Ageless teachers

Unchanged role of teachers in 1810s and 2010s

The role of teachers can be broadly categorised into five ‘dimensions’ as listed in the tabular representation. Against each of the dimension, the role of teachers is mentioned as in 1810s and 2010s (1810s is picked to make the 200 years of difference from the current decade.)
Role in 1810s Role in 2010s
Dimensions of teachers’ role: The stated professional ethics (just as the doctors have the Hippocratic oath)
(Surprisingly) None! (outcome of teaching was not even implicitly stated) Ditto
(there is an alarming disregard for ‘slow learners’ as well as the talented ones; teachers continue to work for the mythical average student – thus no child is actually directly addressed)
If there is an equivalent of doctor’s oath for teachers, it has to be this one – ‘No child left behind’.
Dimensions of teachers’ role: Milestone(s) to be achieved
Syllabus completion (when textbooks were the only source of knowledge, syllabus completion was the right essential) Ditto
(in the ‘times of Google’, textbooks are just the bare essential; teachers need to go far beyond the textbooks)
Dimensions of teachers’ role: Key qualification(s) to be a teacher
Subject knowledge (worked well in times when all the students were first-generation learners) Ditto
(subject knowledge of teachers continues to enjoy the primacy even when it cannot at all compete with the ‘richness of Google’; the skills and aptitude to ‘catalyse students and parents to excel’ must be the new key qualification.)
Dimensions of teachers’ role: Accountability for outcomes
(Surprisingly) None! (teachers were hardly held accountable for the learning outcomes observed among her students) Ditto
(teachers continue to be unappraised with respect to learning outcomes; they must be appraised for their own good too)
Dimensions of teachers’ role: ‘Manage the classrooms’
‘Controlling the students’ was a role next only to syllabus completion (the physical stick policy was used to control class but it was not out of step with the culture at home in those times) Ditto,
(the soft stick – Formative Assessments or ‘internal exams’ marks – are not much different but they are quite in conflict with now democratised homes; extrinsic control or motivation is always suboptimal)

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