The Teaching Victim ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So there was this guy and he used to repeat this mercilessly, “Always think positive.” “Do not look at the negative side of things.” “Do what is right, and you would have nothing to fear.” He had all the qualities I disliked. He was extremely polite. He had a good command over the language, and could even fake American and British accent. He was extremely courteous with women. His way of suggestion was circumlocutive. He used to think a lot before saying NOTHING. His dressing sense was immaculate. He was extremely generous in spending money. He used to keep his resignation letter in his carry bag. The bag was as heavy as 10 KG. He was the only child of his parents who have sheathed their son from all the possible negative influences which could directly or indirectly affect their son. The other day, it was announced that all those who will not complete their Ph.D. in the next 3 years, their appointments will be revised. He was also called by the management later, the proceedings of which he never told but he resigned after 18 minutes, post that meeting. Later he gave me a call and bared himself. He cried like a wailer woman, he told me that the future in teaching is bleak, and that I should be cautious about my colleagues who are very cunning. He used the most obscene abuses for our female colleagues. Those abuses were masterly and it enhanced my lexicons of abuses. He was sorry for being courteous and showing his respect and generosity to his colleagues, who have done so many bad things to him. The main cause of his grief was that he cannot reciprocate to what was done wrong to him, and that he should have done and said what had pleased him. He told me that he should have behaved in the manner in which I usually behave. He told me that he was aware of the cunningness, but he tried to CORRECT it, by his GENTLEMANLINESS. He was inconsolable. “Puneet bhai, sooer goo he khayega…!!!” (The pig will eat shit only.) “But why were you being courteous and showing respect, and generosity towards them.” I asked. “This is the only job which I can do.” He said. “Resignation letter…?” I asked. “Arre… Show karna padta hai, yaar….!!! Tum nahi samjhoge abhi, tum bachchey ho.” He said. (I have to pretend, and you will not understand because you are a child now.) In no way, I look like an English teacher and perhaps, I am not very impressive, either. Whatever I do has the very characteristic of Jehangirabaad in it, and I am every inch of what I project. I am usually difficult to talk and often obstinate. I express my differences in a manner that is not very friendly, and it has proved on several occasions that I am least bothered about my job. I do this to avoid meeting and be influenced by all these hopelessly incompetent teachers. I never do anything merely to please others, and because of this, even if others are NOT happy with me, at least, I remain happy. I love being myself. A huge majority of students hates me, and a marginal minority of them really loves me. However, I make every effort to carry out my job in the best possible manner, which is that of a teacher. I do everything, humanly possible, to facilitate learning. I have even updated my notes on social media, so that even if students who do not attend my classes on purpose, can get what I taught in the class. However, there is one more reason for updating my lesson plans, which is, if I go somewhere else, I will have something to show my INNOVATIVENESS in teaching. And what EXTRA I am giving. In colleges, from my inadequate experience, what happens is teachers do not make efforts to update themselves. The most prominent problem of the teachers with an experience of >1 year is the tendency to find faults. The most finicky creed, who spend all of their time in finding faults. They magnify minor mistakes of students/colleagues, and condemn in front of everyone. Unlike me, who try to catch the students red handed when they are doing something correctly and appreciate them, in front of everyone. They are least concerned about the results; they are SUPREMELY devoted to the means. When drafting the planner they write the date in dd/mm/yyyy format 30 times. They will not write it in a simple dd format. One single page, with month and year written on the top of it, what is the necessity of writing in a dd/mm/yyyy format? A teacher is usually most knowledgeable in his/her first year of teaching. After that, taking and maintaining attendance, staffroom politics, several trivial UN-academic chores, and excessive undue respect (which is given to the teachers) ruins their learning ability as well as desire to learn more; and that is why they stoop to degrading others. When I was in RGPV, I devised several lesson plans and paragraphs which can (or, would have) not only enhance the knowledge about everything but also could have created the desire to want more, read more. But, I was instructed by the experienced seniors that I should concentrate only on finishing syllabus. I completed the syllabus in the very first month. I have collected several passages from several books, to enhance the reading comprehension part. I give utmost importance to enhance the reading comprehension, solving unseen passage, précis writing, all of which students are being taught for several years, without letting them learning anything. But I was told to not go in deep. This usually happens that, as soon as the seniors realize that someone is good at operating computers they start getting the clerical work done by that person. The best approach to avoid this is to pretend that computers are GREEK to you. Show your incompetency and you would not be required to do the trivial UN-academic chores. Or if you really want to avoid the extra-curricular work, f*** the mother of that work and you would not be given that work in future. The most serious problem is that the peers, start tarnishing your image, as soon as you are recruited. They report even those mistakes which you have not committed. They want you consult everything. If it be a good idea, they will tell the management that it was their idea. They frighten you by constantly reminding that whatever you do, NEVER commit any mistake. “To err is human”, is well and understood, but do NOT commit any error even by mistake. Whenever the peers or seniors talk to you, they speak as if they have done some sting operation on you and they have caught you red-handed. Every suggestion is given as if you are a convict. And everything is done to hide one’s incompetence. Every game, every hidden complaint, every effort, every scheme, everything is directed to demonstrate how a new teacher is not good, and that his services should be discontinued. People like this positive guy, whom I am talking about, have not seen the world. It is their first job, and that is why even after a tenure of 3 years, he became a victim to these designs. He was well aware of who is behind the scenes, but then also he greeted and showed respect to that person. I would have also greeted the person, but I would have made every effort to get the person sacked. He used to call me a child, for my unschooled way of talking to my peers. But how many teachers have an exposure to as many industries as I have? How many of them have tried and excelled in as many careers as I? My trainers were National sales managers, Manager sales development, Motivational gurus, and corporate trainers. These were those people who have survived all the corporate tricks and webs. They have taught me everything. The tyrology which was given to me was that if someone praises you, be careful, find the faults and keep those faults to yourself; if someone does not do anything to you, be careful, find the faults and keep those faults to yourself, and if someone is not very friendly or blames you, be careful, find the faults and reveal them on as many occasions as possible, to as many people as you can. Make every effort to belittle those. I am used to repeat a uncomfortable thing as many as 365 times in a day. Usually it starts irritating the person after I have repeated something 10 times, but I do not stop there, I repeat that thing 355 times more. This makes the person off balanced and drag them into doing some stupidity. And people usually make a fool of themselves. Anyways, I was talking about the people who have groomed me, those were expert communicators, for them, speaking English was the last thing but even then, they had an excellent command over the English language. And not only this, they were able to speak some 7 or 8 local languages. All of them were utterly humiliating while teaching, and I used to argue a lot, then they used to humiliate me further, but by that very symposium, I have learnt so many ways to teach, as well as, to humiliate. Anyways, for 3 consecutive days, I had much to ponder after his resignation. He told me who is behind all this, and I realized that he was correct. But in my case I was aware. The situations were created and the situations turned the table, after 3 months, the teacher was given the most UNCEREMONIOUS departure after rendering a service of 10 years. (Written on 24 October 2014)
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 15:24:27 +0000
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