What is it really like turning 18.

I was 18 many moons ago. But this is not my reflection of life 23 years ago.

While 13 January happens to be my birthday; my birthday as a teacher, coincidentally falls a day prior. 

On a crisp January morning I had joined Kasturba Medical College International Center and began a journey that I have thoroughly cherished until now. I wrote a post in 2019 on completing a decade as a teacher (https://sambitspeak.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-decade-in-teaching-reflection.html) and ended it with "Next update could be at least 5 years down the line." But as you can see, it has taken couple of years more to pen this.

Stepping into the 18th year of teaching, becoming an adult in experience, what do I think?

I have had the unique opportunity to teach various programs.

I started with KMC-IC which was a USMLE based program with American Indians as the student cohort. I taught for 4 years in that program. After that I moved into Melaka Manipal Medical College (MMMC), with Malaysian (and later few Sri Lankans) MBBS students. I was posted to KMC Manipal for 6 months and taught the Indian MBBS program. During the MMMC stint I taught the Allied Health Science courses which had Indian students. Later, after MMMC was turned into Manipal University College Malaysia (MUCM) and moved to Melaka, I taught the BDS program at Manipal College of Dental Sciences (MCODS, Manipal) along with Manipal College of Nursing (MCON). Along with these I have also briefly taught biochemistry to Dietetics students of our hotel management school (WGSHA), Biotechnology students of our Life Sciences school (MSLS), pharmacy students of Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MCOPS). And then a few more... I moved to Melaka, Malaysia last year and currently teach MBBS & BDS programs at MUCM.

Change & Constant

Being a Millenial, I have seen that transition from chalk-&-talk to OHPs (people of a vintage will know) to PPTs to GPTs. I have also now seen students of two different generations (in policy we consider a minimum of 15 years as a generation). 

Having always been close to the student population, as I reflect on the change (and reams have been written about it) that is undergoing, I feel a lot remains the same. 

Technology might have advanced, the maturity levels of young adults might have advanced, the approach and interactions with teachers might have changed, but what essentially makes a students remain similar.

A class will always be filled with motivated and not-so-motivated students, a class will have chaos, a class will have overtly active students and massively passive students. The struggle for exams, the need for fun, the vagaries of late teen years, the experimentation with authority all remain similar through the years.

And therefore at the core of what remains as a function of a teacher is to care.

The care to go well-prepared into the class. The care to give hundred percent in the class and outside of it. The care to read the room. The care to correct where necessary. The care to lend a hand of help when needed. The care to go out of the way to understand. The care to chastise when appropriate. The care to stand up for students. The care to stay extra hours to explain a concept. The care to be passionate about the job. The care...

As famously our great teacher Dr Ramnarayan used to say of students, "They do not care how much you know, till they know how much you care".

I have come to understand that it is equally important to know too, for from that knowledge flows other things, but care should be at the heart of things.

And this concept of care is not at loggerheads with modern concepts of student care. In fact and contrary to the movement that is happening in that direction, teachers should be at the heart of student care, complemented or supported by trained non-teaching professionals. The needle has moved a lot on that front, but with experience I can say, higher education institutes must re-evaluate those priorities.

Personal Philosophy/Education Philosophy

It is said that one of the few most important things one must do when one teaches adult students is to understand oneself first. Our personal philosophies guiding our education philosophy matters a lot.

While a standardized approach is seen in higher education, what our core values are as teachers remain. That is why we see some lamenting that students must be sincere self learners, some believing that students will always not be interested and is fine if they scrape through, some believe that sage-on-the-stage is the best 

While we do not think about it overtly, it is sometimes good to reflect on what drives us internally. There are many resources and very simple ones at that, that might take a minute or two. Examples include Philosophies Held by Instructors of Lifelong-learner (PHIL), https://www.dovepress.com/teaching-philosophy-in-a-teaching-portfolio-domain-knowledge-and-guida-peer-reviewed-fulltext-article-AMEP, etc. 

