Dear Leaders,
Here is my message to teachers and
students on the eve of Teachers Day – 2014
“In a completely rational society, the
best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to settle for
something less, because passing civilization along from one generation to the
next ought to be the highest honor and the highest responsibility anyone could
have.”―Lee Iacocca
Indians celebrate September 5 as a
Teachers Day on the birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the
second President of India, as a mark of respect to teachers. Indians hold
teachers with great respect and they respect teachers next to their mothers and
fathers.
A
Great Teacher Inspires
Ordinary educators share their
knowledge. Good educators not only share their knowledge but also ensure that
the acquired knowledge is effectively applied. Great educators go beyond books
to inspire students. They are passionate. They share ideas and insights. They
take amazing and inspiring stories to connect with students to enable them to
dream and achieve big. They change the mindset of the students. They build
positive and right attitude among students. They help students discover their
potential. They make students realize where do they stand and where they must
go. They are visionaries who know where to take their students and how to
transform them as good citizens.
I
am a Professor and I Love my Profession
I have the habit of inspiring everyone
to pursue education, not for employment but for empowerment and enlightenment.
It is my job as a professor! Whenever young boys and girls greets me when I was
passing on the road, I stop and enquire them whether they are pursuing
education. If they don’t pursue education, I implore them to pursue. If they
say that they don’t have money, I tell them to work, earn money and spend some
time regularly for education. I hailed from humble origins and rose from ranks
to the position of professor. I know how tough it is to come up to this level
without any financial support and that too, by earning and learning. I entered
into employment when I was only just 18 years old with little education and
then worked hard during the day time and studied during night time to acquire
many qualifications including the highest academic qualification - PhD, and
ultimately came up to this level. Since I demonstrated it by setting an example
to others, I inspire others to follow my path. Once it is possible for me, it
is possible for others as well!
A doctor saves the lives of everyone
including his enemy as the profession demands it. An engineer builds
infrastructure and works for the betterment of society including his detractors.
I belong to the noble profession of teaching which is the mother of all
professions. Hence, I preach good things to others and also I practice them. Remember, I am a professor and I love my
profession!
As
the Mother is to a Child, the Teacher is to a Student
At times an educator can be compared
with a mother. When the child does not eat food, mother shares fascinating
stories to her child and offers food. The child enjoys food by listening to
stories. It not only helps the child grow physically but also grow mentally.
Similarly, educators must share several inspiring stories with their students
while sharing their knowledge. If educators share their knowledge only without
any stories, it leads to boredom and monotony as students cannot digest too
much of information and they resist listening to lectures. Students appreciate
the educators who can mix various ingredients during their teaching sessions
such as stories, interaction, humor, knowledge; and match them as per their
expectations. As mother cooks food and feeds to the child with stories, the
educators must prepare their content with various ingredients and must share
them with stories in the classroom to groom them as well rounded personalities.
An ideal teacher must adopt the following
practices to build strong and healthy students:
- Come out of your comfort zone. Plan properly for the teaching session to roll out effectively. Take feedback after each teaching session to find out where you went well and wrong. Adopt the ones that worked and analyze the ones that did not work to improve and deliver better in the next session.
- Appreciate the fact that you are generating generations. Hence, be careful when you walk your talk in the campus. Students may look at negative things rather than the positive things. Hence, take all efforts to present positive body language to earn respect from your students.
- Demonstrate a positive attitude as educator’s attitude is very important to achieve learning outcomes.
- Make your teaching sessions student-centric, not teacher-centric. Don’t teach what you know. Find out the expectations of students, acquire knowledge on it, and then teach to connect with them to inspire.
Teachers must don multiple hats like
counselors, leaders and parents as per the situation to connect with students.
Currently the expectations of the students are rising globally. Hence,
educators must raise their bar constantly to learn, unlearn and relearn with
the changing times and technologies to stand as great educators.
Students
must outsmart their Teachers
Educators share their knowledge, ideas
and insights with their students. They
make a difference in the lives of their students with their passion, knowledge
and experience. And the students
acquire knowledge from their educators and apply it in their real lives and
reap rewards greatly. In fact, application of knowledge is more important than
the acquisition of knowledge. Educators have knowledge and ideas which they may
not be able to apply in their lives as their main role is to share knowledge as
per the expectations of their students, and to make them successful. Hence, they are engaged with their task of
creating, generating, and sharing their knowledge with others. On the other hand, the students apply the
acquired ideas and insights in a number of areas and reap great rewards. Students work very hard in their lives and ultimately,
they make it big and achieve greatness.
Therefore, the roles of both educators and students are different.
Parents want to see the success of
their children. When children succeed
the parents are happy since they treat their children’s success as their
success. Similarly, educators are happy
when they see the success of their students, and they feel that they are
successful in their lives. Above all, a
true parent’s success lies in the success of their children, and a true
educator’s success lies in the success of their students. To summarize, educators remain as educators
whereas the students must outsmart their educators to grow as great leaders.
Message
to Students on Teachers Day
Most students who pass out from
educational institutions are of the opinion that they don’t have to learn
further in the corporate world. In fact, what they must understand is that
learning is a process from cradle to grave. What they acquired in educational
institutions is only from academic perspective to receive paper qualifications
that serve as passports to their employment interviews. During the interview if
the employers find that the candidates have the potential to learn and grow
with a right attitude, they will be provided with employment offers. After
joining the corporate, the candidates must learn about the products and
services that the companies are offering to their clients and mould themselves
accordingly. Therefore, the real learning starts at the corporate world.
The students must appreciate the fact
that the world is interconnected and nobody can work alone. There is
volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity everywhere. The information
is spread quickly from one corner to another corner of the world through
internet. The knowledge is expanding rapidly and they must choose to acquire
the right knowledge. They must learn to synthesize the knowledge to apply it
effectively. The present world offers both opportunities and threats, and it
depends on how they view the situation. An optimist has the ability to identify
the opportunities from threats whereas the pessimist treats every opportunity
as a threat. They must view positively to identify the opportunities and
exploit them fully. If someone doesn’t utilize the opportunities, others are
ready to grab and exploit them as the competition is cut-throat everywhere.
Hence, it is essential to acquire acumen to identify opportunities to explore
and exploit them effectively to grow as successful citizens and leaders.
On the eve of Teachers Day both
teachers and students must take a pledge to contribute their best to build a
healthy society and a better world.
"A teacher affects eternity he
can never tell, where his influence stops." - Henry Brooks Adams
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Professor M.S.Rao, India
Founder of MSR
Leadership Consultants India
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Great to read article written by you dear professor. As like you inspire you students, our professor Aloke Ghosh also helped us in any way and he always motivate us to become successful person in our life. He really helped us on every step of our studies.
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