Teaching is a very difficult task like everything else. But, one extremely important thing that sets this task apart from all the other existent tasks is that there is too much responsibility associated with it. Consider for example the arena of politics where leaders make promises to the voters. Then suppose, the leader who has made all those promises turned out to be nothing but a man with a facade. How would you dethrone him? Ofcourse, there are two ways. Either spark a revolution, march down the streets, shout slogans or wait for five long years and choose a better person. But, then what about the time spent, energy wasted during the entire process of ousting him out? Well, anyone can stump me over by telling me that good things take time and I do understand that quite nicely.
When you have the luxury to afford this amount of time and energy in the domain, say, of politics and other areas likewise, you do not at all have that in the field of education. Why? Good question. Let me describe.
The consequences of your actions, here I am taking into account a teacher’s actions, are quite immediate. This is so because a child’s brain is soft as a clay, you mold it in whatever form you like. When once molded, when once wired in a certain kind of way, it takes a lifetime to edit that. And, that is the primary reason it is a prerequisite before taking up the responsibility to teach someone that you not only have the sound knowledge of textbooks you are to deliver but also everything around it. The inner context matters as much how that context is going to shape the outer aspect of things.
Childhood is a very critical period in one’s life. It’s because it not only ends then and there, it extends to adulthood and the years after it. Basically, it’s the first and foremost period where one learns about how he/she is going to approach the society around him. It’s a period of self-actualization where one realizes one’s own existence in this vast universe. All of this forms the foundation for how an individual is going to transition into an adult and take its respective position in society. The norms, morals and even the dogmas that haunt a person later in his life are all initiated in childhood.
This accounts to the primary reason for why so much of importance is given to these preliminary years. That translates to an equally huge responsibility on the shoulders of the teachers. They are not merely to teach but to shape the overall character of a child fully realizing during the entire process that they are not just teaching but molding a person who is going to develop into an independent and responsible adult. This can only happen when textbook learning is blended with other forms of learning like the use of ICT based learning platforms for wider exposure and resource pooling or the sharing of practical examples to make the child really understand the very essence of the subjects taught to him. If the lessons are taught in a mind-numbing way one after another the child is definitely going to lose interest. And, so once in a while a careful sorting of targeted motivational quotes for students should be provided with the daily routined inputs.
The objectives of teaching are many and varied. The teacher has to ensure that in addition to the development of a healthy memory that a child needs to understand and reflect upon what it is being taught. A child who’s merely memorizing the facts is not going to help anyone. There is a characteristic difference between mere facts and knowledge. Where one is just the rudimentary aspect of learning, the other is going to shape the overall personality of a child. The ethics and etiquettes are only learnt when one is able to think on his own and come up with original insights on the the topics he is dealing with. You can easily gauge that out by just looking at the person. That’s the difference between a layman and a learned individual. Hence, it is very crucial for the teacher to identify all these areas and help the child grow to its maximum potential.