IT’S TEACHERS DAY (not Coach/Guide/Mentor day)

Sept. 5 – Teachers Day in India – is about teaching, not about learning. It is the one day that should be dedicated to Teachers, not to learners. It should be a recognition of what teachers do for 30 years of their lives, five or six days of the week. It should be an acknowledgement of what it takes to be a teacher with a class of 30 students or thereabouts, on a conservative average.

That day should be dedicated not to learners from but to those who teach us whether we want to learn or not. We may learn from all guides, mentors and coaches - but they are not Teachers. All teachers may be coaches, guides and mentors (CGM) but the reverse is not true.

Is there really a difference? You bet there is!

Context: Teachers work in the formal sector, in institutions called students and colleges which are strictly regulated and accountable to various stakeholders. CGM work in non-formal sectors. Schools are public service institutions, regularly inspected by boards of education, often written about in the press, and open to being challenged by parents and the public. Contrarily, coaching classes may be structured and run like clockwork but they make up their own rules and set their own standards, accountable to no one except their own internal administration. If parents complained about them, the wards (to distinguish them from their role as students) would be shown the door! Guides and mentors, of course, function in the personal space, where formality of any kind is absent.

Professionalism: Teachers are professionals, unlike guides and mentors. They are appointed based on formal credentials, which may be true of some coaches. Teachers qualify themselves through formal teacher education programs, passing exams, having pieces of paper that guarantee that they have the requisite education. On the other hand, CGM’s credibility is based on their experiences. They must have played their sport at competitive levels and have name-recognition, or served in positions of note in relevant organizations. Vastly different professional profiles, right?

Selectivity: Schools may have entrance exams and interviews for students and parents. But once they are given admission, teachers don’t have a choice of who they will have in their classrooms. The rosters are made for them and they have to deal with the numbers and personalities in their classes. The matching of CGM to their wards, on the other hand, is usually a choice made by both. Mentors especially have a choice of who they will and will not mentor. The what, how and when of CGM-mentee meetings is usually defined by the CGM, perhaps in consultation with the mentees while teachers increasingly have little control over the curriculum, content and pedagogy. Mentors may decide to take a walk along the beach with their mentee on a fine day; teachers have to fill out multiple forms in triplicate days and weeks in advance for a field trip, if such a thing is ever part of the curriculum.

Expectations: Students, parents, and the society at large, have high (sometimes unrealistic?) expectations of teachers. Teachers are then held accountable for their own and their students’ performances. When these benchmarks are not met, all the stakeholders feel free to air their disappointment and anger in public, loudly and clearly. Teachers are not allowed to have reciprocal expectations of parents, and cannot expect parents to take a child to a museum or ensuring that the child is adequately nourished. On the contrary, when a child does not win a tennis tournament, the coach is not blamed but is paid more to offer more intensive, individualized sessions. Mentors and guides, of course, are exempt from any accountability since they do it out of the goodness of their hearts!

Motivation: All of the above have a huge impact on the motivation of wards and students. Wards are in the coaching and training program or mentoring relationship because they choose to be. The topic is of interest to them and they trust the CGM. Students, on the other hand, attend school because they are forced to and study subjects they have no interest in. Motivation is thus built into CGM interactions while teachers have to swim against the tide of student disinterest and begin with a built-in disadvantage. Further, guides and mentors function in a one-on-one setting where building trust and confidence is much easier and less stressful, while a teacher has 25 to 90 students. Not quite an even playing field, is it?

What does any of this have to do with Teachers Day in India? We learn from many people, at different points in our lives. By all means, respect and honour your coach, guide and mentor. But on Sept. 5 could you honour your teachers, and only your teachers, and not conflate them with your coach, guide or mentor? One day, just that one day, let teachers be remembered for who they are and what they do, not who we are and how we learn. Maybe then we will begin to understand and respect how much we expect of teachers, and value what they truly being to our lives.