I concur with the thoughts of Ivan Welton Fitzwater; ” I am a teacher! What I do and say are being absorbed by young minds who will echo these images across the ages. My lessons will be immortal, affecting people yet unborn, people I will never see or know. Only a teacher? Thank God I have a calling to the greatest profession of all! I must be vigilant every day lest I lose one fragile opportunity to improve tomorrow.”
Yet, we see a dwindling number of young people considering teaching as a profession. They consider it to be an underpaid and overworked job. If they have a teacher in their family then their opinion is concretized.
In ancient India, the position of a teacher was above God- The Teacher( Guru) introduced you to God. Students resided with their teachers and learnt through the hands-on method through daily life experiences ( Aren't we struggling to reinvent this method now?) The students paid in kind, according to their ability and the teachers led an austere life. You were lucky if your teacher accepted you.
Around 45 years back, when I was in school, teachers continued to be held in high esteem. I don’t remember my parents ever finding fault with any teacher or questioning a decision they made…if my performance was poor, it was because of me, period. But, I remember teachers taking private tuitions for nominal fees during their free time. After all the life of a teacher was not so austere anymore, they were also drawn into the world of consumerism.
Moving forward to 30 odd years back, when I began my teaching career, it was a good enough job for a woman( of course, if the ‘poor thing’ couldn’t get through the MBBS entrance or a bank job, what else to do ) and for the non-ambitious, non-achiever man ( he ideally had to be either an engineer or a doctor or at least an MBA). Private tuitions became rampant and the norm, even at the cost of classroom teaching. Parents were willing to pay for individual attention and teachers learnt to make hay when the sun was shining. You were lucky if the students ( read fee-paying -parents) wanted your service.
Cut to 2020 and a pandemic ravaged system. The ever-evolving teacher morphed to adeptly handle remote teaching. They have no time to skip a beat with critical scrutiny, multi-level inspections, evidence of performance and such drills being part of the competitive education circus. They are instructed to be flexible, pander to parents and unquestionably toe the management line. The teachers do the job as best as they can. There may be sparks of satisfaction when a student performs beyond expectation or a new approach works like magic but, they are few and far between.
Has teaching lost the old world charm of a fulfilling profession respected by society? I guess, yes. It has become just another breadwinning job. Teachers are sometimes recruited because of who they know in the hierarchy, how they look, how they dress, or how they can sell the school. They are ready to jump jobs for even a small raise. They can’t waste years being loyal to institutions that do not consider their expertise indispensable.
The students are smart and the parents are definitely smarter ( everyone has access to Google and everyone knows how to teach !). They pay through their nose for their child's education, so they are justified in demanding equal, if not more returns.
So yes, we must believe that the future of the world still is in our classrooms but, are the architects of that future in the classrooms today?
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