Our education philosophies also change with the passing of time. As I have written in my decade long journey essay, I was an "angry young man" when I started teaching. Growing up on being stickler for rules and discipline made me so, but now, on turning 18, I have changed that since many years. That has again come from a change in philosophy essentially.

It is not appropriate to call it mellowing down with age (not that I feel old or something). It is rather understanding that a classroom environment can be many things on many days and perhaps from this ability to have the focus of the class and having fun in the class, that does not necessitate being angry.

A lot of focus over the years has been around involving the students, more project based teaching, etc, but I feel it is important to know your audience. And which a lot of higher education centers are misreading. A MBBS student from US who joins medical school at the age of 30 cannot be compared to a 18 year old from India. The motivation level will be different, the ability to grasp concepts will be different, the approach, the knowing self will be different. And this I am just talking about MBBS students. Change the discipline and the story changes.

Therefore the teaching philosophy must factor in all variables. In being a service provider, a teacher, can only provide good service if she is aware and at peace with her core philosophies.

Be more to preach

We teachers are preachers. 

Not the charlatan kinds (well there are many but let's not talk about them).

When we come from a genuine place, we always want our students to do well. We want them not to do well just academically. 

In early years of teaching we are made to believe or understand that the true reflection of a teacher is how the students perform. The grade inflation issue that plagues higher education (primary too) comes from this place. Higher grades because of more objective than subjective, more continuous than summative assessment, is fine. But the massive inflation is not fine. It stems from the "jo dihkta hai wahi bikta hai/ what can be measured can only be improved" type of philosophy. 

I feel and have observed that there is a massive shortfall in skilling for the world because of this shift. Soft skills, non-verbal communication, co-curricular activities have been on a decline owing to various factors, including GenZ things.

Therefore, the only way for us teachers, to emphasize to our students the importance of all this is by doing it. Leading by example is never going to go old and happens to be the sure-shot way to make an impact.

I have always felt that my foray into organizational activities, public speaking, writing, taking student-facing initiatives, have helped me be a better teacher over the years. While it will be a minority of students that will see it and get inspired, I have come to believe it is always like that and it is worth it.

The road ahead

I did not talk about many other things that capture my thought space as a teacher. The exponential increase in research activities, output and expectation. The adapting to GenZ reliance on AI. The changing technology landscape. The psychological shift in youngsters. The commodification and corporatization of higher education. The quality of teachers and quality of students. And so on...

Perhaps I should write more and not just on work anniversary. I strongly believe writing clears the thoughts. Writing, and not academic alone, helps formulates thoughts. 

A teacher has so many things to say. Classroom makes us so.

As I have written earlier, I will state it again that classroom for me is a meditative space. 

So much has happened in life in all these years, and there have been umpteen unkind moments. But once inside a classroom, all outside noise dies for me. I am at complete peace. I am with the class. I am with my students. And that is a litmus test that I enjoy teaching more than ever.

And I am pretty sure I will love to continue be a teacher, continue do things that help students, find ways to make academics enjoyable, bring new technology to the youngsters, help gain more knowledge, all in the hope that they become complete professionals.

It is like these things and more on turning 18...

PS: Just as I was about to enter a class an hour back, a 2nd year MBBS student, who I have not taught came up to me and said she searched through my research work, especially in policy and gender and my newspaper writings and she was so impressed and she wants to come discuss about her work on these domain with UN Sec Gen office. These are the rewards a teacher lives for eventually!

A decade in teaching - a reflection

Reams of paper, red pen, big lesson plan charts, books, evaluation, I have seen them all since the time I did not understand what they were. A teacher mother brings all that to home. As a student, there was lot to emulate. The earliest memory of role reversal goes to 1999 when on Teacher’s Day, 5^th September in India; we as class 9 students at Saint Lawrence School, were to teach junior classes. The seniors gave me a ‘most well dressed young teacher’ prize in the function that followed. 

Little did I know then that I will eventually become a ‘real’ teacher ten years later and then be at it for another ten years. Today, the 12^th of January marks a decade being a teacher.

