the poem I was talking about in class

The Teacher:

I took a piece of plastic clay
And idly fashioned it one day-
And as my fingers pressed it, still
It moved and yielded to my will.

I came again when days were past
The bit of clay was hard at last.
The form I gave it, still it bore,
And I could change that form no more!

I took a piece of living clay,
And gently fashioned it day by day,
And molded with my power and art
A young child's soft and yielding heart.

I came again when years were gone:
It was a man I looked upon.
He still that early impress bore,
And I could change that form no more.

These few lines are very close to my heart. For me they capture the essence of a teacher. Only the other day in class, we were talking about the current educational system and how it could be changed for the better. All the members in my group made very m,any wonderful suggestions but except one person no one really spoke about the need for quality teachers.

The poem above says that: He still that early impress bore, which signifies how important a part the teacher plays in shaping a child. This cannot happen with teachers who feel that the Wagah Border is the design you see on the back of a tiger, or who don't know the name of the person who wrote our national anthem.

The word EDUCATION is derived from a Latin word which is e-ducere which means- to draw out/ to lead out. Now if you look at it from this perspective then it becomes so blatantly clear that if a child has to draw out the best of learning and knowledge, then the source from where he/she draws it out should have that kind of quality to provide within it. Then it became apparent to me that providing facilities, chucking the marking system, changing learning pattern, reducing the importance given to exams, giving more weightage to practical experiments would only go so far. All this would only be sustainable, and work for the better only if the educators themselves were amply trained in their respective disciplines and were motivated to teach of their own free will.

I agree we don't need experts, but we sure as hell need people who know what they are doing and feel that theirs is a noble profession.