‘Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel’- Socrates
Our personalities are moulded by the valuable lessons that we learn from our many teachers. They include our parents, formal teachers at school, skill teachers who teach us music, sports, as well as peers and even our own students. But the roles of parenting, teaching and mentoring generally come into two types.
It is pertinent to note that many see the role has one that moulds the personality, akin to a potter shaping a lump of clay into a magnificent creation. However, each child is a living being with infinite potential and is a future tree waiting to grow and bloom. Hence effective teachers are the ones who choose to be gardeners to the seed of potential that lies in the learner.
While the potter breathes life into dead clay, the gardener has to take care about not stifling the very life of the seed. In their respective professions, the potter and the gardener assume appropriate roles. However in teaching and parenting, while the gardener’s approach can really shape a personality and script a destiny, using the potter’s path can result in tragedy or cause a mutiny.
However, the role of a gardener is not as easy as it looks. It requires us to be better at tolerance, facilitation, allowing space and empowering the learner’s right to make a choice. William Arthur Ward said it so well: that ‘a mediocre teacher tells, a good teacher explains, a superior teacher demonstrates and a great teacher inspires!’
Let’s BE BETTER at the noble task of teaching
The learner-seed is nurtured with gardening!
- Pravin K. Sabnis
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