Teaching can be complicated

CHENNAI: Teachers are expected to be and do things quite difficult for a normal human being and it is extremely difficult being a teacher in our society, said Gopalakrishna Gandhi, former Governor of West Bengal in his Teacher’s Day message at the Madras University.“Teachers are expected to be austere, are expected to be impartial and objective. They are expected to smile, but not get too friendly. They are expected to influence but not indoctrinate. They are expected to instill the values of patriotism in their students without making them hate their neighbouring countries. Their hearts and minds are constantly under test by the society. It is hence not easy being a teacher,” Gandhi said. Recalling the great teacher in Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Gandhi said that it was important to honour the teacher in Radhakrishnan but then, it was more important to honour the human in the teacher. “Radhakrishnan came from a stock of teachers who possessed the value of humanity.”“Teaching hence can be a complicated task in our society. It is not merely a profession which is carried out for sustaining oneself but a calling which pulls the right candidate to it like a magnetic field,” he said. “However the society that lays so much stress on teachers must ask itself if it is right to be taught without being ready to receive what is taught.”Speaking at the same function, G Thiruvasagam, Vice Chancellor of Madras University said that the role of education must not only be to create technically and academically competent persons but also to instill values in them. “Values like compassion need to be installed in students. But I don’t think the present system of education is doing anything of that nature,” he said. “Students learning must not be restricted to classrooms,” he added.Thiruvasagam noted that Dr Radhakrishnan, Mathematician Ramanujam and Nobel laureates CV Raman and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar were alumnus of Madras University.