Teaching requires giving away your heart
"Teachers choose their vocation for reasons of
the heart, because they care deeply about their students and about their
subjects. But often the demands of teaching cause too many educators to lose
heart."
Good teaching comes in myriad forms ,but good
teachers share one trait : they are truly present in the classroom ,deeply
engaged with their students and their subjects . They are able to weave a
complex web of connections among themselves ,their subjects and their students
,so that students themselves can learn to weave their own world .
Good teaching cannot be reduced to just technique.
Good teaching comes from the identity and integrity of the teacher .All
teachers do not use the "same" technique :some lecture nonstop and
others speak very little; some stick religiously to the syllabus while others
use new and innovative approaches. The methods used by teachers vary widely:
lectures, dialogues, laboratory experiments ,collaborative problem solving
,creative chaos and so on.
There are numerous success stories of teachers but in every story good teachers share one
trait :a strong sense of personal identity infuses their work. One student said
she could not describe her good teachers because they all had such different
styles of teaching .But she could describe her bad teachers because they were
all the same.
Bad teachers
distance themselves from the subject they are teaching ,and in the process
,from their students.
The connections made by the good teachers are held
not in their methods but in their
hearts-"heart " in its ancient sense, is the place where intellect ,emotion ,spirit and will converge
in the human self. The heart is the loom on which the threads are tied ,the
tension is held ,the shuttle flies, and the fabric is stretched tight. Small
wonder ,then, teaching tugs at the heart ,opens the heart ,even breaks the
heart-and the more one loves teaching ,the more heart breaking it can be. The
courage to teach is the courage to keep one's heart open in those very moments
when the heart is asked to hold more than it is able ,so that the teacher,
students and subject can be woven into the fabric of community that learning
and living require.
Dr. Tandra Sharma
Prof. JIE, JEMTEC, Greater Noida
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