I was reading an article about a Nobel Laureate and his journey towards his scientific discovery "2009 Chemistry Laureate Venkatraman Ramakrishnan" and I noticed behind this Nobel Laureate were few teachers. They were teachers who were otherwise students in their own merit. He narrates in this article " But a faculty member in the physics department in Baroda, S.K. Shah, told me about a brand new curriculum they were introducing for their undergraduate course. It began with the Berkeley Physics Course, and was supplemented by the Feynman Lectures on Physics before moving on to more specialised areas. My teachers in physics, especially S.K. Shah and H.S. Desai, were very excited to be teaching the new curriculum for the first time, and their enthusiasm was infectious. "
Then I read another article about the new measures in US in the field of education about US Teachers paid for their achievements and a teacher making a statement " the kinds of life-altering events have an effect on how you do in class that day, through no fault of the teacher whatsoever " mentioning that teachers should not be held responsible for students.
I felt that even though the teacher cannot be blamed for poor results for such factors, teachers should and can be the only one who can distract (in this case motivate) the students from such life altering events and bring them back to their track and get them to perform. However to do that teachers should be either psychic or should have the skills of a psychologist or an expert in behavioral sciences. Even though they cant be psychic or psychologists, they can be good mentors, who can talk and listen to students with challenges and sway them towards learning.
Similar to the Nobel Laureates experience, I had some personal experience. When I was going through my Post graduation in computer applications, I had many teachers who taught us in different disciplines and many of the classes were poorly attended by students, but for one teacher and the results from his students/classes were always better than any other lecturer. The only difference between the successful teacher and the others were he was updating his skills with the latest technology and happenings in the industry compared to others who were little behind. Even though the curriculum does not require upto date knowledge he was able to generate more excitement and eagerness in students to learn. He would quote from a book that he read few days ago about heat sink technology when he is discussing about Micro processor design.
Another example of a good teacher came from very close quarters. I have the opportunity of working with a Team Lead who is a great learner and his thoughts always revolve around why, who, how, what etc and has always showed the energy of a kid making him grow stronger and stronger in his skills. He has the responsibility of performing the role of a mentor to train and help his team in understanding various topics. Each one of his knowledge sharing sessions were well attended and the team benefited and learned a lot from his sessions.
My experience leads me to the conclusion that teachers should be lifetime students and should generate the interest in their students with their enthusiasm and dynamism. They should also diversify their skills into areas of behavioral studies and extend their skills to influence the students better. If we have such teachers we would not have a discussion about Paying teachers for their achievements, they would be the best paid than any other discipline as they are the one who are materialistic in creating the future.
