IL&FS Focus

Shades between the bogus and realKabir MustafiI often thinkI am lucky to be in a job that pleases me. But after 30 years in the teachers‚ profession I sometimes have to drag myself to work. As a school principal my average day is full of people, inspections and little hassles. The major compensation is the time I spend teaching.There‚s much to commend actual teaching. Many years ago a fellow-teacher and friend was preparing for his first Plus Two class. He had decided how he was going to introduce himself and what he was going to say about ground rules, teacher-pupil interaction, discipline etc. My wife (also a teacher) advised against elaborate planning and recommended allowing students to respond in their own time. It proved to be good advice for which she received profuse thanks. I think a good lesson to be learnt is that you cannot impose. Students have to let you enter.Getting them to let you enter has nothing to do with political correctness or being kind and loving. It has to do with trying to recognise each person in a class as a unique individual (whether mad, zany or incredibly bone headed), and for the class to believe that in spite of your idiosyncrasies, you mean well and that you actually know the subject you are teaching. The bottom line is that if they listen attentively, you are accepted.It takes hard work to get there. It‚s worse if working conditions are difficult and you have to deal with a megalomaniac promoter. The type who feels threatened if students speak to you outside the classroom, or if they utter a word of appreciation within his or her hearing. A situation like that can drive anyone to quit, not just the school but the profession itself, so completely can the cancer of pettiness fill our lives.But the ups and downs of the teaching profession notwithstanding, the worth of a day is best measured by the time spent with students, even if it comprises no more than a couple of hours. And that‚s why it‚s important for every teacher to know what she is doing and what she is about.Looking back, I have to say that in my book, only 10 percent of all teachers I have met, were unworthy of the profession. Most teachers I know have the ability to be intellectually dynamic, to continue to assimilate, challenge and be challenged, and revel in the 40 minutes of stimulation that a lesson can provide. The corollary of this is that if a teacher knows she is good in the classroom, she will also know that she is good outside it. Generally speaking teachers like water, find their own levels of happy involvement. And what about schools in which teachers teach? The most dedicated teachers can be stifled by bogus schools ‚ those that look good from far but are far from good, to paraphrase an old clichƒ©. A typical bogus programme is a school day that‚s really a class day:…