home
Written by | Arif Samoon
The position for the ideal teacher is vacant. The applicant must be a dedicated, charming and influential teacher who has a keen interest in his subjects and students.
This ad should be placed in the dailies. It should be on billboards across the country. Especially by the science universities of Pakistan. The young energetic student of today wants to go deep into science. He wants to do things a different and better way. He has all the resources. He is well equipped with laboratories, computers, best selling textbooks, and has time at hand. And yet, there is a hush, a gut feeling that even they would become a Lost generation as-well. This is because the ideal teacher, the most vital ingredient of an education system, does not exist anymore.
A success story in the field of science comes after the marriage between the ideal teacher and his admiring student. For all those who read this analogy with a grin: Stop reading. This discourse is above your current mental level.
They say that the financial crunch killed the ideal teacher. I feel that the materialism has stabbed him to death. The teacher of today wants to sell his knowledge. He does not want to share or enjoy it with his disciples.
Everyday is just like any other day to him: "Breakfast, and then straight to my reputed college/university. The course outline for my subject hasn't changed for years. So I have got hold of last years lecture notes. Life's easier now. I transfer the notes to the blackboard, and being a good teacher, I read them out loud as well. My students transfer the notes to their lecture copies. In the end, we discuss the Paper pattern. We also discuss in detail a sure-fire Guess paper.
I don't know, but my students say that I am a good teacher.
Thanks to the good name of my university, I am a hot commodity even outside the campus. I am currently hired by a famous tuition center. They pay me well.
At night, I give home tuitions. Home tuitions are highly rewarding.
The day has ended. I am going to bed satisfied doing my job. In fact I have been so successful that today I live in a well furnished bungalow, in a posh part of the city."
Dear, oh Dear. What a sad being. From sunrise to sunset: no discoveries, no fun with sciences, only the piles of cash earned, which would satisfy nothing but the physical being. The sad part is that almost all teachers of Pakistan, across the 471 cities, 219, 805 schools and 116 universities, follow this life pattern. A day arrives when the heart stops beating. The teacher has passed away, but nobody cares. He led an ideal life, but was ideal for nobody.
Click here Complete Education Statistics of Pakistan
Most teachers would have stopped reading by now. My ideas would have disgusted them. After all, they have better things to do in life: Teach and earn. Earn then teach. Earn, earn. R.I.P.
They have missed reading the best part: "How to be an ideal teacher?"
An ideal teacher is one who has time for his students. He is in love with his field, and is working to make a good repute in it. This is his mission, not the money he earns from this.
His students love him for this, and he cares for them in turn. Never does he compete with them, nor does he silence a difference of opinion. His ego is asleep when he is teaching.
Soon, the ideal teacher finds the dedicated student. There is a marriage of ideas. Long, fulfilling experiments follow. New theories are put forward, outrageous looking laws proposed. Another success story has been added to the history of mankind.
Note: I had numerous real life examples as well, but being a student, a teacher's wrath could ruin my career. Certainly, not an ideal situation for an ideal student.
