As one nears the threshold of superannuation after a career stretch spanning three and half decades, there is a need to take stock. More so when the ‘calling’ is one that demands a high level of accountability – the vocation of teacher.

While the ‘ should-have-dones ’ and ‘could-have-dones ’ stare me in the face, there is a sense of having contributed my little mite to the enrichment of over 10,000 young men and women who have passed through the portals of Shree Damodar College of Commerce and Economics, Margao, Goa. The credibility of a teacher, I believe largely rests on five factors:

1. Expertise: Top priority for a lecturer is academics. There can be no compromise on well prepared and well delivered lectures. In an age of information overkill mediocrity is intolerable. Perform or perish is true of this profession as well.

2. Integrity: Held in high esteem are teachers who walk their talk. Adolescents are looking for role models in their teachers and are often disappointed because “what we are speaks so loud that that they do not hear what we are saying.” Word, creed and deed must go together.

3. Objectivity: This is another value most demanded of a teacher – be it for an analytical approach to academics, ethical, political and social issues or assessment of Individuals and evaluation of examination papers. Nothing angers students more than a teacher who has a discriminatory approach.

4. Enthusiasm: ‘Entheos’ literally means ‘infused with God’. Mata, Pita, Guru are roles that have necessarily to be rooted in God. We may not be walking deities but we must necessarily inspire and edify. Zest and dynamic come from ‘entheos ’. A teacher who rests on her laurels is bound to rust.

5. Goodwill: In business goodwill is often tied up with profit. Not so with education. It is pure unadulterated altruism where the teacher gives of herself without counting the cost.

To come back to the ‘stock-taking’ and the ‘mite’. Despite the large numbers in our classrooms – over eighty, I have always made a very conscious effort to focus on the individual. Rather than know them as numbers on a roll call, for me my students are persons with a distinct identity. A pet quatrain of mine reinforces this view.

“I am not superior to anyone
I am not inferior to anyone
I am not equal to anyone
I am special and unique.”

It is only a sense of self-worth and self-esteem that will help our youth swim across the choppy seas of cut-throat competition.

As college teachers, we are required to do an orientation and a number of refresher courses to qualify for career advancements. These are gainful with respect to subject knowledge. What was most valuable were seminars, conferences, workshops that had more to them than pure academics. The RICUF advisor ’s camps and seminars augmented my penchant for the marginalised. Our college students most of whom are middle or upper class generally tend to identify themselves with the ‘haves ’. There is this craving for upward mobility no matter at whose cost. A proper analysis of the current socio-eco-politico scene puts things in perspective and sets them thinking. The truth is often difficult to digest but it questions our value system. Why should over 40% of our people live below the poverty line? 60% of our people not be functionally literate? 10% of the landlords own 60% of the land? The male-female ratio keeps steadily dropping, 100:936.65% of Indians have no access to essential medicines. What hits hardest is that millions of our children have no entry to a school not to speak of the exploitation of child workers and the high incidence of child abuse.

Can those who are appraised of these realities remain unchallenged? The literacy programme that the NSS Unit of our college has been running for the last nine years is our small intervention for child workers. We call it the ‘Poti School’. Our students – children who sell plastic bags in the fish market; our teachers – the NSS volunteers of our college. Our volunteers admit that they receive more than they give. These little grimy faced migrant children have endeared themselves to us. Their joy-de-vivre is infectious. Most heartening for me was when an ex-student called up to say, “Madam can I help in Poti School? This affluent young lady, now the wife of one of Goa ’s leading builders has this burning desire to continue to reach out and touch the lives of the underprivileged children. Savita (name changed) is representative of our NSS volunteers on whom the Poti kids have left an indelible impression.

Poet Tennyson says, “I am a part of all that I have met.” This for me is particularly true of my Asia Plateau encounters – two teachers programmes and one environmental workshop.

Ensconced in the hills of Panchgani, the overriding feeling is one of peace and tranquility. The quiet time, the nature walks, yoga sessions that are interwoven into the programmes have helped me delve into deeper places within.Asia Plateau above all for me has been a chastening, a humbling, a soul-searching experience. Converging here are men and women of stature, all engaged in the common pursuit of ushering in a world that will stand firmly on Buchman ’s four values of Absolute – Honesty, Purity, Unselfishness and Love.

Joan Rebello
Goa