Though teachers are working under pressure and their intentions are generally good, but despite all endeavours, the purpose of the society is not getting fulfilled. The reason lies in the unconscious level of awareness of the teachers, which is the seat of implicit attitude. Often, that teachers teach by chance and not by choice
In the last 40-50 decades, we have seen a steep rise in the graph of social change. Concept of buying and selling is tagging everything with a certain price — be it a product or a service.
Among all services, the most crucial and sensitive service is teaching. Though teachers are working under pressure and their intentions are generally good, but despite all endeavours, purpose of the society is not getting fulfilled. The reason lies in their unconscious level of awareness, which is the seat of implicit attitude of an individual. Implicit attitudes are involuntarily formed and are unknown to us. These are most likely to effect behaviour when demands are steep and an individual feels stressed or distracted. Mostly a spontaneous reaction exhibits the implicit attitude of an individual.
Once I was conducting a training session for teachers in a high school. One of my film, Deshbhakti, was screened for the teachers. The emotional last scene of the film gripped them so much that they forgot that they were sitting in school that too with the principal. I then asked them questions and the teachers kept replying unanimously, spontaneously. One after the other, the questions probed their hearts and they vented out their feelings.
Suddenly, I shot a question and asked them to raise their hands if their answer was in affirmative. Everyone’s hand went up and the room sank in complete silence. The principal and the committee were awestruck and were left with their mouth agape. What was the questionIJ I asked, “How many of you hear your heart saying — what the hell am I doing as a teacherIJ”
This was the moment their unconscious overpowered their conscious, the implicit attitude was exposed and they forgot about their surroundings and reacted. If in a seven-minute movie and a few probing questions can trigger the teachers implicit attitude, that too infront of the principal and the committee, then how can it not keep raging up in the classroom under pressure and deep rooted dissatisfactionIJ Will this insidious implicit attitude from the unconscious level ever let their amiable explicit attitude from conscious level perform task perfectlyIJ The answer is no.
Surprisingly, during my experience of conducting training for teachers, I could find negligible number of students who pursued their career as teachers from the beginning. Most of them, as I found, were teaching by chance and not by choice. Very few have a vision rather than a mission. Fewer are child-centered rather than syllabus-centered. And even fewer of them teach from the student’s perspective, rather than from a demanding one.
In this age of globalisation, when products and ideas are being standardised to compete the market, students of branded schools are considered as products and are taught at a so-called standard level to be hired at standard rates. Teachers of other schools, (basically Government schools) which are not able to maintain that standard, feel hopeless.
In this race, innate talent of students is left unidentified and dormant forever. Students of ‘standard schools’, even after achieving the ‘so-called success’, remain far away from the feeling of fulfillment, and those of ‘below standard schools’, do not even understand the meaning of success.
Examples can be seen in our society. Students from branded schools succeed more, but develop fake smiles, and those from Government schools do not get a chance to smile at all. The former finds themselves flying high in the sky but away from their dreams and the latter find themselves crawling down in search of their dreams.
This happens because teachers’ don’t perform their tasks heartfully. There may be some shortcomings at the Government’s end but still a lot can be done from the teachers’ end as well. A talent, when identified and nourished, becomes a passion and this passion when becomes a profession, irrespective of the position, does wonders. This universal concept if taken care of can saturate the society with contentment.
Contentment brings fulfillment and thus, prosperity. Hence, prosperity lies in the hands of the teachers and that too in their unconscious awareness.
My movie, Ek shikshak ka astitva, sets a positive example even for those teachers who are teaching by chance and not by choice. It shows them the way to motivate all students individually in the same allotted school timing. It exposes their unconscious level of awareness which is the seat of all the implicit attitudes. To sum up, it introduces them with their real-self.
(The writer is a trainer and film-maker)