Teachers awake, arise

India is poised at a very critical point in time and history, when we need to analyse whether we are moving in the right direction, and if not, why not. There is far too much moral and ethical decay in our society and even though the world is gradually emerging from the recent economic turmoil, globally people are unhappier than before.For various reasons, India wasnt as badly hit by the economic meltdown as was the western world. But yet, there is persistent social unrest, intolerance, cynicism and corruption in our midst, not to speak of disease, poverty and exploitation. Gross national products may be rising in most countries including ours, but not gross national happiness. You just need to look around and see how many of us are living more depressed lives than before, full of strain, stress and breakdowns. Somewhere at the bottom of this chaos, in nations, societies, institutions and families, is a breakdown, or crumbling of the human being. It all starts from there, and has to be addressed first. Somebody has got to stop the rot, and why not you is a line we all sing in our school song at Sanawar. From where and how do we break out of this chakravyuh? I think a good beginning is for each individual to reform himself/herself, then the family and finally schools, in that order. Its the countrys youth, our children, who need to catalyse this change and create a better world. Yet who will train these youth? In families this duty devolves upon parents, and in schools, upon teachers. Unfortunately, while parents consciously or unconsciously often incul-cate antisocial values in their children by doing what is morally, if not legally wrong, they usually blame schools and teachers for not disciplining their children. Ive known some parents who advise their children that to be successful, they often have to take the wrong path. When last year I had to deal with some children indulging in violence on the school campus, groups of parents of these children came in twice to oppose disciplinary action. One of them has even dragged me to court, while others have approached ‘high ups to fix me. This brings me to my central point, and that is, as teachers we have a greater responsibility to educate youth correctly. Surely theres more to education than mastering the three Rs — reading, writing & rthmetic. In my opinion its all about creating good role models and leading by example, not just in classrooms but even on playing fields. Indias massive 5.5 million teachers community has to get its act right. We can never give any-one else, least of all a child, something which we dont have ourselves. For instance, do we as teachers love our students, and care for them, or are we in this profession primarily to earn our livelihood? Not that money isnt important to maintain our families (and certainly we all should be paid well), but does the teachers community possess the…