Is Teaching Easy?

There is a misconception about teaching in our society that it is a very easy job. Everyone can be a teacher. If one fails in other professions, s/he finally chooses to join the teaching. In contrast, a common theory of teaching states that it is a kind of art and a teacher is an artist. Only those who have flair in teaching can perform this duty successfully. In reality, it is challenging.

I always remember an incident that justifies how challenging the teaching is. I was in a selection panel to interview a primary school teacher. The interviewee completed her schooling from a private school. Obviously she had a good command over English. The panel asked her to demonstrate how she would teach the 'present continuous tense.' She only discussed about the rules/structures and could not state it clearly that in which situations the particular tense is used. Furthermore, we asked her to differentiate between the 'simple present tense' and the 'present continuous tense' so that her students could use them appropriately. The poor girl could not demonstrate it; instead she blushed.

There was no doubt that she knew how to use those tenses appropriately. However, to know something is one thing and to make others know that is another. In our lifetime we learn many things, we internalize many things and of course we know many things, but can we express all the things that we have learned or we have known? Here lies the genuine challenge for teachers. They must know something for themselves and then they must make students know the same thing using whatever techniques they can. Another aspect, teachers have to always deal with humans who are full of diverse emotions and moods. They are not like lifeless machines. They are constant, but changeable every time. Therefore, a teacher must know students' moods and act accordingly.

Only acquiring the internal qualities is not enough for a teacher. Externally also s/he must have an impressive personality, confident appearance and a good sense of dressing up, otherwise one can easily fall into a big trouble. Once we were on practice teaching, a requirement to complete a B.Ed. level. We had a friend who was competent in subject matter, but when she would enter the classroom with her wobbly personality, she used to lose her confidence. The clever students could see that immediately and they used to create problems for her.

If one honestly chooses to be a teacher, they accept a challenge too. A teacher has to play different roles simultaneously except for the teacher's  - like the role of a parent, a psychologist, a motivator, an artist, an educationist, a mind-reader and a relationship expert. To satisfy every student is in fact tricky in a true sense.

Published in an English Daily The Kathmandu Post on Wednesday, July 12, 2006)

[The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.] 

A Teacher's Diary

It is the first day in college for my students, not for me. When I enter the classroom, I see new faces at every
corner. They stare at me mischievously and with mistrust. I can feel clearly that they are not ready to let me cross the threshold of their periphery. I am not allowed to peep into their world at any cost. After all, they are stubborn teenagers. Anyway, our first session, the introductory session, begins as usual. I get some bits of information from each of them. Some discussion on the course outline and the class is over.

Our regular classes commence from the next day. Gradually the teacher-students rapport starts to improve. With each passing day, we come closer. I know scores of things about them. We share our interests, happiness, problems, aims, birthdays and things like that.

We are like a family. Among them, some are aspiring writers, some are poets, some are artists, some are singers, some are dancers and some are orators. They are a creative bunch of people.

For me, they are varieties of beautiful flowers in my garden. In each face I find an intimate family member. Many of them are my source of inspiration. They touch my heart deep down. Really, my students are wonderful. They are full of new ideas. Sometimes they come up with such spectacular things that I cannot help gaping and gasping.

It is not true that all students are equally attentive and responsive when study comes. Some of them never trouble me. They do all assignments sincerely. They raise sensible questions and always make the lessons more lively and interesting with their active participation.

Nevertheless, others talk too much while classes are on progress. Their minds travel somewhere else all the time. There are some who respond to me if I insist, otherwise they sit quietly.

I consider this individual differences is normal. My treatment to all is the same. I believe I never show discriminatory nature because everyone of them is equally dear to me. I accept them as they are, with their strengths and weaknesses.

Supporting each other in teaching-learning process, one day we come to the end of the course. I wonder how quickly time flies away. We spent the whole year together in a blink and now we are going to depart soon.

Ah...a painful feeling. Today is the last class. My heart is heavy and eyes are tearful. My lovely students will not be in my class from tomorrow. We bid farewell. I offer my good wishes for their bright future. They promise to contact me regularly and not to forget too. I am happy for them that they are moving forward in their life.

The story is not over here anyway. Now I eagerly look forward to seeing a new lot of students with strange faces for the next session.This cycle goes on as long as I am in teaching profession.

(Published in an English Daily The Kathmandu Post on Thursday, June 29, 2006)

[The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]

    

Name Matters

Before the hurricane Katrina hit the USA all Katrinas may have been happy with their beautiful name. Later,
most of them wished their name should have been something else. A 13-year-old schoolgirl made a public declaration that her name is not Katrina, she is only Kate.

Doubtlessly every one of us love our name. We want our name to be meaningful, it should not be misunderstood, misspelled or misinterpreted. On the contrary, we have a popular culture to disfigure other people's name and make a fun of them, knowingly or unknowingly.

I am proud of my name. My parents must have thought many times before giving me this name. In fact 'Byanjana' refers to the word power that expresses satirical meanings. Unfortunately, almost all people, who are ignorant about the beauty of my name, relate my name to either Byanjan (food) or Byanjan Varna (consonant sounds); this misinterpretation drives me crazy. I wish they asked me the meaning of this name first before interpreting it.

Meanwhile, the case of my son is a bit different from mine. My spouse and I spent many days to find a suitable name for him and finally named him 'Bishrut' which means a learned person. He is also happy with his name and its connotation, but the problem lies on its mutilation.

To irritate him when people call him 'biscuit' he becomes disappointed. Then all his anger turns towards his parents. He attacks us, "Why did you name me Bishrut? If I had other name people would not tease me calling biscuit." The poor boy hardly knows there is no name that is free from any defacement in our culture.

When such disputes arise I always remember a cousin of mine whose son's name was Sagar (Ocean). Some naughty people used to hurt him by saying, "Sagar, Aan gar;" this would make him cry bitterly. My desperate cousin would comment, "...All the names are problematic! After all, what name can we give to our children? People will disfigure any name!"

Being cautious of a malpractice of bending names like Rame, Shyame, Hare, Binode, Suraje (for Ram, Shyam, Hari, Binod and Suraj respectively) and many more, my nephew's parents named him 'Jaya.' Their logic behind the choice of this name is that even if people twist their son's name, it becomes 'Jaye,' which does not sound bad and more or less similar to 'Jaya' itself.

Our name is our identification. Throughout our life we try hard to prove the meaning it contains. Since all of us want others to respect our name as it is, so why do we forget to do the same to others' name as well? In my experience, the westerners are more sensitive in this matter. They are careful not to write or interpret others' name on their own. Every time they ask people to spell their name and surname clearly and correctly (if they have a slight confusion) so that they could do justice. However, it is another story that some of them cannot pronounce my name correctly even if they try their best.

(Published in an English Daily The Kathmandu Post on Friday, June 16, 2006)

[The pictures on this blog are posted here with permission from their owners or have been gathered from various sources on the Internet. If you are the copyright-holder to any of the photographs herein do not hesitate to contact me. They will be swiftly removed if desired so.]