A few years before, I made a terrible mistake when I was riding a bike. I did something which might cost me my life. It was a funny incident also. But, whats relevant is not what I did but what I have learned from it. A man watching my weird act responded something like this "Who taught you to drive?". It is a funny fact. I did a mistake and the one who is blamed for my mistake is the teacher who taught me.I was too young and too immature. I was not permitted to drive that bike as I never had a license at that age. But, from that day onwards, I considered 'teaching' as the most responsible job in this world. I was disappointed to hear some words from my friend "Responsible job? What is special in it? Just go to the school, come back from the school and that's it! It is just an easy job!"
I still remember some words of an another friend saying "Look at your marks, man!! If you continue like this you will end up being a 'school teacher' or something!". It was a time when I nearly stopped learning anything (studies) and my scores proved it and for that lazy, irresponsible fellow, my friend offered a much sophisticated job, teaching!. It sounds like a joke to me now!! For the last few years, I've been a fan of a guy who said that teacher a stops learning when he gets his job. I believe that he is right but, that is not the way it should be. Actually, no one can ever stop learning anything from their lives. There is something to learn when you sit idle at your home doing nothing. How can a teacher stop learning anything from his life? The only curse of that profession will be a very wrong belief that teaching is the job for those who can't learn efficiently. If I look at some more examples, I've seen people people who has tried for a job for a long time and ended up being a teacher! The most senseless decision! Teaching is a smart job which requires talent and knowledge. If you believe that you are not talented or a bad student, never go for the teacher's job. Students can make jokes about you (I really meant it, you will become the 'sardarji' of that school!)
Everybody is a teacher in this world. No one can predict how we inspire or influence people around us and we are unknowingly following the path of a teacher. But, teacher has got a much more complicated responsibility. In my native, there is a teacher who is well renowned for his 'entrance coaching'. He began a school for coaching students. In his view, a student should learn at least 13 hours a day to make his future safe. Unfortunately, I was also a student of his coaching center. He was very strict and harsh to his students. What disappoints is not his strictness but his ill-mannered harsh words that was being used during his torture of his students. I haven't met him because I rarely went to the class and stopped going there after one year. I heard a lot of stories about his manner from my friends at that time. If it was today, I have a plan to react against him. I will use the same harsh ill-mannered words in-front of him by saying that he is my role model of my life. I'm a student for the last 17 years of my life and with such a long experience, I made a decision about one thing, I will not let my child go to that coaching center for any reason. A teacher is supposed to be a role-model or a guide for his students. In some aspects, some teachers are like this, they will turn out to be the villain of the story and they will teach a very important lesson by saying "you should never do like this!". I've seen a lot of them in my life.
Some people believe in one thing 'Strictness is the only way to success'. Some parents are proud to say that their children are studying in the most disciplined school of the area. In my personal opinion, that doesn't matter. In my view, discipline is the outcome of knowledge and wisdom. So, it is better to search for a school that provides knowledge and wisdom rather than running behind strictness. When I became free to think and decide, I never thought of any discipline from my old school or college but, I've heard of some people who says that I'm disciplined. Whatever I learn, I am doing what I like to do and such an activity does not have anything to do about discipline! For me,the words 'self-analysis', 'self-realization', 'wisdom', 'knowledge' etc made a better sense than the word 'punishment'. Education is supposed to make sense to our lives not to destroy its purpose!
I think, I've written somewhere in this blog that 'media acts like a teacher to the society!'. Lets make an analysis!! I've seen a movie called "Race" in Hindi. It was a thriller with unexpected twists and turns! It was my friend who recommended it to me. I really enjoyed it. Today, I have a different thought. Every movie is supposed to have a message for his viewers and the message of that movie is really weird. The story is about two brothers. A brother cheats the other and killed him and in the climax, the dead one came back and killed his brother(Sorry, I forgot a fact that even their wives did the same as well). Everything was so negative! It was a good example of how a brother should never be. That movie is doing a teacher's job and whatever we learn from it the responsibility rests on its creators! Lets take another example. Rajnikanth movies movies have a usual flow. I've watched Sivaji a long time ago. During the intermission, the story was that, Sivaji has turned to nothing from a very high condition and he had just 1 ruppee in his hand. After the intermission, he changed the whole scene with that single coin and destroyed the evil power(villain). What is the message in his movie? Whatever happens in life a man can win anything if he have a good heart and determined mind. We cheered for the "Race" and we considered Rajni as a joker(Rajnikanth jokes are spreading very fast through our mobile phones,isn't it?) Rajni's movie might look like a cartoon movie but, I respect the message he conveys. So, the point is simple. You cannot blame your teacher for everything, what you learn depends upon what you extract from their lessons.
Sincerely,
Raghu
NB: I highly recommend a movie "school of life", directed by William Dear regarding this subject!
