My student teacher

Let me try to distinguish between a teacher student and a student teacher. The former should be a teacher by profession who assumes all the character of a student who wants to learn many things and so s/he should be an ideal teacher. The latter is primarily a student who undergoes the criteria of becoming a teacher. My story is about my own student teacher. She was quite an avid student who at the slightest hint from any teacher would move heaven and earth to execute her instructor’s will. Quite often she would hang around the staff room to catch a teacher’s attention and dutifully accept any work that comes her way. In return, she just wanted an approving smile or a friendly nod or  a compliment in front of her classmates. Once when she approached me for assigning her an observation class, I told her to come next day. An observation class is meant for trainers who are expected to sit at the back of a regular class, watch the proceedings and make a detailed note of everything that had happened there such as teacher behavior, motivation, teaching aids used, student discipline, student response and the general class room environment. I carefully considered all the experienced teachers and excluded a majority for causes known to everyone and finally zeroed in on a particular staff member who was supposed to be a very well informed teacher. When I approached him for this favour, he accepted immediately without any hesitation and after verifying his time table told me the time he would be present in a certain class. After a couple of days when my student came to me with her notes, she was a little agitated which was very unlike her. I opened her notes and to my surprise I found it was quite blank. When questioned, she stood silently avoiding eye-contact. Gradually the story began to unfold. She was present in the assigned class well before the regular teacher’s arrival as expected of her. The class had been very noisy and many of the tiny tots were running helter-skelter ignoring her presence at the back bench. The teacher came in, smiled at her, pulled his hand-kerchief out of his starch-white dhothi, waved it violently to remove the dust settled on his chair, seated himself comfortably and started writing something in a note book. The noise in the class was so loud that someone in the next class peeped in. The teacher just chuckled and banged the table twice and went on with his scribbling. This went on for about thirty five minutes and towards the end of the class, my student approached the teacher with her blank observation note. She was told to fill it with whatever her books said. The budding teacher was visibly upset over her obligation. I didn’t know how to proceed in the matter and excused myself with some busy work. The teacher I had selected for observation was a regular newspaper reader including English newspapers  and reacted sharply with his views. He was very sociable, well dressed, had clean habits yet when going about his duty in a class room he had behaved very strangely and unpredictably. I understand there are quite many enigmas like him in our class rooms and the fate of the pupils entrusted to them is precariously uncertain. The paradox is that ill-paid teachers in private schools are scrupulously monitored and the well paid ones in the State schools have hardly any accountability and if at all it is there, it is only in the paper and not in practice.