This post has been published by me as a part of the Blog-a-Ton 2, the second edition of the online marathon of Bloggers; where we decide and we write. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.

shankara_edit02Guru Brahma, Guru Vishnu, Guru Devo Maheshwara. Guru Sakshath Parambrahma, Tasmai Shri Gurave Namaha. (tr: Guru is the creator Brahma, Guru is the preserver Vishnu, Guru is the destroyer Siva. Guru is directly the supreme spirit — I offer my salutations to this Guru.) -Adi Shankara

We don’t need no education
We don’t need no thoughts controlled
There is no sarcasm in the class room
Teachers leave them kids alone
hey teachers leave them kids alone! – Pink Floyd

Though I voted for this topic but when I sat down to write about it I found that I am a not a “student” anymore its been about decade I had anything to do with a “Shikshak” or teacher so How do I write about ‘Teachers Aaj’ part. But since this is a topic at hand I go ahead and write.

Do you think the two quotes above are inappropriate or out of place. I mean first one was written ages ago and the next one not so long ago but it holds true still today. And don’t they provide a very contrasting view.

Ok lets talk of the topic “Teachers – AajKal” or teachers now and then. Lets begin with teachers today.

Today and this today can include a decade or so more in recent past, the teaching is just like any other profession where people go to work do the work(teach) take their dues and theres nothing more to it. Do you this is wrong in this age of extreme professionalism?

I must say that my extended family has or had many teachers. My mom is a trained teacher but dropped the profession to take care of us the kids, My father is currently a visiting faculty so I have a ‘Shikshak’ at home only. And I see him work really hard to prepare notes, presentations(Few moths back my sister & I taught him MS PowerPoint) and books. But what he says is that most of the effort is not worth as noone is interested to ‘learn’.(Don’t worry guys even our teachers alleged that).

Today the teachers in private sector are paid a meager amount. So where do they get the motivation to ‘teach’, quite naturally they resort to other sources of income like tuition, writing suggestion books etc. I can talk about an incident where a college student asked the professor to teach from a particular suggestion book as it was easier for ‘him’ to study and the professor had to comply, as a complaint from the “high fees paying student” could have been detrimental for the professor’s own job itself. Sad right but true, Ok I am not trying defend or offend anyone but facts are facts. (Another allegation, now all the students must be looking for me to break my bones).

The scenario in government institutions is little different as “teachers” are selected through a ‘stringent’ selection processes and paid well but there too we have corruption. Which is used by teachers to get into ‘plum’ institutions. Like all other government employees govt. teachers too take their job complacently. Add to that the retirement age is so high. So what we get? Old & grumpy often sleepy teachers. (Now teachers are searching for me I guess).

All in all what I get is the situation is looking grim today. But is it really like that?

Now lets talk of teachers of Kal or yesterday, Now yesterday can be right from the beginning of civilization. Well in India the Guru-Shisiya (teacher-student) relation has been one of most sacred of the relations. So if we see down the lane there have been great gurus (teachers) in our mythology/history like Dronacharya, Chanakya equally great shisyas(students) Eklavya, Chandragupt. Recently I read a newspaper article where a group of high profile, well placed students of a revered teacher gifted him a new house as he could afford it. The students had paid their guru dakshina because he deserved it. I would like to express my gratitude to my English teacher for working on ‘me’ and not only improving my miserable English grades but inspiring me to keep writing in English.

So the point I am trying to make here is we should judge teachers in reflection.That is to see the quality of todays teachers we have to wait for few decades maybe when the students grow up and if they still remember or express their gratitude then we can say that they were great but by then they’ll be “Teachers yesterday” :D.

In end I would just say that teachers of today or tommorrow like yesterday will be good, bad and ugly the matter is who do you run into.

The fellow Blog-a-Tonics who took part in this Blog-a-Ton are Vipul, Rajalakshmi, Ranee[1], [2], [3] , Avada, Indian Pundit, Sojo, Aneet, Pramathesh, Aativas, Sid, Pra, Ajinkya, Lakshmi, Govind, Shilpa, Bharathi, Shankar, Mytuppence, Azad, Pawan, Pankaja, Saimanohar, Guria, Shruti, Vishnu,Nasrajan and Richa. Click on their respective names to read their posts on Teachers : Aaj Kal. To be part of the next edition, visit and start following Blog-a-Ton.
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