Teacher, teacher where art thou?

I remember the names of some of my teachers and a few faces as well. There a Mrs. Sen, a Mrs. Dutta, and a Mrs. Swing, Mrs. Wright and a Mrs. Sen Sharma among others.

To be honest none of these teachers have impacted me on account of their teaching or on account of having inspired me with what they did in the classroom.

These were teachers at the school I attended in India from K through 12.

Back then, I categorized teachers as good or bad. The kind one's--the one's who didn't scold us or discipline us at the drop of a hat, were "good," and the "strict" one's--those who were harsher and used the tactic of intimidation and humiliation as a tactic to establish control over students, were "bad."

All these teachers were however, universally feared regardless of the quality of their teaching.

Upon entering college, I had more of the same: Professors who taught because it was their job to teach; they didn't leave much of an imprint on my mind as inspirational or insightful.

The parameters for judging educators in India, were, I suppose, entirely different.

None match those highlighted by Mark Edmundson in his new book, Why Teach? In Defense of Real Education. 

A good teacher in America and by default in the Western hemisphere, is somebody who sees teaching as a "calling" and an "urgent endeavor" in which the lives and "souls" of students are at stake.

I believe that in India, teachers didn't burden themselves with the task of shaping lives and souls; instead of "shaping" we, the students were merely accompanied through the various levels of education by our teachers, I feel. 

In America teachers are historically said to shape, influence and inspire learners. It's only lately that they are beginning to resemble the Indian teachers.

Real teachers, laments Edmundson, himself an English Professor at the University of Virginia, are an endangered species in the current academic ecology. The conditions of the ecology, argues the professor, are the consumer mentalities of students, their families and those who administer the educational systems. Administrators are bent on giving students, not real education, but a "full spa experience, whereas educators are eager to escape the actual teaching into esoteric research.

I don't recall ever receiving a spa treatment by school administrators in India, but then again I got my education under a socialist regime. These days, I hear, a deep consumerist culture drives private education in India and students with resources receive the spa treatment to an extent that many schools graduate students without needing them to follow a rigorous academic regimen, or any academic regimen at all. Diplomas are to be had in exchange for money.

But nobody laments in India and no voice like Edmundson's arise. Decline is a given in India and people turn a blind eye to it.

Decline is pervasive in American culture as well, but thinkers like Edmundson make a note of it.