Teacher's day Special

“20 of you expressed interest to take IIT JEE coaching from me. 7 of you dropped out by yourself in the last one year. Out of the remaining 13, I feel three of you need to focus more on your school physics. The rest of you can attend my summer vacation classes. “

The teacher reads out the names of 3 students.

The 3 students were bitterly disappointed. Their journey towards IIT seemed to have come to an end even before it started.

“Sir, please. Give us just one more chance.”

“Don’t take this personally, boys. This is for your own good. I know your parents have put pressure on you. But IIT JEE is not for everyone. But that does not mean you are lesser humans. It is just that your true vocation lies elsewhere. You should try and find it and pursue it.”

Two of them resign themselves and accepting the teacher’s logic move on. One student still sticks his ground. “I want to get into IIT and nothing else. Give me one chance and I will prove it.”

Quite a familiar story, isn’t it? However I am not going to tell you next that the boy became American president George Washington or Sanskrit grammarian Panini or anything else. He did score 96% in the next physics exams to win his teacher’s trust, and later get into IIT and all that. But that’s about it. Even this post is not about him. It is about the physics teacher. The only reason the boy found mention is the fact that this piece is being written by the boy. I thought I will break my habit of only writing for contests and instead write for something like teacher’s day for a change and hence this post about my favorite teacher.

Teaching is of course a noble profession and plays a critical role in society. But the sad reality is more often than not people who do not find any other job go to teaching. And same was the case with this teacher. He had failed his university exam and cleared it through arrears. So the only job he could get was that of a teacher in a newly started school that could not even afford a sweeper. In fact every morning he himself had to double up as the sweeper for the physics lab.

From such a humble start, in 25 years he emerged as the most respectable teacher in the whole of the town. His classes were considered the magic wand that could get one a coveted seat at one of the IITs. He could have easily earned a six digit salary if he had chosen to migrate to one of the big cities and joined one of the big coaching institutes. But he still chose to stay back and help the small town students. In spite of having completed a doctorate in Physics he still chose to remain a school teacher and teach at the same school where he started his career 25 years back. Now isn’t that something that requires a standing ovation?

The thing that made him stand apart was his passion for Physics and teaching. His passion was infectious. His eyes shone when he spoke about Einstein and Newton and Maxwell. He made physics seem magical. But usually people excited about the subject matter are not so excited about teaching. But he was one of those rare genuine people person. He liked teaching and he was genuinely interested in each one of his students. One of his famous words was,

“A successful teacher does not teach. He makes the students learn.”

 That was reflected in his innovation teaching methods as well. He rarely ever solved problems in class. He would teach the concepts and then make the students solve the problems on their own. He would check the approach and gently guide. But he never spoon fed the solution. Also when he taught in class he would never allow students to blindly copy what he said or wrote on the blackboard. Instead he would give a dedicated 10 minutes towards the end of the class after rubbing everything on the board for the students to reflect on what was taught in the class and make notes in their own way. That way it was ensured things went straight into the head in class itself.

In a world where teachers did not teach in class and made students attend tuition even for school syllabus, he discouraged school students from joining even his IIT JEE classes. He kept his IIT JEE classes for students of other schools and told the students of his school that he was anyways covering all the concepts in class itself. Instead he helped students only on incremental concepts that were not part of school syllabus and by giving clues when students were stuck somewhere while solving tougher IIT JEE problems. This he did without any fees. But he could not accommodate everyone here as he had limited time and would not be able to give personal attention to all. So he usually tried to weed out students who had neither the aptitude nor interest in Physics, but were just preparing for IIT JEE under parental pressure. It was good for the students too as they could employ their effort more productively in areas that would bring them better results.

The other important aspect of him was his humanity. Many teachers tend to get drunk in the authority their position gives them over the students. They either bully the students or try to act as if they are the most intelligent people on earth forgetting that the only reason they appear more knowledgeable than the students is their age. But this man was most humble and very considerate with the students. He openly told the students that he had failed his university exams and the students respected him all the more for it. He never used a single harsh word. If people slept in his class, he would gently walk up to the student and remark to the rest of the class,

 “See how peacefully he sleeps free from all worries. One must be lucky to get such good sleep.” 

If someone were caught talking during his lectures he would remark,

 “I hope you were discussing Physics. Please share your insights with the rest of the class.” 

 He always used to remark how he was learning every year along with the students.

This post of mine is a dedication on the occasion of teacher’s day to Dr. Rajagopal, who has helped a whole generation of students from Trichy to make it to IIT. I am a day late but I guess better late than never.

Picture Credit: http://newspaper.li/teacher/