Queries to Ponder on Teacher's Day

Queries to Ponder on Teacher's Day
(This was originally submitted to three leading daily newspapers in India, The Hindu, The New Indian Express and The Pioneer in 2006 for publication on Teachers Day
…unfortunately none of them published it!)

Note : Teacher’s Day is celebrated every 5th September in India…

By
C. Praveen
Teacher Educator
Govt. College of Teacher Education, Calicut, South India
cpteach@rediffmail.com

Another Teacher’s Day is being celebrated today. Those of us who are in the teaching profession, will truly cherish this day when our students offer us a bouquet of flowers. But this day too, will fade into oblivion. This perhaps is an ideal occasion for introspection…for, great is the responsibility we shoulder… and the role we play, is truly singular- that of moulding a future generation gearing up for an acute struggle for the survival of the fittest, in a time of flux in ideas and ideals.

How many of us have fully assumed the responsibility that rests on our shoulders?... Are we really prepared to perform satisfactorily our roles? Do answer these ten questions related to issues ranging from the academic and social to the environmental and personal to judge for yourself your real status as a teacher.

In the last one year…

1. Have you been able to develop a good intellectual atmosphere in your institution?

2. Have you contributed new knowledge or new ideas to education or to the society?

3. Have you given counselling and guidance to at least one needy student?

4. Have you done any thing to improve the plight of the down trodden in
your neighbourhood ?
5. Have you done any thing to help at least one senior citizen of your neighbourhood?
6. Have you donated money for your nation building other than the tax deducted
from your salary?
7. Have you meaningfully displayed your concern for the environment?
8. Have you planted at least one tree?
9. Have you tried to refresh the philosophical ideas of ancient India?
10. Have you read at least one book which is in no way related to your subject?

Your rating may have been moderate or poor … but what we need today is to find time out of our assiduous academic engagements to associate ourselves with issues related not just to the academic and personal but also to the social and environmental. This is the need of the hour, for, our nation is celebrating its diamond jubilee year of Independence. What we require now, is not taciturn teachers who relish in dabbling with the subject they teach… but, ideal role models for our students to emulate and foster a sense of responsible citizenship. This, and only this, will ever help our illustrious nation attain its past glory in all its magnificence! Let us on Teacher’s Day vow to shun narrow lackadaisical stances and join hands in the concerted effort at nation building.