Teacher’s Day
On this auspicious day known as Teacher’s Day, one should reflect and contemplate on the nobility of this profession.
Our society has turned ungrateful. Young students have the stars of the silver screen as their Gods and guides. They learn blindly from horror movies, from distorted projection of sensuous serials. They have no sense of values implanted in them early in life. They are carried away by the torrent of triviality. The teacher is a helpless witness of this tragedy; for he has no strength and sustenance to impart, no ideal to implant, no enthusiasm to transmit.
Teachers no longer command respect. Students have become wild and aggressive, otherwise how can you explain a CPE student assaulting his teacher in class (ref: (l’express of 27th Sept 2013). This is tragic! Something is wrong somewhere. The teacher himself has to be taught and students groomed in a spiritual atmosphere. The teacher must work in an atmosphere of love and truth. It’s time we say a big ‘NO’ to undue pressures suffered by teachers. Teachers deserve respect no matter where they work, because they are the makers of our modern civilization. If we refer to our scriptures, we will find that due reverence is always given to teachers.
Education should not be a bookworm affair. It must encourage the acceptance of the good and the rejection of the bad. Spiritual education should not be a distinct and separate discipline; it should be part and parcel of all types and levels of education. Spiritual education must be given a new dimension in our present system of education. The actual syllabus is not so important as the creation of an atmosphere where noble habits and ideals can grow and fructify.
Let us teach our students to promote respectful behavior towards our elders. True education is that which liberates man. Unless knowledge is transformed into wisdom and wisdom is expressed in character, education is a wasteful process. If education confers this gift of transformation, then surely life will become peaceful, happy and full of mutual help and co operation.
The cry of the day is value-based education! The present system is only creating a bundle of pseudo-intellectuals or call them as illiterate intellectuals; otherwise how do you explain bank robbery, incest, corruption at high level by the top brass of our society? This is so because of the greed and inflated ego of by over-ambitious persons. This is where the shoe pinches. Our system needs reformation and transformation of both the teacher and the taught.
The true sign of education is humility; for there is such a lot much more to be investigated and to learn. They carry their scholarship more lightly. Discipline is important in order to progress in learning and even more so in dealing with others.
Teachers must follow the path of virtue, practice spiritual discipline and empower their students with moral values. On this special day, teachers working at pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary levels, deserve a pat on their back for the noble work they are doing despite all the difficulties they are facing. Keep it up and yield not till you make your students noble citizens.
* Published in print edition on 4 October 2013
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