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A TALE OF TWO TEACHERS by Col K Srinivas (Retd)
The recent news of a boy in Kolkata from an elite school committing suicide driven by the brash behavior of some teachers sent me and my wife shivers since we were once in the verge of facing a similar scenario ten years back.
I was posted in field in Assam, when one fine morning my wife called me from Delhi in tears informing me that our son, who was in the 12th standard then, was heard mentioning about committing suicide due to mental agony caused by the constant harassment by one of his teachers. One of the reasons she seemed antagonized against a certain set of students in class was their interest in attending extra coaching classes for IIT. She was heard making fun of this during classes, ridiculing the effort, making pointed statements like "You would never get through IIT however hard you try" which did not go down well with my son who was wanting to find a mentor in his teachers towards his efforts. This school was one of the renowned Kendriya Vidyalayas of Delhi and the teacher was a lady staff member who taught my son Physics.
Rushing on a few days leave to discuss the further course of action, we were faced with a dilemma to complain or not; for my son felt he would be harassed more if we complain and take up this matter further. After a heated discussion I and my wife thought it to be more prudent to meet the teacher personally, apprising her of the situation and hoping things would get better for the remaining few months in school.
We went to school, met her and spoke about our fears and the anger. She seemed surprised by what she was told and tried to shield herself stating she was doing all this for the good of her students and my son. Though we were not sure where things were headed from there, there seemed to be a change in her behavior, at least she got off my son's back. He managed to complete his schooling successfully post which he managed to get into a reputed engineering college. On the final day of the school, most of the students ignored her completely which was an indication of how she had treated most of her students that year. While we accompanied our son as he took us to various teachers of his to thank them for their help, guidance and seek their blessings, we did not have any desire to say good-bye to this particular teacher.
Fast forward a few years. Our son was on leave at home after his seventh semester when he got a call from a friend of his. Soon my wife came rushing to me and said that my son was sobbing in his room. I had never seen my son cry for a long time and so we rushed to his room and slowly tried to enquire what was the matter.
Wiping his eyes and still sobbing, he informed us of an untimely death of one his favorite teachers in the same school who not only taught him Biology but other values of life just the way a teacher' is expected to. It seems she had gone on deputation to a foreign country but death seemed to have snatched her due to cancer that was detected late. We had no words to comfort him. The love exhibited by son for this teacher was again a strange phenomenon, which I am sure a lot of parents may not have noticed with their children
It was the same boy, now a little older and probably more mature, who had exhibited such affection to a teacher of the same school as compared to the earlier one.
While one does accept that in our days a teacher probably had a maximum of about thirty children to handle, today the numbers have almost doubled and so the work load much more. They can hardly attend to each child, learn of their strengths and groom them as they need to be. While they may be able to do for a few outstanding children (and may be in some cases children of the rich and elite) they do not seem have an inkling for the same in most of the cases.
Teaching as a profession is a calling like that of a serviceman; it cannot be for a job or 'naukri' as a large number seem to deem. We need to value teachers, pay them well and most important make them realize that they can make or break a child's growth & confidence. They need to feel that they are one of the few true sentinels in nation building. To achieve their mission they would need a lot of compassion and maturity in handling children and need frequent and repeated training in human behavior.
While it is also accepted that children will be children because they are, it needs loads of patience to handle them, especially since the strengths are high. They need to be punished when due, corrected when wrong, chided when they deserve it, but all this done in good faith so that it doesn't leave scars in the heart, which is more painful and would probably never feel compared to a physical wound
Today my son is in an MNC drawing more pay than what his father got after 33 years in the Army and I am proud of the same, but I and my wife still dread the few days of anguish when a errant teacher almost pushed my son over the cliff by her act. Every time we hear of news of the loss of a poor child by such behavior our wound gets scratched, but we are happy that our one pow-wow with this teacher probably and hopefully may have saved some other child loosing his /her life by this teacher's conduct.
In case the errant teacher above is reading this and also for many such teachers, there is still time. You may not be able to express remorse to the children you hurt; you could still knell and seek pardon from your Gods, who may, if you do with an open heart. You needn't worry of the children who survived you, for I am sure like my son, they must have worked harder and succeeded only to prove all such teachers how wrong they were in their assessment. They have quickly forgotten you, even if the scars remain.
For teachers of the latter variety, every time any of their students reminisces or speaks fondly of them, has made their life fruitful and a life of meaning. You sure can hold your head high in pride for having done your duty of nation building well. And in case the teachers have passed away, a few tears by even one of their students will ensure their soul will rest in eternal peace.
Whenever we raise the issue in a lighter vein with our son, he laughs it off. But we know deep down in his heart time is yet to heal both the wounds suffered by him caused by the acts and treatment meted out so differently by these two teachers he was tutored by in the school.
I still remember vividly what my teacher (who is no more, May God Bless his Soul) told me when I went to pay my regards on being commissioned in the Army. Since he was the principal of a school then, he called all the teachers available in the staff room, introduced me as a bright star of his class (I hardly was one in my class of whiz-kids) and said to me, "You know Lieutenant Srinivas, even a father can get jealous of his son's achievements, but a teacher will never ever feel so. They would always be proud of one's ward." How true.
May be, God is not able to find enough humane people from his creations to make more such great teachers anymore.
