What makes a good teacher?

Dr. Ramvriksh Singh

I write this in English, in order to facilitate better communication, especially with the friends who are not comfortable reading/comprehending Hindi. So the question before us is- what makes a good teacher? I use the term teacher as a synonym to the Sanskrit-Hindi term Guru, for that is what it stands for in the Indian contexts. As we celebrate teachers’ day (5^th September) the question does haunt us, each year, year after year, as to what makes a good teacher.

For my convenience, I would like to cite examples from my school life, right since my primary school-days. As a 3^rd standard student, I had the opportunity to have Smt. Raj as my class teacher. I came from a very humble background, and my uniform and general get up would be very-very ordinary, (shabby at times) as compared to my other class-mates. I was, however, perhaps the best student in my class, as far as the studies were concerned. Smt. Raj would invite me to her house, near Basrurkar Market, Moti Bagh and give me extra lessons, and occasionally some edibles too. She was so caring and affectionate that I would long for her love. Later on, after about 6-7 years, when I had to opt for humanities in plus two at Navayug, and had an accidental meeting with her in a DTC bus, she inquired about my stream and felt sorry for me, telling that I was a science stuff and that she was disturbed and pained to learn  that I was in Arts stream. What a concern! Do you still get to see such deeply concerned teachers? She was not alone in her league. When I was about to leave my Primary School, it was only at the behest of my primary school Head Master (didn’t ever know his name!), that my father fetched a form for Navyug School and I could get an entry into this wonderful institution. He (my Primary school Head Master) was a great mentor and encouraged me to participate in all sorts of competitions at New Delhi Schools’ level. 

Navyug turned out to be an even better institution, and we were lucky to have some really wonderful teachers there. At the forefront can, however, be placed Param Poojya Shri Jivan Nath Dar, who steered the institution to its zenith. He remembered all students of the school by their names, despite his ripe age (72 years and odd). He stood long hours in the assembly and tried to pour out into our developing brains the best of the knowledge in the world, that he had accumulated all through his life, serving institutions like the Doon School, Netarhat etc. He played football with us, and made it a point to dine with his students. I had the privilege to get a slap from him, for interrupting a lunch-hour announcement in the red-bricks (Netaji Nagar) dining hall. It was well intended and the lesson well learnt. If I compose poems today and write essays and stories, in fact for all my literary pursuits to be precise, the credit goes to Sh. Dar, for he motivated us to write something or the other on various occasions. I still remember receiving a calendar depicting Smt. Indira Gandhi, from Sh. Dar, as a prize for composing a poem on swachchhata divas. Sh. Dar arranged for a serving personnel who would train us in parade. He was an apostle of a guru, a modern guru, who would encourage us to learn and speak English. Don’t criticize English because you don’t know, instead learn English and criticize it in English itself, he would say. Ours was a Hindi-medium school, and quite a good number of us came from Hindi background.  He told us how to set a crease on your clothes, even without an iron-box. He encouraged us to enact plays in English. He was the one to correct our pronunciation in open assemblies. He would sit late and check our spelling mistakes, ask us to carry out the correction work and recheck. We already had an eight hour schedule (830 to 430) and for a person of his age, it must have a really strenuous job. Very few of us would have been luckier than me, who had the opportunity to have late evening tea prepared by mataji herself (Smt. Dar), after completing my detention work at I avenue school. How many Principals would take so much of pains for their students? Sh. I.B. Kakkar did carry forward the baton, took extra classes when we were in 10^th, but probably he hardly had any time left and we were matured enough to gather any significant impressions from his life and deeds.