Angry young man

I joined Kasturba Medical College International Center, KMCIC, often called just IC, after a brief teaching stint at an allied health science college in Bangalore. I always wanted to come back to Manipal and the opportune moment arrived in the cool January of 2009.

As a 25 year old, with a post graduate degree in medical biochemistry, fresh with knowledge of various aspects of the subject, supported by public speaking skills gathered over years, the change in power equation cemented by stereotypes, the angry young man mode marked the beginning.

Exacerbated by the fact that the students were just a few years junior, all non resident Indians having brought up in a different classroom culture, alien to the Indian conception, a couple of walk outs from the class, reprimands, marked the first few months. In hindsight it stemmed from that need of decorum and discipline, almost military like, in a classroom which quintessentially equates to students paying respect to teacher. Crappy theory, one realizes later.

But then it became better. The realization that an unruly class, more often than not, is a failure of the teacher, that insulting an adult to shut him off is only going to alienate him further, that the various personality traits make for various reactions, that power cannot and should not be misused dawned slowly.

I could feel and see change in about a year or two.

In 2013 January, after a very enriching stint in IC teaching biochemistry and genetics, I moved to Melaka Manipal Medical College to continue teaching biochemistry.

I have taught a wide range of courses in these ten years. Mainly the MBBS program, interestingly one that is ratified by Malaysian Qualifying Agency, the former was by American Board. Apart than that allied health science, dentistry, biotechnology, dietary and nutrition, nursing and a few others. I have enjoyed teaching all these courses and I have never discriminated with students based on discipline, sadly a phenomenon widely seen.

 Mentoring

Teaching is not just about the classroom. It is mentorship which affects students. The number may vary but I strongly feel that if a teacher can influence just one student positively, it has a butterfly effect. A drug addict, who had been in and out of rehab, a guy whose mental health made him involve in dangerous practices, a girl from a broken family having relationship issues, someone who had trouble concentrating on anything, one who just wanted to share her stories, someone who would lock him up in hostel room, one who would not come back to hostel, there are scores of such stories that I remember vividly.

Exasperating as it may be at that point in time to deal with such kind of trouble, I realized pretty early in my career that showing some support, listening to them, or just being there can make a sea change in people. Of the examples cited above, many of them are successful doctors in the US today, something that was unthinkable back then.

It is a very happy feeling for a teacher to see their students do well. There might be little or no role of the teacher in that success story, yet the mere feeling that you knew the person, interacted with her, tried to impart some knowledge, some skill, and that the person is seemingly doing well is a satisfying feeling.

The lure of the classroom

The one thing that has stood out in this past decade as a teacher for me is the lure of a classroom. There is nothing more exciting that being in a class. It is there amidst students, young men and women, eager to learn, to listen, where all worries vanish.

Unkind situations have led me to points where I have returned from an MRI scan of my one and half year daughter at 2 am in the morning only to take a class at 8 in the morning and it is in that class of an hour where the mind has not fleeted to the hospital. And that is just one example; there have been umpteen such situations.

What is it about the classroom then? It is perhaps the eagerness to share information, to engage with students, the urge to be effective which predominate all worry that the mind has been preoccupied with. It is blissful to be in a classroom taking class.

Teaching is not a job, it is a calling?

I have wondered about this statement often. Teaching has a calling component to it certainly, but it also needs a rigor that a job, even if boring, is associated with. To show up early in the morning, to have a class late in the afternoon, and with enthusiasm, with passion, needs one to like the work they do.

There is one thing about the teaching job that I greatly appreciate and am thankful for - the freshness of it. Every year sees one or two new batch of new students and brings with it the newness that is much required in any vocation. Each batch has its own dynamics, its own challenges, and its own energy. Teaching, for me, never gets boring.

I feel it is important to stay relevant. With each passing year the students change. A cultural shift, a generational shift, an attitudinal shift is all part of the game and sooner a teacher realizes that it is better for her. We cannot be using old techniques for new age students. Yes, a chalk and talk might be relevant for many decades to come but for example using technology to enhance learning should be accepted at a greater level.

