We live in a country where people often comment disparagingly on teachers. When children come home from school, we have a lot of complaints: ‘The teacher hasn’t marked the copy correctly! Look at the number of mistakes! The teacher doesn’t know anything!’ This is how we talk.
There’s a common belief about the profession of teaching: anyone can do this! But no one wants to do it. It’s very interesting; people say that anyone can teach, but that is not what they want to do themselves. And then they level complaints upon those who do. So much so that if you happen to be a teacher in our society, you hesitate from telling others what you do. You feel your chances in society are disadvantaged because of how people think of you.
Now consider another thing. Would you agree that children are sometimes rude to the teacher? Would you also agree that the teacher has a head who is not very happy with her, and says, ‘Why did you keep the copies like this? Why did you do that?’ Teachers put up with a lot of flak. Here then is our moment of compassion – if it does not sit well with us to return to a gathering where we have been insulted, then we should offer our salutations to all those teachers who return to their classrooms the very next morning.
Think about it for a moment. You will never return to a setting where you are treated as inferior or incompetent or where you have been insulted. So I commend my colleagues and compatriots who come back to these gatherings every day to serve our children and their growth.
What do we think teaching is? Filling up copies, checking marks, correcting exams? Maybe. But here is my definition of teaching: Teaching is an invitation to a life of sanity, humanity and nobility.
My Salaam goes to all those teachers who taught me; I am who I am today because of them. You are who you are today because of them. Even if we all do PhDs today, win Nobel prizes, our regards lie first with that kindergarten teacher who taught us how to hold a pencil correctly. Had that hand never set in the first place, all of our succeeding efforts would have gone to waste.
Imam Ghazali RA was sitting with his students when an old man passed in front of them. An aged man holding a stick and accompanied by a child. Imam Ghazali immediately got up and went to this man to assist him. The students were all surprised. He must be someone important and revered, since Imam Ghazali was no ordinary scholar himself.
When the Imam returned to his company, everyone was silent for a while. Then someone asked, ‘Sir, who was that?’ The Imam replied: ‘This was my childhood teacher of alphabets. He taught me how to write Alif Bay on a takht. Had he not done that, I would not have been an Imam today.’
The Imam’s encounter with his teacher is an example of daad – thanks. When you go into society and meet teachers, please do not take individual moments of bad behavior and apply it to the entire profession. Yes, absolutely, all five fingers are not equal. Absolutely, teachers also make mistakes. But are all policemen good? Are all customs officers honest people? Are all doctors immune from making errors? Does a surgeon never mess up? All professions have good and bad people. So does teaching.
What makes a good surgeon? What makes a good doctor? You will find that the better the hospital, the better the support staff with that doctor. When you go to a hospital, from the moment you take the appointment to the moment you see the doctor, you deal with a series of individuals. One person takes your appointment, someone else takes your blood pressure, another measures your weight. Yet another person does all the preparatory stuff. Only then does the doctor see you – for seven minutes!
Each doctor is resting on the support of ten people in a good hospital. How many people does the teacher have? The answer, worldwide: decimal 3. The same teacher takes attendance, the same teacher pulls out biscuits from her purse for the hungry child (‘Looks like your mother hasn’t given you breakfast!’), the same teacher looks after your sick child. A teacher becomes a nurse, a doctor, a support system, a mother – she does all this along with checking copies, marking books, giving exams, teaching the curriculum, and developing the lesson plan. Without the kind of support the doctor has, the teacher does amazing things.
So the next time you find yourself upset by a teacher’s incompetence – of course, it upsets me also! – make sure you do not let the encounter feed a universal grudge against all teachers. Make sure you also find time to commend the other teacher – the one who is doing her job well by serving all these roles for the sake of your child. And make sure you thank her.