One lesson we can learn from leaders of education across the world is to treat teaching as an important profession. In Finland, which leads nearly all lists for best educational standards, teaching is a highly reputable profession, at par with doctors.
However, in India, teaching is not accorded the same respect. The biggest difference between a good school and a bad school is their teachers. Everything else, infrastructure, brand, reputation fades in comparison to the importance of good teachers.
Bad teachers can do lasting harm to our children. A bad teacher doesn’t accept her shortcomings, and hence teaches kids that being right does not matter, and being prompt with an answer is of paramount importance, which leads to a culture of everyone having an opinion on everything. Similarly, bad teachers are driven by their bosses, and not by an intrinsic desire to teach and inspire children. As a result, bad teachers have only one objective- rushing through a lesson. Good teachers, on the other hand, take time in arousing enthusiasm in the children for learning a particular topic, which makes them effective learners.
Next time, you think that it doesn’t matter what school your child goes to in his younger years, just imagine, would you trust your child with an unqualified doctor? Why would you trust your child with an untrained teacher then?
