How Do You Remember the Teachers Day?  

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Teachers' day brings so many memories to me both good and bad.

Highlighting the good memories of teachers' day

That day, we all assembled in a classroom, the last assembly in class 5, the top grade in my primary school.  It was customary for the school head teacher to give us a pep talk in that assembly.; he was our maths teacher. We were two in class 5, competing for the top position, a boy and me, and it depended on who scored highest in Maths.  

The headteacher would also make mention the academic excellence on that occasion. He started with a sad note and was disappointed in the learner's performances-very few learners had paid attention to the exam writing techniques he hammered into us in the days he prepared us for the exam, etc. And he concluded by showing his pride in one learner who scored 100 % in maths, which was me.  Whenever I think of teachers' day, the incident dawns on in my memory.  

Years pass on

I joined the master's degree course at Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. The orientation week started formally. In the initial days, we were together in the library or the assembly halls, all of us in one group. That day we began grouping per subject. Our professor told us we should address each other by first names. He was T (The first letter of his first name). I got a cultural shock, coming from a place where calling teachers by their first name was the worst form of disrespect. 

Pre-school experience

When I started alphabet learning as a child, I had to touch my guru's feet to get his blessings. As part of the initiation ceremony, I submitted an auspicious gift to him, a ripe areca nut and coins wrapped in a betel leaf. Was three, my guru in his eighties.  He told me that I should attend his institution for regular classes. Began to look forward to meeting him in his institution with a bit of apprehension-he wasn't a friendly person.

The guru's institute was a thatched open shed in the middle of a wilderness. As the tiny tots in my batch joined him there, we realised he was an absolute terror. Canes of different thickness and malleability, he kept behind his low stool. Every time a toddler failed to get the hang of writing an alphabet, he pulled a cane from behind with ease and thrashed him across his back, legs, or palm. I didn't have trouble writing the alphabet, so he spared the rod for me.  

I hated even seeing his shadow. Every day I reached home after lessons and daydreamed, thrashing him across his body until he cried aloud. It would sound a joke now, though a classic example of how gurus had terrorised young minds.

Very few created lasting impressions on me-one was the maths teachers in class 5.  

I became a teacher, and how many learners think high or low about me? Teaching is a challenging profession of nation-building, and it depends on the learning culture of the learners, school ethos, material resources and facilities available, etc.

That kind of learner-teacher relationship I had as a learner never promoted openness or approachability. I never felt free to discuss any issues in the lessons or otherwise. Calling them 'sir' in humility and servitude made me good before them. And that culture restrained me from addressing my professor by his first name. None of my colleagues had faced that dilemma.

It was difficult for me to address my professor by his first name in the initial days, but slowly I shed my inhibition and adopted the new freedom-I compared the two cultures. The rituals alone create genuine respect in any learner. Respect is a mutual situation, a natural feeling to reciprocate the love, care, and respect you get. You can only appreciate people who create a genuine impression on you, showing care and a willingness to elevate you from where you are. It was that kind of respect I had for my professor. 

Conclusion

Today 5 September, is national teacher's day in India. My message to teachers is to come to the level of your learners, take their love and respect, giving them the same, which you will not get by making them touch your feet.