“The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The
superior teacher demonstrates. The GREAT teacher inspires.” -William Arthur Ward
When maturity reaches its apex, it glows on the face, out of
the soul. It doesn't ask for sophisticated face expressions or wearing a
branded suit. However, it’s something which is earned by experience and
immortal zeal toward learnings, best demonstration- a teacher. It has to be
believed that a teacher is the best learner. He learns the logics of life and
presents them in the simplest way to us. If you can’t explain it simply, you
don’t understand it well enough. Being students, few of us question the
abilities of a teacher who ends up explaining the concepts short and simple.
But it is the fact that one who explains the ideas simply, has to undergone
tougher observations to make them appear simple. It requires hours of thorough study
before, to present ourselves on the podium facing a troop of ‘pseudo-innocent’
pupils, who are ready to chuckle at us on our single mistake. Among that crowd,
the front benchers are the judging panel, having their eyes for a chance to
raise hands. They study hard with a strict routine being followed by them in
order to keep pace with syllabus. Following them are the wise students of the
class who print the dust of white board on their copies. They try to admire
their teacher to get an image of ‘Good boy’. And at the last bench, are the
best cartoonists of the time, who keep on adorning their sketching skills by
drawing the imitation of the teacher. When the teacher heeds them, they show as
if they are the most sincere buddies of the class who are penning every word
chattered by him. And the teacher knows all their cunningness because once, he
was also a student. But he doesn't react to it in harsh manner as he loves to
keep everything simple, that’s his maturity, not ignorance.
We know that a teacher has immense knowledge of his subjects
and he too imparts it to the best of his efforts. But the role of a teacher is
not up to the class curriculum only. Rather, his incumbency begins to define his
role from here. It’s the responsibility of a teacher to praise his students to
work on new ideas and should suggest them with solutions, be it related to his
subject or not. Only enchanting the words written in the book can also be done
by a student himself. Explanations are well carried out in reference books too.
Moreover, the demonstration, which our life offers us every moment, can be noticed
by us if we are keen observers. But all this requires an initiation and courage
to put efforts. A teacher is said to be great if he also works to imbue his
students with feelings to work hard and praise them on their success. It
doesn’t mean that he would criticize their failure. He would speak the words
from best of his collections which would puff the chest of failed ones with
enthusiasm and give them a direction to work harder. This positive approach is
sufficient enough to restart the race and believe it or not most of the winners
on this earth have rouse out of the darkest lakes of failure.
A teacher is not only to show us the path, but he is our
patron to help us distinguish between the two paths and choose the best. A
perfect blend of decency, knowledge and maturity, garnished with a pinch of
optimism makes any teacher great. He doesn’t ask people to follow him, but is
followed himself, after all, a few words of praise are enough to revitalize our
hopes to fight back and a great teacher is the pen with such an eternal ink of
optimism.
