You don’t deserve good teachers for your kids!

Learning how to speak is a complex process.?

Vocabulary, grammar, emotions, context, movement of tongue, lips, syllables!

Think about it, no other species on the entire planet has the ability of speech. But the human mind is so magnificent that even a baby, with a partially developed brain, is able to learn speech just by the age of 3. That too without any formal training!?

Why is it that even after some 15 odd years of schooling (plus tuition), a fully developed brain is not able to grasp science, maths, history, geography, etc properly?

Who is responsible for this??

Obviously, the people in the education system. Teachers, for sure.??

No, no, no, it’s YOU! You’re responsible!

Society does NOT deserve good Teachers.?

A school student, Ashish, came home one evening and told his parents that he wanted to become a teacher when he grows up. His parents were aghast. They were worried about his future financially and mind-washed him to change his dreams.?

Even when Ashish’s teacher came to know about this, he also said “I carry my books in a jhola?(poor man’s bag),?why do you want to suffer like me.”

No parent in India ever tells his/her child to become a teacher one day. Did your parents do so? Do you tell your kids that? Even teachers don't! Same with me as well.

It’s no one's fault, really. In a capitalistic economy, parents will want their kids to take up higher-paying cushiony jobs. Teaching obviously, is one of the least paid jobs.?

Speaking on female foeticide, in an interview, Virendra Sehwag (famous sportsman)?bluntly said, if parents do not give birth to daughters, how will they find daughter-in-laws for their sons? Obviously, the same applies here.

Is Teaching a Skilled/Tough Job?

What do college students do to earn a quick buck on the side in India? What does an unemployed fresher do to make ends meet?

They TEACH.

If these amateurs are capable of teaching, it must be a job that requires no skill, no?

We’re all capable of taking?photographs from our mobile phones, does it mean photography requires no skills? All highly trained, highly paid photographers should therefore be doomed by now??

Remember hitting that great shot in gully cricket? There's surely some difference between playing gully cricket and facing Shoaib Akhtar in International Cricket.

If you have just seen a nearby hill,?trekking may seem very simple. Try Mount Everest.

If you don’t get it, let me tell my own story.

In 2010, I decided to take up a teaching job in Kota. I knew, with certainty (in my own bad arrogance), that?I will be a great teacher to IIT-Jee aspirants. After all, I myself had cleared the exam with flying colors. Being a bright student throughout, I had taught in ad-hoc ways to friends, siblings, and others. They all liked my teaching style..?

To top this, I’d been great at my engineering job for the last 3-4 years. I was working at one of the best tech companies in the world, Texas Instruments. I was damn good at the toughest thing one can do: doing tech research.?

So, teaching would be a cake-walk. I was going to kill it, bring it on.?

A few weeks in Kota and my chest inflated with arrogance, completely shrunk. I was mesmerized and scared at the same time.?

Mesmerized, as I had myself not experienced the teaching of that level ever before! Students here learned really fast and enjoyed learning.?Scared, as to how will I meet the same standards??

It took me a few years of really intense labor to reach the right level. I taught thousands of students in one class with another hundred waiting outside as there were no empty seats.?

Very often, I would allow them in and they would sit on the floor all around, on windows, and wherever else they could find space.

What does a great teacher give to the students? Knowledge?

Noooooo. He gives them the ”quest to learn”!

A philanthropist can give money, only if he has it.

A flower can give fragrance, only if it has it.

A teacher can give the quest of learning, only if he has it.

The BOSS

There are some really great minds in the teaching profession. Look at the professors in the MITs and the Stanfords of the world.?There’s absolutely no doubt about their quest for learning either. Then what seems to be the problem?

The owner of Bansal classes once asked me, “Neetin, who is your boss?”.?

”You, of course”, I replied.??

He said, “You educated fool, it’s the students!”

Let me explain.

In 1088 AD, the University of Bologne, the first University in the west,?was founded. The students of the University would create groups and hire professors to teach. If students felt satisfied, they would hire and pay the professor again. If not satisfied, the verdict was no more engagement.

Students were the BOSS!

Gradually, good professors came together and turned the tables around.?Ironically, the student was still paying, but the recipient was the boss. Contrary to other jobs!

I came to know that a professor in a top college (of US) does two things: Teaching & Research. Teaching is called work ’load’ & Research is called research ‘opportunity’. Did you notice the terminology?? LOAD & OPPORTUNITY? Do you know the perks of a professor who is senior? Lesser classes!

If students regain their throne, even partially, priorities of profs will have to get aligned properly and teaching will become great.

Disclaimer: What I am telling here applies in general. Obviously, there are many mind-blowing profs. Even I was blessed with some in my college days.

Love, Respect & Worship

Long back, people aspired to be teachers for the respect they commanded, even though the pay was little.?

But today I feel sad when I see teenagers using ill words for their teachers.

This loss of respect in the teaching profession further demotivates the society to promote the profession.?

Back when I used to teach, once I went to a mall with my family. The mall was in the area where students lived in hostels. The news spread and the mall was packed with some?thousand odd students who wanted to just see me. So much love, it was overwhelming and humbling.

If you teach well, students will respect you. Even worship you. In Kota, students had written on walls about me in my admiration.

Educating children is an extremely diligent process. In Kota, many teachers were gifted and born teachers in a way. In my initial days, I would ask them how they teach so well. I would often hear “If you work hard, it just happens.”?

But being a hard core engineer and researcher, my mind won't settle for anything less than a scientific process. Over years of research, I (along with others) have developed LISEF, which is a very detailed approach and methodology to teach and can be used by anyone for powerful teaching. Even ‘quest for learning’ can be engineered.

It is a feedback loop. If teachers teach well, respect comes. Then others also want to be teachers.

Well…

New advanced models are launched so rapidly that the mobile phone enthusiasts always regret not having waited one more month. Technology is progressing very fast as society promotes engineering professions. With that, things start happening by themselves.?

Whereas in the education industry, it's the opposite! Someone once said, “Education system is the best example of Newton’s Law of inertia”. It doesn’t change.

By the way,?Ashish (the student who aspired to be a teacher but was deterred) went on to become Ashish Dhawan. He went to Yale & Harvard. After working in multiple industries, he is now the founder and CEO of Central Square Foundation which does amazing work for better education.

Technology will also help improve education (Man vs Machine) but only if used rightly (Misguided Moves of Global Ed-tech Start-ups).

I hope for a better future of something (education) which actually holds responsibility for a better future!?In your opinion, what measures can be taken towards the enhancement of education?