Right at our very childhood, we are taken by hand to a school and handed over to a teacher. Teachers are probably the first in our life, whom we trust even though we do not have any blood relations. A teacher is like a great magician, creating everything, everything we are now, out of almost nothing.
A teacher is an artist. Students are blank papers. He slowly and carefully, with all his attention and skills, starts working on it; and after a prolonged laborious effort makes a masterpiece out of it. An ideal teacher does not require a genius, he just need an innocent child, who is ready to learn.
Most children bestow immense trust on their teachers, especially primary teachers. This fact should not be misused by teachers. It is their responsibility to teach what is right. If a child is taught that, “2+2=5”, it is very difficult to rectify that later.
Teachers are often seen as being close to god. They impart to us the power of knowledge. They take all the pain to explain us the same things again and again if we are not able to understand that. He loves and cares for us and set us on the same footing as his own child. All these cannot be just paid off by some monetary fees that we pay.
But these days, teachers are being looked down upon. People are seeing teaching as merely a profession, just a business. Neither pupil, nor their parents show adequate respect to teachers. Many families snub at the idea of their son/daughter growing up to be a teacher, while they once had to blindly rely on teachers. People are tending to forget that if there is lack of skilled, passionate teachers, the whole country, with its economy and development will come crushing down. A lot of master minds, with high potentials, will just remain illiterate (or uneducated).
Now, the whole blame cannot be thrust on the general people. The quality of teachers is also degrading day by day, or we are compelled to address some people with the dignified word ‘teacher’, who are not at all worthy. To many, the heavy envelope at the end (or beginning) of the month is what all that matters, not what he teaches, or what the student learns. Due to this commercialization of education, even worthy teachers are stripped off the respect they should get.
On the occasion of this teacher’s day, I would like to bow low and thank from my heart all those teachers who have influenced my life, gave me knowledge, and made me what I am today. I would be ever too poor to pay that back.
[NB: Throughout I have been addressing the teacher as ‘he’, but I, at no point of time, from the heart disrespect a female teacher.]
