The purpose of a teacher is to help students come to terms with the fact of human suffering, the biggest of all individual and collective quests for which religions, philosophies and ideologies have miserably failed to give explanations, said Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Governor of West Bengal.
At the Teachers' Day Celebration in the University of Madras, he said the other purpose of a teacher was to help at least one single student's mind to reach, without a shred of prejudice or trace of bigotry, or as much as a shadow of envy, the complete fulfilment of its uniqueness.
On Teachers' Day, society has to ask itself if it was right to expect teachers “to deliver as if they were a courier service, to demand instruction in gulp-size, pre-digested portions, sufficient to cross the hurdle of exams, rather than to want to learn, to understand,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Saying that the profession of teaching was a calling, he said teachers were drawn by the tug of a purpose beyond oneself, a purpose which belonged to this world and yet moved above surface tensions like a magnetic field whose power could be felt but not seen.
Teachers were always required to attempt what was difficult as to be almost impossible. “You have to teach a love of language but not permit it to become insular. You are meant to inculcate a love of community but keep it from becoming sectarian, a love of region which is not parochial, a love of country which is not chauvinistic,” Mr. Gandhi said.
Teachers should encourage but not favour; support but not create dependencies; like students but not be partial; give another chance but not indulge. Teachers have to smoothen feelings, quieten rages, dry tears and cleanse speech. “You are meant to lift fallen spirits, assuage hurt egos, encourage bravery but dampen bravado. You are human; you are meant to be more,” he said.
University of Madras Vice-Chancellor G. Thiruvasagam presided over the function. Registrar in-charge T. Leo Alexander and Chepauk campus director A. Karuppiah spoke.
