3 People, 3 Lessons Learnt

3 People, 3 Lessons Learnt

These are my experiences as a student and as a teacher. Inspired by the Dead Poets Society, there was no better name I could think of..

To start with, the three biggest lessons I learnt and the people behind them..

1. Being more than a teacher - Mr. Keating, the teacher from "Dead Poets' Society". He is the teacher, friend and the person to whom everyone looks upto. The one who is ready to stand up for his students but at all times wishes that his students explore their real interests and live for them... Truly one teacher I would like to be!

2. Value what people have - Mr. N G Bhat, my mathematics teacher. An inspirational figure in my life... one person who valued what ever each of us could afford and glorified what ever little we could do. He was the teacher who had taught me to enjoy and appreciate what I study, the person who did things for the satisfaction rather than the benefits we get out of the results. He was appreciative of the smallest of efforts... once everyone in the class got sweets because I cracked a problem, his beautiful solution sheets (with funny comments) for the problems we put in the drop box, his special classes (I was the only student!) for 8 months to help me solve some maths olympiad paper, his vast library, encyclopedic knowledge... To put it in short no one ever has influenced me so much in my life and no one has ever made me feel so proud of whatever little I could do. What ever I am today.. I am still walking in his shadows, trying to imitate him in his clarity of thought, his insights into the subject and tenderness with which he used to handle a topic. Now-a-days after every class I am dragged into a thought of how he would have taught that... I know I can never figure that out!

3. Expectations should have boundaries, never impose them - Blessy Joseph, once my student (even now!) and now a dear friend. She wouldn't quite agree that she had taught me this but it was one of the biggest lesson from my teaching experiences. Probability is a topic of immense interest for me... and a horror show for her and the class. My drive to push the class out of misery of that mathematical dynamite pushed people to the limits of breaking down. That was a big mistake I was doing... imposing expectations! My intentions though good weren't helping much, then I had realised that if I had to impose something - I had to do so gently.

What I have experienced can never be written down, but these are attempts to acknowledge the efforts of all the people involved. I hope one day I will be a teacher I wish to be..

--buddi

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04 - 12 - 2009