What does teaching mean?

Sept 5th is celebrated as  Teacher's day in India. On that day Rohan an earnest young student friend of mine, telephoned to thank me for teaching him and changing his life, by my writing and our interactions.

I thanked Rohan for his kind words but clarified that crediting me with his learning was in my opinion unjustified. 

I should have been flattered or at least touched by his sincere greetings, but I wasn't.
I asked myself, "If it was not arrogance I felt, then what was it?"

He asked me "If this is not teaching then what was it?"
I had no reply but I had many questions. Questions, I had to seek answers to.

Today, October 5th, is World Teacher's day. I can offer the following thoughts.

Teaching and learning are two sides of the same coin. Unfortunately the two have grown so apart that they are effectively disconnected. No doubt, nowadays  there is a lot of teaching and even more testing but it is doubtful that there is much learning taking place.


As John Lubbock said about modern teaching, "We strain the memory instead of cultivating the mind."

Why is it said that? "A student is not a vessel to be filled but a lamp to be lit"


A vessel when filled cannot absorb anything more, in fact it rejects anything that is additional or new. That is why most students cannot retain much of what they are 'taught'. At best they retain information only for a short period of time, sufficient duration to get them through the tests.

On the other hand, once lit the lamp provides illumination wherever it reaches, thus dispelling the darkness called ignorance. A lamp also helps light other lamps. Learning demands more learning as a fuel, just like a lamp demands more oil to keep on burning. The greatest learning being 'learning to learn'.




This is all about learning but then what does teaching mean?

It could be said that -

    

Teaching is the art of assisting and facilitating discovery.

Once we set off on a voyage of discovery, life becomes an endless adventure.


On this adventure called learning we will discover many things and experience many relationships, not all of them pleasant or useful, but in the end like Rohan we will hopefully discover ourselves.

Can your children inspire you?

It was eleven years ago, I turned 43. It was my birthday but it was not a happy one. I was depressed and thinking of ways to end my life.

Our family owned organisation was in dire straits. We were in the midst of a terrible economic recession. I was struggling to maintain my sanity and preserve the outstanding image that we had painstakingly built up. There was no money left in the bank and creditors were hounding us. I regretted so many things, the huge debt we had accumulated to fund our aggressive growth to triple our capacity. The craze to be a global leader in our industry by 2010 etc.

To make matters worse our family structure had developed deep and irreparable fissures on the issues relating to how best to resolve the crisis. Completely polarised into different sub groups our world was crashing around us.

Normally happy and optimistic, I felt I was at the nadir of my life.
Of course when you head an organisation you can't just take off. Everyone aspires to get to the top and that is not a bad thing if you enjoy your work. At such times the responsibility that you shoulder is a thousand fold greater than the privileges you enjoy. So there I sat with my head in my hands on the dining table while my food remained untouched.

Then in walked my two sons from their tuitions. They greeted me, wished me happy birthday and gave me birthday cards that they had prepared. The cards were very amateurish, but the words were precious beyond any description.

Pavit wrote;
"All my friends say, that when they were little and didn't know any better, they all thought their fathers were Supermen, but as they grew up they realised that their dad were not Supermen but just men".
"I too, when I was little, thought my dad was a Superman, but now that I have turned 16 and am better informed, I still believe that my dad is a Superman. Happy Birthday".

I hugged my sons and wept. I realised that while we were teaching our children all about life, they were teaching us what life is all about.

I then recalled my wise Uncle’s words “Worries and regret never solve anything, they do not rob tomorrow of its sorrow, they merely sap today of its strength”.

This seemingly insignificant birthday card from my sons, was a powerful inspiration. An inspiration that motivates me even today.