Teaching is not just teaching

Poetry

Ashok Silwal
… as a teacher.

Teaching
A mission, a challenge, a passion..?
An art, a science, simply a job…?
For him, first of all, a pleasure:
He likes teaching, he respects his students.

He enters the classroom happily,
In a mixture of curiosity and enthusiasm,
With energy and optimism.

These twenty faces will watch at him!
He knows he will have to find adequate words,
For all and for everyone.
He looks at them one by one:
The ‘first of the class’, the shy, the arrogant,
The busy one and the distracted one ‘absent’,
Eyes into the void… in love maybe..,
The one who always raises his hand,
And the one with the lowered head,
The talkative and the silent.

He knows that he will have to manage
The needs and the rhythms of each one.
He does not want teaching to be just teaching;
He loves and makes them his own,
The words originated from Plutarch:
‘TEACHING IS NOT THE FILLING OF A PAIL
BUT THE LIGHTING OF A FIRE!’
So teaching will be a firework!
Explaining, exposing, informing, advising,
Exemplifying, motivating, preparing,
Illustrating, listening and telling…
Because teaching is educating:
So not only conveying WHAT but HOW..
He feels that,
He wants his students to progress
Hoping to help them in their growth.
He is very convinced of his responsibility:
Feeding the minds,
Thrilling the hearts,
Instilling dreams…

He wants them to understand
That it is with education
That the world can be changed.

He is pretentious, the teacher,
He is aware that many of his words
If he chooses them wel
Will not be forgotten.

Then the greatest joy and satisfaction,
Will be, days later, meeting a student
Who says: ‘Thank you, Sir,
I still remember your exciting and useful lessons.’
So he will be happy, the teacher,
Because , at that time,
The student had overtaken him .