A New Perspective

Somewhere, I had read that it's not how much money we make that ultimately makes us happy between nine and five. It's whether or not our work fulfills us. Being a teacher is meaningful. But most of the times, we have the opinion that being a teacher is very simple and easy. If you can't enroll in any other profession or if you can't achieve your big dreams then, you can be a teacher. In my opinion it's a myth that becoming a teacher is a straightforward process - when you know the subject matter, we can go and teach it. But being a teacher is more than that. And being a teacher in Nepal is even the toughest one where the success of a child solely depends on the teacher in most of the places.

Many of the people here take teaching as a great way to spend their gap years, career break or extended vacation. And I was also the one who used to take teaching the same way but as I have been teaching for fifteen months now and in that time I have been reflecting about the teacher's role and responsibilities and also about the relationship with the student's and parents; my attitude towards the teachers have changed.

Teaching is a challenging job with many unique frustrations, but the rewards of teaching are numerable.

Being a teacher has given me a new perspective on schooling and the education condition here in Nepal and also how education works here and it also has given me a new perspective on how teaching and learning work and also on my own  education. More than that being a teacher has made me more empathetic towards my own teachers who taught me as I remember them each day thinking how they had taught me, how they had helped me in my each and every situation. When my teen age students show an attitude towards me, I just beg sorry with my teachers who may have felt bad with my attitude during my teen age, which I may have overlooked. Hereby, I have now realized that we must be psychologically ready to be a teacher as it is not an easy job. It has both the rain and the shine.

Most of the times I come home exhausted from school, and my task is not complete even with that I need to plan for my next day's class. Not only the chapters, I need to take care of what my students want to learn and how they will learn as there's no 'best way' to teach a child because each student varies from the other one. But everyday this planning helps me to learn the way our society runs, how we need to adopt here. I can see the reflection of our society in each child's behavior and managing with them each day makes me think that I am improving as a better manager each day.

working at room for the next day's class...

 The day is not the same always. The pre-prepared ideas and lesson plans don't work at all sometimes. The class becomes noisy, disobedient and simply don't listen to what I say. Sometimes with their behavior, I just want to burst into tears and give up. And the most difficult part is that I need to be an actor. For every different class, I go to teach, I need to be a different person and sometimes I am not myself. But if I take that thing positively, I would have never got so much room to be creative and autonomous each day.

I sometimes think that I could have opted for a career counselor because each day my child comes to me with a different fantasy, a different dream and a different aim. And every day I need to describe him/her about what that profession is about, what s/he needs to do to reach there and also sometimes I need to advise him/her whether that career is suitable for him/her or not as I know he is underestimating himself/herself as s/he can achieve more than what s/he has thought? 

I get incredible joy in seeing the difference they make as it gives me a self satisfaction that every day, I mold their future by impacting their views and understandings. It gives me a feeling that I am making a difference in the world by enabling each of my students to fully maximize their talents, imagination, skills and character.  It has been quite rare that I do not laugh at least a couple of times every day as the students make me laugh with their funny statements or just their innocent activities.

Although I don't think I will continue to be a classroom teacher in the long run, I think I'd always like to involve in it as it helps me improve more as a leader wherever I go as the process involved in teaching and learning is so fascinating that it allows to explore and understand every profession better.  My teaching experience till now is one of the most challenging but rewarding experiences of my entire life. Being a teacher I am growing so much as a person, collecting many amazing memories and most of all am preparing myself as a leader.  By now what I can say that teaching is not any one's forte as it is not a means to pass your time, but if you want to step outside your comfort zone and try something new, then I recommend you to be a teacher as it can definitely be your cup of tea. Be a teacher, then you will know how to be a leader.