuff but narrating an entire pretext where and how the knowledge would be used. Teaching made me a story-teller because I understood the importance of captivating the audience before I could teach a lesson or two.
While teaching subjects like project management and business analysis to experienced corporates or knowledgeable aspirants, I was expected to reach certain standards myself in terms of knowledge, posture, behavior and ability to address questions and concerns. Hence I improved my knowledge base, pronunciation, pace and diction which helped me in many other ways. Thanks to my teaching career, I got a decent hold on vocabulary (both business and technical), body-language which I could not have got it otherwise. I had to manage and lead a group of 20-30 people, set agenda, not allow the group to lose focus and drive the point home taking everyone along. This brought out some latent leadership and managerial skills out of me.
While teaching, I had to understand individual pain points, realize that everybody was not made with same level of aptitude and hence I had to bring in variation and cater to the least common denominator. This brought out certain kind of empathy wherein I could stand in my students' shoes and judge myself. There were some situations when some very intelligent students caught me off guard which brought in humility in me thus giving a reality check to my arrogance, if any. My teaching profession made me more flexible, better decision-maker, an extrovert, a consultant and a better social person.
I don't know how my trainees look up to my contribution in their success or enhanced knowledge, but I live with certain satisfaction that I'm a miniscule part of the bandwagon called "teachers" who strive to penetrate the knowledge forward through generations. May be this is my way of social contribution while improving, challenging, discovering and redefining myself consistently.
Happy Teachers' Day (Sep 5th) to every teacher who taught me something in life directly or indirectly, wittingly or unwittingly, through lessons or experiences or by just being around me to inspire.
So true, yet teaching is one of the most underrated and thankless professions because every successful student believes the reason for his success was his own talent and merit whereas every failed student squarely blames his teacher or school for his failure. Or maybe that's sheer human psychology.
Teacher-student bond that's formed in very nascent stages (like around 2-3 years) is very strong. That's the age when kids' mind would be very ripe and fertile and they subconsciously yearn for knowledge, learn language and are usually curious to explore the world. A very sensitive age when they try to repeat, re-enact elders. While parents are most responsible for child's mental development, it's also the initial set of teachers who make or break a kid in that phase.
I strongly believe that a person's character, aptitude and attitude is formed based on what one learns and experiences during primary and middle school phases. That's the tender age when one needs to witness a live person demonstrating knowledge and inspiring young minds towards wisdom and ways of life. No books or internet sites can replace a sane teacher's ability to transform an innocent kid to a thinking and aspiring adolescent.
This is the age which decides if the kid would become a responsible citizen abiding by certain duties and collective consciousness or turn into a bum, thug, criminal or a terrorist. Those teachers who could ignite the imagination, creativity, awaken latent potential and inspire some hope in young minds could make a lasting impact on students' life. And those students go on to change the world around them.
What my teaching career taught me !
Personally, I didn't change the world around me but I strongly believe whatever I learnt and practiced till now is a direct result of all my teachers who taught me, inspired me, created awareness, demonstrated how to utilize the knowledge in the best interest of my career and life. Wikipedia and Google have lately occupied the stature and respect which usually teachers deserve. Reasons could be partly bad quality of teaching and equal vulnerability and naivete of students to believe what they see in internet is more accurate than what their teachers explain. I admit that I learnt a thing or two through wikipedia but my ability to grasp and extract knowledge from these internet sources was instilled by my teachers.
My tryst with the profession of teaching was accidental and least expected. After studying engineering and MBA and further working for few years in IT field, I never ever in my wildest dreams did imagine myself teaching a bunch of grown up corporates or aspiring students. I should credit the unflinching support and faith of my ex-employer who saw something in me that he wanted me to teach his students as makeshift arrangement while he was attending something more important. I initially reluctantly took the job but discovered I enjoyed the work, eventually started loving it. And it's been 7 years without looking back.
In these 7 years of teaching, I grew as a communicator, negotiator analyzer and acquired many more traits while transferring my knowledge and experience to others. I learnt that teaching is not just telling or explaining stuff but narrating an entire pretext where and how the knowledge would be used. Teaching made me a story-teller because I understood the importance of captivating the audience before I could teach a lesson or two.
While teaching subjects like project management and business analysis to experienced corporates or knowledgeable aspirants, I was expected to reach certain standards myself in terms of knowledge, posture, behavior and ability to address questions and concerns. Hence I improved my knowledge base, pronunciation, pace and diction which helped me in many other ways. Thanks to my teaching career, I got a decent hold on vocabulary (both business and technical), body-language which I could not have got it otherwise. I had to manage and lead a group of 20-30 people, set agenda, not allow the group to lose focus and drive the point home taking everyone along. This brought out some latent leadership and managerial skills out of me.
While teaching, I had to understand individual pain points, realize that everybody was not made with same level of aptitude and hence I had to bring in variation and cater to the least common denominator. This brought out certain kind of empathy wherein I could stand in my students' shoes and judge myself. There were some situations when some very intelligent students caught me off guard which brought in humility in me thus giving a reality check to my arrogance, if any. My teaching profession made me more flexible, better decision-maker, an extrovert, a consultant and a better social person.
I don't know how my trainees look up to my contribution in their success or enhanced knowledge, but I live with certain satisfaction that I'm a miniscule part of the bandwagon called "teachers" who strive to penetrate the knowledge forward through generations. May be this is my way of social contribution while improving, challenging, discovering and redefining myself consistently.
Happy Teachers' Day (Sep 5th) to every teacher who taught me something in life directly or indirectly, wittingly or unwittingly, through lessons or experiences or by just being around me to inspire.
