Meeting With School Teachers

ADDRESS

I am indeed delighted to meet you all teachers of various schools. My greetings to all of you. I would like to share with you all some of my experiences.

"What can I do for you"

At this juncture, I was thinking what thoughts I can share with you. Every one of us has gone through the various phases of education from the childhood to profession. A scene appears in front of me. It is, a child, a teenager, an adult and a leader. How each one reacts to one situation? The situation is human need. The child asks, "what can you do for me"? The teenager says, "I want to do it alone". The young person proclaims, "let us do it together". The leader offers, "what can I do for you". So, the teachers have got a tremendous responsibility to transform a child into a leader - the transformation of 'what can you do for me' to 'what I can do for you'. That will demand a teacher to be a visionary with an inspiring capability.

Prime Learning: Education with Value

The best part of a young person is his or her childhood in school and the best time spent is 0800 Hrs to 1600 Hrs in the school. The prime learning environment is 5th to 16th years of age. The student spends approximately 20,000 hours in the school campus. Of course, at home, love and affection are imparted but again most of the time of the day is spent in preparing school's homework and study, eat, play and sleep. Hence the school hours for children are the best time for learning and need best of environment, mission oriented learning with value system. I still hear the echo from Bestolozzy, a great teacher's saying, "give me a child for seven years. Afterwards, let the God or devil take the child. They cannot change the child." What a golden mission a school can have. All the more, the teachers is in the centre of the mission. The best of dynamic triangle is child, teacher and parents. For parents and teachers, school campus and home have to have an integrated mission: education with value system. If the child misses the value based education in the school, no government or society can establish a transparent society or a society with integrity.

At this point of discussion, I recall a wise statement: "If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don't have integrity, nothing else matters." Did you get message both ways? Flooding the society 100,000 learned students with character and integrity, every five years will indeed bring a big and pleasant shock to the present fragile society. Teachers are the gurus, the role model, the gurus can instill creativity. The vision is indeed bigger than who have assembled here. I would like to narrate two incidents that are working on me every day as it is the best of my education. I am presenting this because the teachers and the leaders in teaching profession may create a greater opportunity as part of student learning.

Learning about a noble leader

In 1947, at the dawn of freedom, we had the best of leaders in science education, in technology, in history, in politics and in industry. On 15th August 1947, my high school teacher Rev. Iyyadorai Solomon took his class students including me to hear the mid-night freedom speech of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. We were all thrilled when Panditji spoke that the mission was accomplished. On the next day that is on 16th August 1947 I had a great experience. An experience of best of education I can think of. In the Tamil newspaper, on the front page, two news items appeared. One item was India achieving freedom and Panditji's speech. The other news item and the most important one, which has been embedded in my memory, is about Mahatma Gandhiji walking barefoot in Naokali, removing the pain of riot affected families. Normally as Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi has to be the first to unfurl the national flag on August 15, 1947 in Red Fort. But he was not there at the Red Fort, instead he was at Naokali. Mahatma Gandhi was an embodiment of nobility, elevated thinking and concern for human beings. What an everlasting positive impact in the mind of a schoolboy!

The teacher puts you, decades ahead

Another incident was at St. Joseph's College, Tiruchirapalli. As a young student, we had the opportunity at St. Joseph's College witnessing a scene, a unique, divine looking personality walking through the college campus every morning teaching Mathematics BSc (Honours) and MA (Mathematics) students. Young students looked with awe and respect, a personality symbolizing our own culture. When he walked, knowledge radiated all around. The great personality was, Prof.T.Totadri Iyengar, the great teacher. At that time, 'Calculus Srinivasan' was my mathematics teacher. Calculus Srinivasan used to talk about Prof. Totadri Iyengar with deep respect. During those days, he and Prof. Totadri Iyengar had an understanding to have an integrated class by Prof. Totadri Iyengar for first year B.Sc. (Hons) and first year B.Sc. (Physics). I had the opportunity to attend his classes, particularly on the subjects of modern algebra, statistics and also once I heard him teaching complex variables. When we were in the BSc first year, Calculus Srinivasan used to select top ten students to the Mathematics Club of St. Joseph's to where Prof. Totadri Iyengar used to give lecture series. One day, in 1952, I still remember, he gave a one hour lecture on ancient mathematicians and astronomers of India and introduced four great mathematician and astronomers. For nearly one hour he spoke. The lecture is still ringing in my ears. I was introduced to the pride of the nation: pioneers in astronomy and mathematics (4th to 20th century) Aryabhata, Bhaskara and Ramanujam who gave to the world, the value of zero to number, orbit period of earth around sun and recently number theory. The two incident narrated have become the foundation for my education, learning with hope and value system. My teachers of primary, secondary and college education had put me few decades ahead. This is indeed the vision. Today's young dream transforming India into a knowledge society.

Bird Story

You know how birds fly? Our teacher in Class-V, way back in 1940, Sri Sivasubramania Iyer, a great human being, taught us science and many subjects. One day he was teaching us how birds fly. The importance of shape of the bird, how it flaps its wings to create lift, then how it gains momentum. The tail gives it direction. He taught well, but somehow, we could not visualize how birds fly. Then I remember, it was 3.30 pm, in Rameswaram island, he took us to the sea shore of our island. And there, at sunset, we saw the sea birds, fly. We watched them flap their wings, then stop as they assumed momentum. Change the direction with tail movement. That day, I knew this is what I would do. I would study the flight of science. My teacher, his life and his way of teaching showed me the way. In that class I decided my mission. Do you ask questions in class? Do your teachers let you ask wild questions? Yes? Some teachers you can ask anything, others you can't isn't it.?

While classroom learning is important, what the child learns by self-observation outside the classroom is equally important. A child must become an active participant in the process of learning through observation, field studies, experiments and discussions. A child's individuality and creativity needs to be given due importance in our education. Further, in addition to innovation in curriculum, priority needs to be given to the reorientation of the outlook of the teachers and overhauling of the examination system so that it recognises and evaluates creativity and new thinking rather than memorization of facts. The schools must move from becoming educational centers to knowledge and skill centers.

Conclusion

There is a national mission for universal primary education by 2010. Good teachers and parents select the schools for high academic standards, focus on teaching and learning, education philosophy with value system close to their own and above all innovative approaches in instruction. Of course, schools are sought where students are challenged to achieve higher levels.

In conclusion, the teachers have a great mission to ignite the minds of the young. The ignited minds of the young are the most powerful resource on the earth, above the earth and under the earth. That makes me recall the saintly saying of Maha Rishi Patanjali in Yoga SUTHRAS: "When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties, and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be".

I wish you all the teachers for the success in giving the nation empowered learned young with integrity. It is indeed a big mission. God bless you.