Wednesday, November 9, 2016

What respect do teachers command?

I have a question. What respect do teachers command? In their childhood, umpteen number of times every child is taught that ‘Guru Gobind Dou Khade, kake Lagoo Paye, balihari Guru aap ne Gobind diyo bataye ’Guru & Gobind both are standing and whom should I bow first. Guru says bow to Gobind. Student who wrote this translation got two marks and the one who wrote the meaning of the saying got full marks. But did the child actually understand how to respect teachers?

All the officers present here have been taught these lines and everyone would have received good marks writing it down in their exams. However, today we often witness teachers being pushed around in the offices of the same officers. They treat them as mere employees of the education department and not as teachers. Why are they unable to recognise them as Gurus and not just employees? It is because when these lines were taught to the officers they did not grasp the essence of these lines, but instead it was just a means for them to receive more marks. The thought process is that after becoming an officer, what is relevance of Kabir! If I was not taught to just cram the teachings of Kabir but was instead taught to test myself in the mirror shown by Kabir through his teachings, then Kabir would have always remained with me throughout my life.

No comments:

Post a Comment