Celebrating Teachers Day

I had an opportunity to go through the precise message of Prof. Ableter of Ghana University on Facebook in which he argues that ‘Academic excellence is overrated’.  Is academic excellence really overrated? I kept asking such question to myself for days together and I got a weird sensation inside my head as if somebody was answering my question ‘Oh man don’t think too much’, if academic excellence would have been the criteria of the success then what about Thomas Edison who was a bad learner in classroom yet he invented the electric bulb, Steve Jobs who never graduated yet he revolutionized  the world with his visionary creations such as iPhones and iPads, Bill Gates who was an average student, yet he became an inspiration to people across globe and we have many such examples. 

To support his argument, Prof Ableter suggested that a student who is topper of his class does not necessarily guarantee that he will also be at the top in his life, because according to him school rewards people for their memory and life rewards people for their imagination. This brought another question to my mind that why is imagination so rewarding? For a while, I again thought of Edison, Steve and Bill. And my inner conscience made me believe that they were perhaps born to expose the secrets of universe and hence possessed the distinctive mystique of intellect. History bears witness to the fact that knowledge driven society does not help people to solve the problems of their lives. We read the books, listen to the podcasts, participate in conferences and watch the television shows. We have been inspired, impressed, thrilled, and even mesmerized. But does it have any lasting impact on our life? The answer in my opinion is a plane “NO”. Such facts reveal how knowledge is being overrated particularly in an academic market.  The irony is that we gain and regain our knowledge from outside world through efforts and investments but we never deliberate upon the imagination that lies within us. In fact, everything that is around us be it a mobile phone, aircraft or electricity was once an imagination. 

We live in an ever changing world where everything is changing faster than fast and where our knowledge becomes irrelevant in the very next day. We have no options other than to connect and reconnect our students to the changing technology, innovation and education. We can become teachers like Socrates and Aristotle who used creative and often imaginative ways of expression. But unfortunately what we teach in classroom is fury, un-inspiring, repetitive and unpractical. We teach a curriculum that does not train our students to have a personality of their own. We just increase their academic knowledge without infusing into them that power of imagination and creativity. We have no clue that each classroom represents a little world of its own. Every time, we expect dividends in terms of increments and pay commissions but no one is ready to invest his quality time in classrooms and those who invest are mostly unproductive. I am willing to bet that some students intentionally try to skip classes just to avoid our monotonous lectures, some are even scared to death to see us the next day and most of those who attend our classes are never comfortable.  Neither are we able to craft the language of life in our students nor do we motivate them for active learning.  No doubt we produce hundreds of Jacks but we fail to produce a single master out of them. The reason is that we fail to expose them to the world of opportunities, we fail to cultivate leadership skills in them, we fail to add values in their life and we fail to link the curriculum topic to the real life world. 

I remember a remarkable statement that was made by Prof. N. A. Gilkar during his speech on 'Academic Audit' at our college.  In his words, "Before entering into the classroom, a teacher must ask a question to himself, whether he is updated with the changes that have taken place in his field during last 24 hours". This implies the significance of content relevance to students.  Like Bell, Steve and Gates, I believe our students are also born as scientists, leaders and entrepreneurs but are not driven by their empathic imagination. They all have desire to be more successful but are inclined to think negatively. They can discover the wonders of nature but are not just motivated. They all have a potential to change the world but they are not aware of it. They possess capabilities to enlighten the world but they are lost in despair. It is our shared responsibility to develop our students in multiple ways and for that we need an ability to influence the outcome of their lives. We must show them history of all ages, inspire them to read literature of all nations and even convince them that a simple draft plan for construction of bridges or buildings involves huge amount of trigonometric concepts. The more we improve their imaginative power and curiosity of learning, the more they would be able to think out of the box. Because creative imagination can allow them to justify their existence on this planet and to travel anywhere at the speed of light. We need to make it sure that our students are able to make best decisions in worst situations, learn the mastery of anticipating business patterns, have ability to respond to the problems going around them and have capacity to take calculated risks. 

Not only are we supposed to be the custodians of the society but we also must be able to produce an intellectual environment for everyone around us. As we are all aware about the fact that our education sector is in tatters specifically from last couple of years, we must be ready to face new challenges coming our way.  Let’s take an oath to re-invent our role both inside and outside the classroom to transform our educational landscape. And please do not get me wrong. I am not suggesting that all teachers are terrible or that whole system is a mess. Of course not.  The intent behind this open letter is not to hurt or underestimate teachers but to give a strong jolt to those who know what they are supposed to do but are not doing it. Oh I am sorry to have forgotten to wish my teachers a ‘Happy Teachers Day’ who made me to see the world and beyond. 
May good sense prevail!