Want to change the world- be a teacher!

By: NISAR HUSSAIN HAJAM
It is a great privilege and honour to be a teacher. A teacher has got the potential to influence generations and has the capacity to inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more. A teacher is a role model for the students and being a role model is the first and the most important personwho shapesmany a futures.
Teaching is considered as the ‘noblest’ profession at all times since it is the competent teachers who build the very foundation of a nation. A teacher has several roles to play including that of a philosopher, a guide, a researcher, a manager, a leader and many more. It is also true that a bad teacher may, at times, prove detrimental to the nation if the basic qualities are absent.
Certain qualities make a teacher really an ideal teacher. The first quality is to be the best in character. What you say, you must do that practically. There should not be any contradiction in what is said and what is done. Your character should be that of a role model for the students. Having command over ones subject, being in touch with the latest techniques and innovations in the subject and must update and upgrade the subject knowledge accordingly. One more capacity is that you must be the best communicator.
As a teacher you must know how to impart knowledge and how to make students learn better. To make a learner understand a concept, you have to match to the level of the learner. A Teacher has to be a social genius i.e. you must be a kind of friendly and open minded person.
In a society a teacher must be the most outspoken and sociable person. For a teacher to be an ideal one, he/she must have motivation skill and passion to engage learners. A teacher is supposed to be learning all the time and that is why Joseph Joubart remarked, “To teach is to learn twice.”
Moreover, an ideal teacher is one who is progressive in nature and takes the nation forward. Furthermore a teacher should have the capacity of being a psychologist. As a teacher you must know your learner. Unless and until you get to know the weaknesses and strengths of learners, you won’t be able to make them learn better. In addition to these capacities a teacher must have the quality of having a positive learning attitude besides being disciplined.
Lastly a teacher has to be professional and not materialistic. You must teach others for your inner satisfaction and not for material gains. Researches have proven that the teacher who teaches for inner satisfaction proves to be more effective than the one who teaches from a materialistic point of view. Even the prophet Mohammad (peace and blessings be up on him) once said that he has been sent as a teacher. So we can say that this profession is a prophetic profession and the person with such a profession must bear the attributes like reputation of kindness and honesty, compassion, humble life style, patience and steadfastness etc.
The lamp of learning is considered under a cover, says one thinker; the teacher removes it and lets out the light. From ancient times a teacher called ‘guru’ the supreme teacher was considered as the ultimate God himself. The entire responsibility rested with such guru who imparted physical, intellectual, moral and spiritual upliftment of such souls in the form of his disciples.
The person who takes charge of young children and makes them wise citizens in society is naturally held in high reverence. It is the function of the teacher to lead the student from darkness of ignorance to the light of knowledge. The teacher is designated as the spiritual father of the student. During the Buddhist era, a teacher meant a practitioner who travelled some territory ahead of students.
A teacher in the Brahmanic era was a person who removed ignorance and taught religion. In Gurukulas, the teacher was supposed to be at the heart of ancient India’s educational system. Teacher was regarded as the highly source and head of all knowledge. He was an embodiment of all good qualities and was regarded as the guide, builder and teacher of the society. The teacher had a great respect during Muslim period as well. They were considered as an encouraging factor, confident booster and moral supporter for students.
The status of a teacher is at the top most layer of the ladder of hierarchy in most of the countries. They treat this profession as a physician and give it a high respect.
When so much important and of a high calibre, the profession of teaching is, it must be regarded with high esteem and reverence in the present day society as well. But it is very much unfortunate that this profession is looked down upon and is not given that much of respect nowadays. There may be certain reasons for this disrespect. May be the fault lies in the teachers who lack the basic qualities and ethics of an ideal teacher. It may also be due to the growing trend of materialism or lack of moral education and moral values.
However whatever be the reason, it is the collective responsibility of all the stake holders to look into it and try to restore the status of this revered profession and at the same time teachers are also duty bound to introspect so that any laxity on their part may be corrected at the earliest for the betterment of the whole society in general and the teaching community in particular.