To teach is divine (5 things - Week 50)

Among the numerous conversations that I've had this week, the subject of my love for teaching cropped up. I've always had a peculiar urge to teach things. Since I have always been a blabbermouth, I never feel any pang in sharing any/all of my knowledge with anyone who has asked me for help.

I always feel happy when that person comes and asks me to explain something else. That means that I was able to help him/her the last time out, and they are hopeful of me being able to do the same once again.

And that brings us to today's post. We'll go through the basic qualities that we all look forward to from teachers.

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1. A Teacher should have intelligence

We're not talking about knowledge here, but INTELLIGENCE. What's the difference?? Knowledge is just the know-how about the stuff. Intelligence is how to apply that in real life. Let's be honest. We all "loved" to find quotients and remainders in our primary classes. But when you use that to get the mileage of your bike, that's when you are happy that you know it.

2. A Teacher should be inspiring.

A subject's level of tediousness and boredom can be reduced by the level of enthusiasm that the Teacher shows to it. If the first thing you heard in your first algebra/calculus class is that it's tough, then you would still be cursing your fate that you had to learn them.

3. A Teacher should be patient.

Not all of us are bright to the same level. Not all of us can grasp the concepts at the same rate. A Teacher should be patient enough to guide and encourage all students.

4. A Teacher should be humble.

In most cases, a Teacher will have a better grasp of the subject, but it is still possible that the student will have something new to add to it, or have a new way to look at the problem. For the better development of the student, a teacher should be humble enough to encourage him/her.

5. A Teacher should be rewarding.

NO!! I'm not talking about physically rewarding us with candies and toffees (although I won't say no to that). What a teacher should reward is the effort a student puts in, and that is most effective with encouraging words.

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And then, I was introduced to this 10th standard student, who was, to put it lightly, not so humble. He demanded  me to tell him about how to reduce the turning radius of a vehicle. Even though I knew the answer, I withheld it from him. It's not any rocket science that he can't find it from somewhere else, but I felt uneasy for the first time in my life about teaching.

That's when one remembered something that my grandfather had told me,

"What you teach is Vidhya, the purest form of Goddess Saraswati. Share it with only those, who'll value it."

All the qualities that I had talked about earlier has to be there, but it should be there only in a measured quantity. It has to be balanced. If not, you'll either be a bad teacher, or you'll be an ineffective one.

Not this balance!!!

This BALANCE!!!

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Well, that's it for this week.

You all have a great weekend.

'til next week.

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EPILOGUE

This is the prologue. I'm too lazy to move it to the top. So, the post which should have been posted on this week's Friday, comes out 14 hours late. I hope you are wondering why. I'm involved in a few projects right now, and one which was supposed to be completed by 8am today morning decided to take us all on a ride yesterday. If I hadn't heard of the saying, "Whatever will CAN wrong, WILL go wrong", I would have made it up by myself after the experience, which left me awake for nearly 24 hours.

Anyways, sorry for the delay. Hope you have a great weekend. Well, of what's left of it at least.