'Time Pass' Job

 

Ok. So, I do what people think females do when they fail to do anything else- teach. I teach, I am a teacher. Perceptions are hard to change so I have also given up trying to change my husband’s outlook towards my job- he works and earns and I just teach. On a serious note, contrary to the widespread popular perception that teaching is a time pass job; it is a very difficult job. Your working hours do not end with the school getting over for the day. You come back home, you have notebooks to check, test paper to set, lesson plans to design, activities to plan and what not. And since for your family, teaching is not a serious job, you have to take care of the house, cook for the clan, tolerate the tantrums of own kids, go shopping for grocery or veggies and God forbid if some family function or unavoidable get together comes up.

I do this day in and day out not because I need or want money, but because the absolute wonder that flashes on a student’s face when he grasps a tough concept for the first time fills me with a sense of achievement and joy that nothing else can give. I actually love teaching. I have been teaching for 14 years now. And I have taught every class from grade I to XII. This has given me a great opportunity to see how learning changes from primary to secondary level. Small kids, class II or III absolutely worship the ground their teacher walks on. Even if teacher makes a spelling mistake and a parent like me wants the child to correct it in the notebook, there’s no way it can be done. ‘It has to be correct this way if my ma’am says so’ is the response one gets. I feel primary teachers are blessed with some super powers, they manage a class of 15-20 or even more cranky kids when we give up on one at home. But these teachers are also the ones who should be very careful with the way they conduct themselves because kids emulate them blindly. Students in the middle school are out of this spell. These are the years when they are exploring a lot of things out in the world. This exploration can be either constructive or destructive.

And then come the seniors. My experience with them has been like a mixed bag. But mostly, it is very disheartening to see them getting into a laid-back attitude. Just today I was conducting a practical (online) where there were students, I had to give call to and though I was furious, had to maintain my polite tone asking them to join the link for practical. ‘Ma’am, I forgot it was today!’ ‘Sorry, I was sleeping!’ FORGOT? SLEEPING? I get sleepless nights not because of my kids but because of you morons. I get butterflies in my stomach before checking your answer scripts because I feel dejected when you score low marks. I take your tension on my head because I think of you as my own. Please do not make me hate you and question my choice of career.

My husband goes to his office and I am sure he doesn’t face “forgot” or “sleeping” problems from his colleagues or company clients. And even if he does, he has the liberty to take action. Teachers do not have that liberty. We are expected to work, have patience, be polite, control temper, have a smile on our faces and be energetic all the time. And then reach home and again repeat the same performance. And yet, teaching is a ‘time pass’ job! This makes me feel disturbed and then again, I search for a happy place and I find it in the innocent smiles in the primary wing, in the curious question of the middle school kids, in the ‘Eureka’ moment of a senior section student, in my husband’s occasional ‘How do you manage the madhouse?’.