Skip to main content

Purity and Clarity

Taken during a trip to Meenmutti Falls (Wayanad, Kerala) with students

“There’s something that keeps us going because we know it’s right even when the whole world says it’s wrong.”  An 18 year-old student of mine wrote that in her FB status update a few minutes back.

There are more things I learn from my young students than from the wise adults.  That’s one of the blessings of the profession of teaching.  To be in touch with relatively uncontaminated minds is both a blessing and a hazard.  The hazard is the possibility of the teacher contaminating the young minds. 

Purity of heart and clarity of thought are quite likely to be perceived by the world as more dangerous than shades and shadows.  As an adult, I too feel burdened sometimes by such purity and clarity coming from my students.  But as a teacher I relish it because it’s a rare benediction.  


Comments

  1. The hazard you speak of is the biggest obstacle to the life to life transmission that teaching/mentoring is. When I was addressing my troubled self many years ago, my mentor advised me to stop standing in the way of my own happiness and success. Later, as I took up training and mentoring as a vocation, I realized that our conditioning, cynicism, idealism, motivations, are often projected in a very unconscious, unintended way and cloud the process of teaching. The socratic method of leaving students with "what do you think" seems to be a fairer, kinder way than to offer perspectives and answers.

    Watching my toddler grow and learn, I realize this problem of projecting our beliefs, desires, aspirations, all the more. It is hard to rein yourself in, but it is worth the reward as you see these young minds sort things out on their own.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As a teacher I go out of my way to avoid letting my cynicism, idealism, etc interfere with my classes. But as you say they do make their appearances even without our realisation. After all, as human beings we have our limits and limitations. I'm sure even students learn to adjust. Perhaps these are also part of their learning experiences.

      Delete
  2. I really like this short write-up of your Sir. I related to to thoughts and words because I felt these same emotions during my innings as a teacher. Now I experience it with my children.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Teaching is a difficult career especially these days when we are faced with a lot of students who have emotional problems. It's quite like bringing up your own children.

      Delete
  3. The hazard is the possibility of the teacher contaminating the young minds. You said it Sir. I am in complete agreement with the views expressed herein.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

The Little Girl

The Little Girl is a short story by Katherine Mansfield given in the class 9 English course of NCERT. Maggie gave an assignment to her students based on the story and one of her students, Athena Baby Sabu, presented a brilliant job. She converted the story into a delightful comic strip. Mansfield tells the story of Kezia who is the eponymous little girl. Kezia is scared of her father who wields a lot of control on the entire family. She is punished severely for an unwitting mistake which makes her even more scared of her father. Her grandmother is fond of her and is her emotional succour. The grandmother is away from home one day with Kezia's mother who is hospitalised. Kezia gets her usual nightmare and is terrified. There is no one at home to console her except her father from whom she does not expect any consolation. But the father rises to the occasion and lets the little girl sleep beside him that night. She rests her head on her father's chest and can feel his heart...

Dopamine

Fiction Mathai went to the kitchen and picked up a glass. The TV was screening a program called Ask the Doctor . “Dopamine is a sort of hormone that gives us a feeling of happiness or pleasure,” the doc said. “But the problem with it is that it makes us want more of the same thing. You feel happy with one drink and you obviously want more of it. More drink means more happiness…” That’s when Mathai went to pick up his glass and the brandy bottle. It was only morning still. Annamma, his wife, had gone to school as usual to teach Gen Z, an intractable generation. Mathai had retired from a cooperative bank where he was manager in the last few years of his service. Now, as a retired man, he took to watching the TV. It will be more correct to say that he took to flicking channels. He wanted entertainment, but the films and serial programs failed to make sense to him, let alone entertain. The news channels were more entertaining. Our politicians are like the clowns in a circus, he thought...

Stories from the North-East

Book Review Title: Lapbah: Stories from the North-East (2 volumes) Editors: Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih & Rimi Nath Publisher: Penguin Random House India 2025 Pages: 366 + 358   Nestled among the eastern Himalayas and some breathtakingly charming valleys, the Northeastern region of India is home to hundreds of indigenous communities, each with distinct traditions, attire, music, and festivals. Languages spoken range from Tibeto-Burman and Austroasiatic tongues to Indo-Aryan dialects, reflecting centuries of migration and interaction. Tribal matrilineal societies thrive in Meghalaya, while Nagaland and Mizoram showcase rich Christian tribal traditions. Manipur is famed for classical dance and martial arts, and Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh add further layers of ethnic plurality and ecological richness. Sikkim blends Buddhist heritage with mountainous serenity, and Assam is known for its tea gardens and vibrant Vaishnavite culture. Collectively, the Northeast is a uni...

The Vegetarian

Book Review Title: The Vegetarian Author: Han Kang Translator: Deborah Smith [from Korean] Publisher: Granta, London, 2018 Pages: 183 Insanity can provide infinite opportunities to a novelist. The protagonist of Nobel laureate Han Kang’s Booker-winner novel, The Vegetarian , thinks of herself as a tree. One can argue with ample logic and conviction that trees are far better than humans. “Trees are like brothers and sisters,” Yeong-hye, the protagonist, says. She identifies herself with the trees and turns vegetarian one day. Worse, she gives up all food eventually. Of course, she ends up in a mental hospital. The Vegetarian tells Yeong-hye’s tragic story on the surface. Below that surface, it raises too many questions that leave us pondering deeply. What does it mean to be human? Must humanity always entail violence? Is madness a form of truth, a more profound truth than sanity’s wisdom? In the disturbing world of this novel, trees represent peace, stillness, and nonviol...