I am going to go against the grain again, even on Teacher’s Day, even about Teacher’s Day. I wouldn’t have but a number of Instagram posts came up on my feed that could only romanticise about the punishments and scoldings doled out by teachers of the previous generation. These people are mostly late millennials at the beginning of their professional careers.
The phrases “fish market”, “pin-drop silence” and the like are often looked back upon with nostalgia, strangely, at times, as badges of honour. While nostalgically reminiscing about one’s school life is certainly not problematic in itself, considering the abusive teaching style that was pervasive even a few years ago and, perhaps, is still so just outside our urban field of view.
We need to stop celebrating this style of teaching. Consider the phrase “fish market” or, indeed, the rhetorical question, “is this a slum?” Both of these are highly classist and casteist exclamations. These are unconscious prejudices that multiple teachers at multiple stages of development have unwittingly inculcated in us. We have learnt to look at slum dwellers with derision rather than with sympathy. We have learnt that if we talk too loudly we are somehow dropping down the social order.
Now consider “pin-drop silence”. The phrase came into existence in the early 1800s as a hyperbolic description of the anticipatory silence displayed by an audience during particularly climactic or dramatic scenes of plays. It is usually a situation where a speaker has complete control over his or her audience. This is what the teacher seeks when he or she makes this exclamation in class. The teacher wants his or her students to pay absolute attention. The question, just to go against the grain, is why should they?
Rather than demanding that students listen to and respect them no matter what teachers need to create an atmosphere where students cannot but listen. The teacher’s erudition and passion to teach should themselves be enough to hold a student’s attention. For younger children, teachers need to find ways to make things more interesting and stimulating for their highly powerful brains than simple writing on the blackboard and reading from textbooks.
These issues need to be addressed through structural changes in the system as a whole. Many schools have now encouraged their teachers to start changing their methods of teaching from theory-based to application-based. Engagement with students is becoming more in vogue over one way transmission of information and a demand for rote learning.
Strangely, despite the extra attention received by their children in the elite schools of the city, many middle-class parents have said to me that it was very different in their day – and not with a negative inflection. It seemed to me that many of these parents still expected – even wanted – teachers to hit and punish their children if they did not meet expectations. Teachers have let slip that they would be happy to oblige if it wasn’t against the law. This shows the deep roots of the abusive style of teaching popularised by Victorian public schools in England and their Indian counterparts in the colonial era.
But punishments can become necessary to maintain discipline. What then? Where do we draw the line between punishment and abuse? First and foremost, we have to stop thinking of punishment as normal. This might sound like an extremely radical thought. But it isn’t. Punishment is supposed to be an abnormality. It is supposed to be abhorred. It is not naturally a part of civilised life. Punishment should be the exception, not the rule and, even more so, not a weapon of ruling.
We are now in a world whose economy is extremely fluid. Orthodox, conservative structures might provide temporary solace to those of older generations but these structures are untenable. It is time to accept that not everyone can do everything. It is okay to not want to study. If a child wants to do something else, within their own means or by expanding their means – preferably not criminally – they should be encouraged to do so.
Once we can instil this in ourselves we will see that there isn’t only one way to do things. Therefore, deviation should not be a cause for punishment. Only a lack of discipline should be. Even then, sanctions or, if possible, discussions would be better choices. If punishments can be avoided as much as possible, children will definitely not grow up to be obedient, but they will be much more empathetic. They will learn the responsible usage of power. They will learn that people are different and have different ways of thinking and that one must try to accommodate all as much as possible without losing sight of one’s goal.
So, wish your teachers this Teacher’s Day. But do not celebrate their abusive methods. Celebrate those who inspired you. Those who pushed you to go that little bit further. Not those who coercively did their jobs. A teacher will always help you learn something because that’s what they’re supposed to do. A good teacher will always find a way to make you fall in love with learning itself.
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