I have worked on this idea for a very long time to help us forge a bond between teachers and students and strengthen it. The reason is that students spend most of their time with teachers. It could be during tuitions, in school or college or in other places and this is how teachers play the most important role in our lives.
Before you scroll down, this blog post has:
1) A student’s view, stating problems against teachers.
2) The teacher’s opinion of the problem.
(This is not a blame game or an attempt to hurt any teacher’s feelings. It is just meant to present the problem that we never address.)
Dear teachers,
I attend classes only with the intention to learn some new concepts but as a science student, my world only revolves around physics, chemistry and biology which are never fun. So I always, keep me and my friend circle entertained which is not always liked by teachers. My entertainment includes, finding faults in everything, laughing out loud and making very creepy noises in the class and being the luckiest as I'm the tallest among all the students, I always get caught. This has my name highlighted in the black list on number one. Similarly, I have always been the kid sent to the corner to decrease havoc in the class. This zones me out of the learning atmosphere which kills my interest.
I fail to complete my homework, fail to soak concepts at the same moment and this somehow makes my professors lose hope on me. But the inner me, always pleads you to pay a little more attention over me, so that I work harder and not give up. But few top scorers steal my opportunity.
I often find mistakes in the guides, also notice teachers explaining wrongly or giving irrelevant examples but they hold a strong belief that the teacher can NEVER be wrong when objected. A teacher could be wrong in a concept or a suggestion as students are. That is totally fine. But the truth must be approved accepted that teachers can also be wrong, sometimes.
Not every chapter is interesting and as a result we students hold high expectations for you all to make it creative with a pinch of humor and bag full of examples, so that the concept interests us.
I’m sure our problems have solutions which lie in your hands.
-Student
A response by the teacher:
Dear students,
Teachers, like all of you, are not Gods, however much they feel like it, or pretend to be. We are fallible, we make mistakes, we are ignorant sometimes. Which is fine. The problem arises when we fail to a) see our mistakes b) acknowledge them c) work to correct, or minimize them.
For a student, who is taught by a teacher once in the day, during a certain lecture, or period, the lecture or teacher might be either boring or interesting, depending on her equation with the teacher, the subject, or her state of mind at the time. But a teacher, who has to teach the same subject/topic/experiment in a class of 120 students on an average, every day, and sometimes, every lecture, life becomes monotonous and sometimes intolerable. This kind of repetition induces boredom, but the teacher cannot afford to exhibit that. So when the teacher comes to class and meets un appreciative, unruly, in disciplined students, it requires all her self-control and considerable acting skills to teach for 40 minutes, and at the same time maintaining class discipline. At the end of the time, she is completely physically drained and mentally exhausted.
Teaching is a vocation. It is not a job. It is not enough to know the subject you teach. You need to LOVE the kids you teach, every one of them, and treat them IMPARTIALLY. The mischief-maker in class is probably crying out for your attention. The child who does poorly in class might be having a physical or mental inability to perform well, or is completely stressed out about something. A teacher has the Herculean task of being aware of everything and everyone in the class and must have the ability to read the faces of her pupils and come to the right conclusions.
A teacher also needs to be honest enough, and secure enough to admit that a) she has made a mistake, academic or otherwise b) that she doesn't know something, but she will find out and inform them later
Unfortunately, the mad scramble to finish the syllabus and the insistence in some academic institutions to subscribe to certain kinds or patterns of behaviour stresses out both students and teachers and do not let them interact naturally. The sheer numbers of students in a class also inhibit a more friendly approach to teaching and learning.
But in her own way, in spite of the limitations, a teacher can, and should make a difference to students' lives. Like everything in life, a lot of love and a little imposition of discipline goes a long way to make the life of both students and teachers easier.
Together, we can make a difference.
Have a wonderful day.
Suma Narayan
Author
Head, English Department, Junior College
Leaving the
conclusion for the readers to make :) Good Luck!