Not just a teacher

I have had the privilege to do much more than teaching and some amount of science and medical education research in this past decade. As secretary of the university cultural coordination committee, the organization of inter collegiate fest, as emcee in umpteen formal and informal programs, as writer of numerous reports and yearbooks, as hostel warden for five years, as resource person facilitating sessions on soft skills, winning sports events and other awards, as coordinator for internationalization to website to disciplinary committee to more, these leadership positions at university and college level, these organizational activities have imparted rich experience.

Being in a private university like Manipal is a boon for a teacher for there is a lot of leeway and especially in my college, Melaka Manipal Medical College, which is not under the archaic medical Council of India, one can try new things, the curriculum has flexibility, innovation is appreciated and the overall work environment is relaxing.

Questions

A constant question that hits me after every module is ‘how effective have I been?’ I guess it has to do with ones teaching philosophy too. Mine is to leave the student with something that makes her search for more. I believe a classroom also is a room for discussing, with time permitting, issues beyond academics. In my decade long experience, I can vouch it inspires many students. Much has been written, lot of training is imparted on how to be effective and one must enroll in those and learn. But at the end of the day, if there is goodness that you want to share, aiming at enriching an individual’s repertoire of knowledge, skills and attitude, it will motivate you to be a good teacher.

Reflection

Despite having my own set of disappointment about what I could have achieved in this last decade, I am largely satisfied with my evolution as a teacher. It is not necessary to win excellence in teaching awards to be content. It is rather the path to excellence that is important. And I am on it. I am involved in projects which aim at enhancing learning using technology and I am passionate about psychology and science of learning.

I want to empower my students, not feed them with ready to serve information. I want my student to be inquisitive, not content with whatever is served. I want my student to question all that comes her way, not accept authority in the way it comes.

Sometimes I like reading the few messages on cards, photographs, mementos that students have left behind in these years. They are a source of inspiration on a bad day.

At this point in life, I feel I can be a teacher all my life.

PS: Next update could be at least 5 years down the line.

Whiplashing Teacher

It has been a routine since a few years that once the Best Movie nominations for Oscars are done, i would watch them all prior to declaration of awards. The idea perhaps has two intentions; one to watch the cream, or as one would like to believe, of the years movies and two to see if my perception of deserving and undeserving is reflected in the results. 

This year however the routine could not be followed. But when the opportunity arose now, I watched them all. And the one movie that I thought i would first make a comment on would be Whiplash.

Reason? Simple. Because I am a teacher.

I will not comment on the merits of the movie. It is excellently made and various reviews have embarked on that. I read The Guardian’s review for a UK view, The NYT for an American view and The Hindu for an Indian view. Barring Sudhish Kamath in The Hindu, the other two reviews have not discussed the ‘teacher’ as depicted in the movie. Perhaps it was not necessary to do so in a ‘movie review’ and I completely understand that. Perhaps the Indian viewpoint is stark regarding a teacher’s role and thus was given a few lines in the review. 

Time and again a teacher who is a taskmaster, who is an epitome of perfection, who is stiff as his cane, who is demanding like a hungry canine, has been shown in movies and successfully so. The point that has been driven home is that such a person, hateful, vitriolic, yet perfect, soft within, caring can bring about the best in a pupil. There has been a contrary depiction too in movies. 

The teacher in Whiplash is a perfectionist who doesn’t care if the pupil is bleeding into the drum for he believes the greatest threat to mushroom mediocrity is to compliment someone with ‘good job’. While it is good to expect a student to excel, to nurture the potential in one, to boost someone to aim higher, to push someone to strive harder to attain that pinnacle, it is equally important to pay heed to the process that one undertakes to achieve that.

At the cost of moulding, creating, chiselling someone to fit the image of perfection, one cannot scar the psyche, hurt the emotions or bruise the ego. It will only create a perfect professional who is broken at many places within. A Michael Jackson could be moulded by his father into the greatest star ever but the process left the child so shattered that he could not pick the pieces up to join them to make a normal life.