Our principals were assisted by best of the teachers of their times, each one of whom deserves a special mention. Smt. Veena Hora taught us Home Science. I don’t know how many schools today are keen to teach even their female students (leave alone the males) the art of cooking halwa, preparing chidwa, laying beds, stitching buttons, making button holes, preparing kachcha tanka, kaaj tanka, turpayee etc. We were, however, lucky to learn these skills from Smt. Hora. The skills learnt in the home science classes (till 8^th standard) have rendered us more wholesome lives, for we can perform almost all household activities, including cooking simple food, washing, ironing and mending clothes. My class fellows must have made a very good husband material, I am pretty sure, for they possessed all the requisite skills to run a household and fit into a modern, working woman’s imagination. Incidentally, she used to be a radio artist too.

Smt. Rita Kohli, our drawing teacher, made it sure that the best of our talents came out on paper. We were made to mix dry colours in ceramic bowls and draw pictures on half the size of a chart paper, directly with brush. No pencil work was permitted. The practice went on to produce some of the best artists in today’s India-Devendra Negi and Trilochan being my contemporaries.  Sanjay Rana would have made another great artist, had he not gone for a graduation in science and joined IPS later.

Sh. OP Kakkar, our sports teacher took keen interest in games and sports. Though we never reached to the top, our attainments as a sporting institution were more than satisfactory, given the fact that most of the sports persons from Navyug, also did extremely well in their studies. We participated in most of the state and national level hockey and football tournaments in Delhi, competed in swimming and water polo with the likes of Khajan Singh and Dharampal Singh Tokas, ran long distance races/ cross countries, participated in a good number of athletic events, thanks to the efforts and liaison Sh. O.P. Kakkar used to make.  Unfortunately both, Smt. Kohli and Sh. Kakkar are no more in this world. May their souls rest in peace.

Sh. Tarashankar Srivastav, our Geography teacher (and my class teacher for quite some time) would coach us in hockey. He used to be a very kind hearted person and such a sweet singer. Jab ghame ishq satata hai to ro leta hoon- is one piece I still remember. My deep interest in geography can be attributed to him only. And how can we forget Late Sudhir Kumar, our swimming coach, who trained Guru Dutt in the art of diving? He would ensure that we didn’t enter the pool just for the sake of bathing, and practiced instead. Late Prem Kumar, Ratna Sharma, Guru Dutt and I, along with some others made a very good swimming team for Navyug those days. Aye nahana hai to ghar ke nal ke neeche nahao- was a common dialogue Sh. Sudhir would utter in his high pitch, when he saw boys chilling out in May-June, in our L-shaped swimming pool.

Smt Vadhera, our music teacher taught us a good number of songs in leading Indian languages, including Bangla and Tamil. And who can forget those bhangada days, which culminated into a grand gala opening ceremony of the indoor stadium at Tal Katora? She and Mr. Antony (the Tabla teacher) had trained, probably the best coir in New Delhi, which could be seen (and heard) on all ceremonious occasions in the NDMC-jurisdiction.

Dr. Bharat Singh, what a person he was! So soft spoken and caring! Each time he saw my mal-performance in Hindi exams, he would utter- Tum Mehnat naheen karte. Indeed, I have never worked hard to realize my potential. Sorry sir, I have disappointed you. He constructed a house in Janakpuri and on the occasion of his Grih-Pravesh, when our school bus passed through the road, behind his house, he and Mrs. Singh came barefoot to invite all of us to have our share of laddoos. Later on Dr. Raj Singh Bharadwaj was to teach us Hindi. He passed on all his wisdom to his students and would proudly tell us that the knowledge imparted by him would last our life. It did happen. I never found an abler Hindi teacher.

Sh. A.K. Bhatnagar, our Psychology teacher used to be a very informed and capable career advisor. I was made to study Psychology by default and scored very poorly in the final exams, primarily because the examiner from NCERT, that year was a not as generous as his predecessor,  and allotted very bad marks to each of us, except Anjali. No regrets. What fascinated me was the way Sh. Bhatnagar would carry out other activities in the school. On one occasion, he was to direct a play (Ek sipahi ki maan, perhaps), but the school dais had no curtains. He sat overnight, accompanied by Mrs. Bhatnagar and the duo stitched with their own hands the curtains, which were hanged to facilitate enactment of the play. The outcome was obvious. His team had outdone ours in all spheres of dramatics. Our team, led by Smt. Kamal Sharma was no match. I had played an old servant.

