Hats off to the Teachers

Alright. So many a times my husband had suggested me to take up the teaching job. Though, I had almost every time declined it since I am struggling with my one child at home and cannot even fathom the thought of being surrounded by 20 toddlers or teenagers. But secretly even I wanted to take up teaching since I am very good at giving the gyaan and “explaining” things in real good details. I know, that’s not the only attribute of being a teacher. The most important quality that one must possess, especially if you want to teach pre-primary or primary students, is PATIENCE, which I clearly lack.

Anyway. With COVID hit situation around the world, my daughter was lavishly enjoying her “holidays” and being away from school and seeing her parents 24 X 7 around her. Suddenly, to her utter shock, her school announced starting virtual classes. No, it was not her who was shocked, it was her mommy, uhhhh – I. She was happy but we were apprehensive about those virtual classes, that too she got the afternoon slot of 12:15 till 3:00 PM. For the first time in probably five years, I really liked my husband’s work schedule which starts post-lunch. For all these years, I would hate it. But his schedule means that most of the days, he could lend his laptop for our daughter’s classes and be around her instead of me. But an invisible pact signed among us – first preference, Mr. Husband’s laptop and time; second – mine and if both of us have any meetings/urgent office work, then it’s her grandmother’s iPad and she would go through the torture of being around her. Errr… I mean, she would be around her if she needs any assistance.

Day 1 – Connect and Bond session – went well. Kids were happy, teacher was able to engage them, and we got some time to feel happy that our daughter is happily eating away her teacher’s head.

Day 2 – Started off really well. Were amazed at her teachers’ patience and how they were handling the kids and sometimes their parents as well, since some of the kids had to also switch the online links for Language classes.

Day 3 – Oh, we have settled down now. All good. I just happened to come to the same room where my daughter was taking her classes and decided to sit down to have my lunch. That was their music class. Smiling to myself, I even went back to my school days where my music teacher would always struggle with me. And that’s when I heard one of the classmates of our daughter call out for his Music Sir’s attention.

Boy – “Sirrrrr”

Teacher – “Yes my child”

Boy – “Sirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr”

Teacher – “Yes beta. Tell me”

Boy – “Sirrrr. When will ma’am (their class teacher) come back? This class is soooooooo boring”

I almost missed the bite and I and my husband looked at each other with our respective mouths open.

Our Daughter – “Yes Sirrrrrrrrrr. This is such a boring class”

My mouth managed to open even more bigger.

We tried to exchange some warnings to our daughter with our big wide eyes. She was courteous enough to put herself on mute and tell us – “what? This is really a very boring class”

When we asked her why, since we saw that she was enjoying the song her teacher was teaching? She was like, “yeah, I know but its sooooooooooo boring” (while literally making a big round circle with her head and upper half body).

Thankfully, music teacher’s supporting teacher came to his rescue and engaged the kids by teaching some virtual classes protocols and igniting some excitement by telling that sir will now teach the song along with the instrument. Kids came back on track and I managed to finish up my food. Some kids here and there were like – “Sirrrr, I want to go to the washroom”, “Sir, I am hungry. I want to have food”, “Sir, when will this class get over”

Day 4 – Again, started off really well. Kids were showing off how “wonderfully” they spent the weekend. Post lunch was the Dance class.

Sir started off by making the required adjustments to the sound, laptop screen, placing kids away from laptops and so on.

One of the boys – “Sirrrrrrrrrrrrrr”

Teacher – “Yes beta. First you learn these steps and then I will listen to all of you”

Boy – “Sirrrrrrrrrrrr”

Teacher – “Yes. Tell me”

Boy – “Sirrrr. You are looking like a girl”

Teacher – “Is it? Why do you say so beta?”

(silence – clearly the boy’s parent has put him on mute while being hidden away from the camera)

Teacher – with a smile, he literally checked himself – trouser all good, t-shirt is fine, shoes all okay. “Alright beta. Doesn’t matter. Just enjoy the dance”

It’s just been four days of virtual classes and I already have two things to share - 

1. Teachers have put in immense work and dedication to make sure that they are able to teach the kids as much as  possible without wasting their year, even if that means working for longer hours by taking the same sessions twice a day or working even after the classes to prepare teaching material so that they can pass on the concepts to the kids virtually as well. Our curriculum and the teaching material were not “virtual ready” but they had made it. Hats off to all the teachers.
2. Secondly, I am not going to take up teaching ever. The way our daughter’s teachers have been handling a group of 15 toddlers with such patience and smiles on their faces, if I had been in their places, either I would have disconnected the call or given an earful to them.

We have all sort of parents.

Some of us wanted schools to start the classes, even if online, since it’s so hard to keep them engaged with our own office work and any further delay would mean a rushed session for this year. Some of us do not want online classes since it means “even more” screen time, or we don’t have proper resources to support online classes.

Some of us think that teachers cannot get or give the required attention with online classes. Some of us think that ample attention is being given.

Some of us see it as the new mechanism from schools to “extort” more money from us in the name of supporting infrastructure for virtual classes. Some of us understand that it’s required in this time when we don’t know when will schools go back to “normal” on-campus operations.

Whichever type of parents you may encounter, know this that we have immense respect for all the wonderful teachers. Their work has increased manifold. What they would teach once in a day, they now are teaching twice a day to maintain a small group for virtual classes.

All the resources which they had in school are now hand-made or managed by them.

They have to spend extra time and so much more effort to prepare teaching material so that they can pass on the concepts to their students during virtual sessions, which are so different than physical classroom sessions.

The amount of energy spent on making everyone maintain the decorum, the patience to listen to all the banters from the students and yet bringing them back on track and getting their attention to take the huge yearly syllabus forward.

From our side – whoever can afford to attend the virtual classes, we should help them by making sure that our kids – younger or older ones – understands the importance of joining the classes on time, being on mute when teacher is talking and listening to instructions properly.

It’s a different time which needs to be dealt with differently. They are trying their best to teach our kids. We better respect them and their efforts. Yeah, I do have grievances but that’s with the school. Not the teachers.