Societies have adored such taskmasters, such military generals for teachers who have under their tutelage produced success stories like no other. The gruelling and grilling is thought to be normal. It might be at one point of time but not to an extent as shown in the movie Whiplash. Throwing a chair or a drum or drum sticks is unacceptable. Am sure the reader would not want his or her child to be with such a teacher however assured of success one is. 

Feedback from teachers have been greatly researched on and there is a general consensus that it should be goal oriented, tangible, timely, transparent, actionable, consistent, etc., but the most important element being sensitive to individual needs. My way or the highway approach of a teacher will not work with all in the class. And if one is not thinking about all in the class, is he fit to be a teacher for the whole class?

I personally have had excellent teachers who were terror, to use an oft used term, in class. They were able to convey what they set out to convey, there was certain romanticism about their classes, but the majority of the class could never muster courage to ask doubts, forget about those at the bottom who would just pray the class finishes without them being caught in the crosshair. 

This is not to suggest that mediocrity is to be passed for in the garb of being student friendly. A teacher, like students, is a work in progress. She is not a godsend who has come laden with information; she is not the encyclopedia herself. She is rather one or should be one who instils enough curiosity for the pupil to become a life-long learner. She should be the one who motivates. She should be the one who just throws light on that long path of wisdom and takes hand to show a initial steps through it.

The teacher shown in Whiplash is better relegated to the celluloid. He has no place in the classroom. Such teachers can cause young students to feel bitter about themselves and everything around. Such teachers are ones who can push pupils to take their own lives. In the bargain of creating that one masterpiece should one take the risk of tearing off other attempts?

The Teacher who Inspired me

 

‘The Teacher who Inspired me...’

With the ‘Midsummer Nights Dream’ in his hand he walked into the class. His composed demeanour settling, his prim attire apt, his conduct worthy of emulation and when words emanated, his thoughts expressed, the lucidity of subject conveyed, for someone in the throes of teenage, in high school, there could not have been a better role model than Father Joseph Amudan.

In explaining to us Shakespeare Fr Joseph exhibited his erudition.

Knowledge, that he did not thrust upon us, like any ‘guide book’ would do, but rather told us various interpretations of a single phrase, typical of a Shakespearean literature. He ensured it was not a one-way communication; he entertained interjections, accepted alternate theories and in cases of disagreements or doubts, did not deliver his verdict but sought time to further investigate. He would induce enough curiosity in any topic meanwhile ensuring there is room for us to go back and look up more readings. And that single factor inculcated in me a habit of reading diverse subjects.

In listening to everyone Fr Joseph exhibited equality and in cracking the whip, fairness.

In times and settings where the voice that would be entertained in a class would usually be of the top rung, Fr Joseph would give everyone an opportunity. He would listen to everyone’s interpretation, would nudge the ones not willing to respond and in well-crafted assignments see to everyone’s participation. He was also a stickler. Preventing the whole class to write a unit nest for showing unruliness during an exam was enough to teach us lessons of abiding by rules. In me thus arose a belief in equal opportunity and a penchant for observance of rules.

In being a friend, philosopher and guide Fr Joseph exhibited mentorship.

Perhaps acknowledging that a teenager has a mind of his own is not easy as it sounds. Whenever studying English would bring about issues of religion, even contentious issues like forced conversions, sexuality, governments, Fr Joseph would neither shy away nor impose his belief. He would provide a ground for the most interesting and enlightening of debates. He would show great camaraderie during school picnics and functions, get his hands dirty with us, be just as one of us. And that broke many an icebergs.

In acknowledging non-academic debates in which I had a forte, in identifying my strength in and giving organizational and oratorical responsibilities which imbued confidence in me, in simply listening and accepting alternate theories which brought about liberal thoughts, in creating conditions resulting in rapacious reading and widespread writing, and also importantly in quietly nudging to study harder which culminated in good grades, all of which are responsible partly for who I am today, my English teacher, the erstwhile Principal of my school, Father Joseph Amudan, made an indelible mark, left an imprint and inspired me to great ends.

(This essay was submitted to Manipal Centre for Professional and Personal Development as part of a competition for Teachers Day, 2014 and was selected among the top 5 outstanding essays)