Mrs. Prasad, our English Teacher, was a great motivator and inspiration. I must admit that both my parents are almost illiterate. My father can hardly read ramcharitmanas and hindi dailies, while my mother is simply illiterate. I had, however, a desire to learn English, and it was Mrs. Prasad who encouraged me. I still remember, as a student of class VII or VIII, I composed a few poetic lines in English and she praised me openly in the class. The gesture did wonders on me and I started to study English even harder. Thank you mam, if you ever get to read these lines, you’ll realize as to what contribution you have made in my life.

Mind it, so far I have described primarily about the extra-curricular activities. To me, however, they all comprised very much a part of our curriculum, for they have contributed to a more fulfilling and wholesome life. We did have our share of studies, too, at Navyug. Sh. Suraj Prakash, Sh. Ohari, Sh. Sanyal, - all science teachers, were great motivators and wonderful teachers.

We were inducted in the institution, on the basis of our academic excellence, upon a thorough scrutiny. It was, therefore, expected that we came out with flying colours, when it came to public exams. As a teen-ager, this notion was so strong in my mind that when I saw one or two stray second divisions, I went on to comment in our last assembly at Navayug, that when inducted, we were diamonds and the institution had turned us into coal.  Indeed, it was my mistake, for now I realize that academically too, we were given the best in the contemporary educational arenas. Some of just lost track for a while, but joined back later on.

Deven Kalra-stood 3^rd in 10^th exams in 1978, followed by many moreThis was proved later when a good number of us joined the IITs, the NDA, the IAS and the IPS. And all of us have, invariably turned out to be very good citizens of this nation. This is precisely, what was aimed at, while setting up this theme school.

I can cite hundreds of examples from my days at Navyug, to portray a wholesome picture of an ideal teacher. The present day institutions, do have teachers, their student do score very high marks in the public exams, but I doubt if they carry home so much of quality as we did. I was very mediocre at studies, not an outshining sportsman either, but when it comes to having an overall personality, I find myself way ahead of many of my acquaintances in my close vicinity, thanks to my school teachers. 

Knowledge is one thing inter-alia, the teachers impart to their students. If they don’t impart it, however, how so ever knowledgeable they might be, no student would remember them later on, after leaving school, let alone respect them. It happened to me, when I was in Hindu. One of our teachers, who has written scores of books and was most knowledgeable among the lot, didn’t take even a single class. Why should I respect him? He just failed his duty.

In stark contrast to our teachers at Navyug, I see my son’s principal from Maida Mill Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bhopal. When I requested her to arrange for extra classes at school for class 10^th students, she bluntly refused telling that the teachers too had their own children. Should we infer that the teachers at Navyug didn’t have their own sons and daughters? Indeed they were blissfully married and had offsprings. What they had in addition, was passion for their profession, care and love for their students and a burning desire in their bellies to give away to their pupils whatever they possessed. I fail to understand why at all people opt to be teachers if they cannot treat all their students as their own children. How so ever big degree you might have in education, how so ever well studied you might be, if you don't have passion for your students, you stand no where as a teacher.

We owe to our gurus this passion and of course, the knowledge and wisdom in the form of rishi rin, which can be repaid only if we pass on the same to the coming generations of this great nation. Their passion and love, and their teachings have imbibed in us the values and ethos we carry with us. What makes us proud as Navyugians is not the physical appearance or tangible endowments that the institution possessed, but the intangible wealth that we inherited from our great teachers. Dear friends, please join me to thank all our teachers on the eve of this teachers-day. May god bless them with health and all kinds of comfort, where ever they are.

And if some of us, are into the profession of teaching, by folly or fate, let us strive to give our best to our students, not just because we are paid for it, but also because we owe this to the posterity.