Is it going right?

Is it going right?

-Sukanya Singh

“A teacher plants the seeds of knowledge, sprinkle them with love and patiently nurtures their growth to produce tomorrow’s dreams.” A teacher is referred to as the second parent. They are the ones, who mould the future of a child. Without a teacher, it is very difficult or next to impossible to grow one’s knowledge, right from the very kindergarten stage. A teacher is that one special person after parents, who contributes most of their time and effort to shape an individual with knowledge, various skills, creativity, positivity and helps in building a better and brighter future for them.

A ‘teacher-student relationship’ is a very pure form of relation. It is that sweet configuration of connection where one is incomplete without the other and vice versa. A student would not be a student without a teacher and a teacher would not be a teacher without a student.

In early days, the teacher-student relationship was of high value and respect. Teachers were the ‘gurus’ for the students and students followed their instructions blindly. It was not so easy for the students to share every aspect of their life, with their gurus before. It was out of sincere respect. But today’s teacher-student relationship has a new trend. It sounds better, if it is termed as ‘friendship’ rather. Now days we could notice the mentors and pupils both provide a much space towards each other. A teacher shares the personal experiences and secrets or out of the box stories to the tutees very easily, other than imparting the academic knowledge. The students also share their stories with them without any hesitation. This is really very adorable.

What is the most significant issue - some students try to misuse this friendship and speak nonsense and rubbish in front of the educators. They forget that before a friend, they are there teachers and they own a value and much respect. Some pupils take teachers for granted. It is seen that they use to argue a lot with their master without the minimum sense of decency. Their excuses are at the top always and whenever questioned, the teachers get the disrespectful responses. Some students use to give silly names to their instructors and make fun of them every now and then. They make cartoons, sarcastic memes and share it and make it viral. This trend is growing rapidly and the genuine teacher-student relationship is fading out day by day.

On the other hand, it is observed, some teachers giving preference to a particular section of students in the class and neglecting the rest. They provide high marks to their favourite students, provide important notes to them, praises and appreciates them before everyone in the class in every aspect. It was never expected out of a teacher but when the other half of the students tries to cooperate properly; these teachers taunt them about their capabilities. They discourage them and criticise them instead of extending their helping hands towards those students. In early days, the gurus treated every student equally in every prospect but the story is opposite to it, now a days.

We have witnessed in the news channels that some teachers in the schools and colleges try to actually abuse their students both physically and mentally. Many news channels have reported and covered stories such as-some teachers molesting the students, they rape the pupils in the name of extra class and so on.

I do not have any idea what these changing trends are bringing to us. Such a respectful bond has become so cheap and insane. What would you suggest to preserve and sustain this authentic form of association between a teacher and a student? I leave it up to you.