Teacher.
How can one call a school prestigious when it admits children only if their parents are educated ,so that they can help their children with home work, to score high marks and have the capacity to pay sumptuous donations and exorbitant fees?Coupled with this is the anomaly, sadism [or rank commercialism] of dangling the threat of expulsion or deny admission in + 2 if they do not secure a tidy % in the 10 th exams!
A true teacher is one who unlocks the gates of knowledge and creates an interest in studies and builds up the confidence of the student to face any situation in life .An institute that recruits and trains and retains such teachers is the one that is truly prestigious!
My younger brother and I were proudly admitted by our father in a prestigious 'convent' school in Madras .It was his fond hope that we would pick up good English !Neither of us ,who had till then studied in Tamil medium could follow a word of what the teachers prattled in English .They would read non stop from English text books without pausing to explain or try and make us understand as to what was being rattled off .They were like AIR news readers!
My mother was bogged down in cooking and my father in his work .Though my elder brothers knew a bit of English they were too busy playing cricket or swimming in the Eliot's beach or with their own studies, to spare us some time.The teachers didn't chip in at all .Instead they only mocked at our ignorance of the language and made it worse . We failed in all the primary classes.
Then my dad was transferred to Mysore. He admitted us[ me and my younger brother] in a school run in a small house by the American wife of the Indian Director of the govt office where my father was transferred to .
The American lady had a gigantic frame and a imposing figure ,yet was gentle and patient.She as well as 2 other teachers she had trained took classes . Not once did she mock at my ignorance of the English language. With infinite patience and without the slightest remonstration she taught me the meaning of the words by showing pictures or even taking us on field trips and actually pointing out birds,animals , land marks etc.
My grades shot up and so did my brother's . Since then not once did we falter or fail in any exam. My shame was replaced by confidence and thence forward which ever school I joined be it Hyderabad or Delhi I raised their prestige with my performance . I concede there were some excellent teachers in my long years at school and colleges yet the fact remains that they were reaping the fruits of another's labour --that of Mrs. Parpia the one and only 'real teacher' who gifted me a sound base and the confidence to build over it !
A true teacher is one who unlocks the gates of knowledge and creates an interest in studies and builds up the confidence of the student to face any situation in life .An institute that recruits and trains and retains such teachers is the one that is truly prestigious!
My younger brother and I were proudly admitted by our father in a prestigious 'convent' school in Madras .It was his fond hope that we would pick up good English !Neither of us ,who had till then studied in Tamil medium could follow a word of what the teachers prattled in English .They would read non stop from English text books without pausing to explain or try and make us understand as to what was being rattled off .They were like AIR news readers!
My mother was bogged down in cooking and my father in his work .Though my elder brothers knew a bit of English they were too busy playing cricket or swimming in the Eliot's beach or with their own studies, to spare us some time.The teachers didn't chip in at all .Instead they only mocked at our ignorance of the language and made it worse . We failed in all the primary classes.
Then my dad was transferred to Mysore. He admitted us[ me and my younger brother] in a school run in a small house by the American wife of the Indian Director of the govt office where my father was transferred to .
The American lady had a gigantic frame and a imposing figure ,yet was gentle and patient.She as well as 2 other teachers she had trained took classes . Not once did she mock at my ignorance of the English language. With infinite patience and without the slightest remonstration she taught me the meaning of the words by showing pictures or even taking us on field trips and actually pointing out birds,animals , land marks etc.
My grades shot up and so did my brother's . Since then not once did we falter or fail in any exam. My shame was replaced by confidence and thence forward which ever school I joined be it Hyderabad or Delhi I raised their prestige with my performance . I concede there were some excellent teachers in my long years at school and colleges yet the fact remains that they were reaping the fruits of another's labour --that of Mrs. Parpia the one and only 'real teacher' who gifted me a sound base and the confidence to build over it !
posted by K.C. Sujata at
3:53 AM
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