THE REASONS OF YOUR HEART

I was talking to this young final-year student, this morning. She had told me before about her desire to get into college teaching. That was some months ago. Now, the exams are just a stone-throw away… and so, when I had met her, this morning, I asked her whether teaching was, still, her final choice.

It was. 

But, this young girl did have some anxieties. She studied in one of the best colleges in Mumbai, where, people ‘died’ to get into. It was a dream coming true for many students and their parents… Yes, just telling the world - ‘This is the college’!

Still, this girl had come across, in this ‘best college’, some of the most pathetic teachers! She had seen, all through her three-year stint in this college, that students hardly attended the lectures… Even if they did, they hardly paid any attention… That, majority of them never had any ‘respect’ to their teachers… So much so, she had sensed, that the teachers just managed to do their ‘job’… with a great deal of frustration and indifference.

Understandably, this young girl was now asking herself: “Is this the world I desire to land into… and spend rest of my life?” “Will I be able to take and live with this frustration? This lack of respect? This drudgery in my life?”

This girl was very sincere when she was asking these questions. 

I was in eighth standard. I was studying in the ‘best high school’ of my town. I am still – and shall always be – proud to call myself a student from this prestigious institution. People died to get into this institution… and, yes, it was a dream, a pride. 

But then, I still remember the kind of teachers we had. Some were exceptional… dedicated, dynamic and passionate. We adored them, saw them in awe… We came home and spoke about our teachers… We spoke about them amongst our fiends. And, there were a couple of teachers, who were miserable misfits. It feels a bit harsh, even disrespectful, to say so about these teachers of mine. But, being a teacher myself – and having done nothing else in my life, except teaching – I do feel that they had made a wrong choice. We were in eight standard, mind you… and, we students would make life miserable to these teachers. I still wonder, when I look back – how they must have lived with such a frustration, such a killing feeling – ‘I am a loser’!

Then came the college. The same story continued. We had those out-of-the-world lectures… who made our day, who ignited passion in our hearts… about whom we went home and spoke… and raved amongst our friends. And, there were a couple of our teachers – yes, total misfits… We had made their lives traumatic! They were gold- medalists, rank-holders… and, they had longed to join this college as a matter of pride. Yes, it was a dream come true for them! 

Alas! The dream had turned into a nightmare!

The ‘best college’ did not produce the ‘best teachers’… Nor, the ‘best students’. The ‘Best teachers’ did produce this ‘best institution’… and, it took years and years to do that!

Today, when young parents 

‘die desperately’ 

to enroll their little kids

 in the ‘best’ kindergarten, 

the best school 

and the best college – 

I only pray in my heart: 

“Lord, please give them

 the ‘best teachers’, too!”

 

I wonder, now: How do teachers become the ‘best’? 

The sad thing about life is: we rarely empathize with other people. With our teachers, we should… but, we don’t!

Today, being a teacher myself, I ask this question: In which school do we learn empathy?

This morning, I told the young girl, that, what she had been seeing in her ‘best’ college was nothing strange or new. We had seen that four decades before… and, it must have been there ever since the Great-Dhronacharya’s days!

So, would I advise this young girl to become a college teacher?

By all means!

Would she be the one her students went back and raved about? Or, would she be the one they booed?

Would she spend rest of her life feeling proud and fulfilled? Or, would she spend it feeling lost and frustrated?

I told her that if she had the right reasons to be a teacher, if she had enough passion, if she had the burning love to teach, help, empower, inspire and mould – if she had enough faith in herself, in her goodness… if she was humble enough to learn how lucidly and compassionately communicate… If she could exude this love, this passion, and these ideals through her teaching… then, she needed not to worry. That, her students would go back and rave about her… that, she would go back and rave about them, as well!

I started teaching right when I was in college… to my friends, to their friends, to my neighbors… and, all this I did because they kept telling me this:” Gerry, you teach well!” Yes, that made me feel worthwhile, on top of my world! The rest of my life, I did only that – teaching. And, for the rest of my life, here on, too, I would do only that - teaching!

Yes dear, to be a fine teacher, you only need to have fine reasons. The world will, always, be the one you carve for yourself… with these reasons of your heart!

Wish you all the best.

GERALD D’CUNHA

Pics.: Vijay Patrick D'Silva