WHY I CHOSE TO BE A TEACHER

I chose to be a teacher because teaching is not just a profession, it is a mission. Children, who are like clay are moulded and shaped by the hands of a teacher. Pandit J.L. Nehru said, "The destiny of a nation is shaped in her classrooms." No career, no work can be more rewarding than that of a teacher who is occupied in building the personality of a student in order to equip him to face the challenges of a competitive world in the throes of transition and change.

The love and affection, the respect that students shower on a teacher who is able to inspire them by example in all spheres far surpasses the joy that wealth can bestow. What great satisfaction it gives to see your students acquire new dimensions to their personality, gaining confidence and poise and all a result of your inspiration, of your instruction. As has been rightly said: an average teacher tells, a good teacher explains, an excellent teacher demonstrates and an outstanding teacher inspires.

I chose teaching because being with children is like being endowed with perpetual youth. The love, laughter, mischief, creativity and imagination of children are like an eternal fountain of joy and vitality.

Monotony never sets into this profession as each child is God's special creation to be nurtured. Each child is an individual who needs to be dealt in a way which is never the same. Each day unfolds a new learning experience for the teacher. So there's no juncture in a teacher's life that he can claim he's reached his zenith.

I realised that through teaching I would be able to fulfill my soul's craving to make a contribution in shaping the world of tomorrow. I chose the profession because of the passionate conviction that in it lies my special destiny. Today after nearly four decades in this profession, each day I can wake up with a song in my heart, each day I can walk with a lighter step, each day I can be elevated to the higher levels of awareness because each day brings with it a set of new challenges and new situations to be tackled. Each day becomes a harbinger of a new dawn of hopes and expectations, of possibilities unanticipated, of experiences untold, of dimensions manifold.
Teaching offers maximum scope for creativity to flourish. Innovation and experimentation, exploring unchartered territories by way of teaching methodologies give to one a great sense of power which is almost intoxicating.

What sweeter fruit can there be?
What greater beauty the eye can see?
Herein lies the astounding territory
Of the human brain's unexplored mystery
All laid vast for me to create
Newer vistas and horizons to appreciate
To mould new shapes, new visions, new dreams
To sail on forever on limitless streams.

The writer is vice principal of DPS STS School Dhaka.