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How long will this Lampooning go on?

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By: Javid Rather

I am writing this in context with the present scenario prevailing in Kashmir wherein every Tom, Dick and Harry has become judgmental and is pronouncing the sentences of his or her choice to deal with the teachers who resort to minding the students in order to make them abstain from what they should do and what not. I must admit and I firmly believe that stick is not the thing that teachers should make use of, while dealing with the mischievous students but at the very same time I must say that too much pampering must also be put to an end by the parents. I am not a teacher who has the oodles of experience on his back nor do I claim that I know everything about this great art. I am just a seven-year-old teacher and if someone calls me a “Teacher in infancy”, it won’t be any wrong.

In Europe, the teachers are the most respected citizens and even the religions followed all over the world strongly admonish us from bringing disrepute to the teachers. I am not saying that all the teachers are saints, there are some jacks too but resorting to generalization when it comes to comment about the teacher fraternity is not just also. The tussle between the teachers and the parents of the students seems to have gained momentum here and this is more prominent in the Private schools where the parents have to pay the hefty bucks. Keeping the monetary tinge into consideration the parents seem to think that they have perhaps bought the teachers and the teachers have handed over their souls like Faustus to them till the period their children are supposed to be there.

It is the high time for parents to realise that there are certain norms and codes of conduct that all the students irrespective of their familial background have to obey and follow in letter and spirit. Without knowing, I have seen and you too may have seen, that those active on social media write anything about teachers accusing them of wrongdoings. Using derogatory terms against teachers has become a new norm. Let us make it clear that an accused is just an accused till the accusation laid on him/her isn’t proven. We take sides and the one who defends his position well even if he is not on the side of the truth finds the public on his side.

Media here is judgmental too and instead of looking at all the parameters of the situation, all the pros and cones of the troubles, they become judges and pass on their judgements. The job of media is to highlight all the good and bad things that go on in the society but by being neutral rather than by taking sides of the people who claim themselves to be the victims. Had the responsibility of the teachers been just to teach the students what lies in the curriculum, teaching then would have been a cake walk. But one must understand that it is just a part of the teaching not teaching as a whole. Being teachers, it is our responsibility to inculcate in our students the moral values, ethical values and the other societal values. If we are not going to do this, who do we expect to come over and do this for us? When it is to decide who is better “A man with all manners and less knowledge” or “A man with much knowledge and less manners”, I must say that the former one is better.

In order to realise how difficult it is for the teachers to handle the students in the present era, especially the ones who don’t yearn for what they actually come to school for or who don’t yearn for the values mentioned above, I must say that the social media commentators can’t do it until and unless they are in our boots.

I would like to make it clear that I am not supporting the corporal punishment. We always resort to lampooning which lowers the morale of a teacher and this is not a good thing at all because the morale of a teacher is directly proportional to the moral of the society. We must guide our kids and not pamper them otherwise we may be preparing a nation which will turn out to be arrogant, selfish, thankless and above all mean. Those who believe that only love towards children can mould them must remember that “How long can the inevitable be avoided?”.

The author is the Vice Principal at the Budding Bloom Experimental School, Khawaja Bagh Baramulla & can be mailed at [email protected]

 

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