Thank you! Gabe
On Sat, 5 Sep 2020 12:31 Pratap Naik, <pratapnai...@gmail.com> wrote: > In India 05th September is celebrated as Teachers' Day. My respectful > homage 🙏and gratitude to all my teachers (Some of them are in this world, > others have gone to enjoy their eternal reward) who shaped me to become > what i am today. In ancient India, teachers were called Gurus. Students > were called Shisyas. Shisyas selected their guru and stayed with him in the > Gurukul ( guru's home) for many years, till the guru was satisfied with > their performance. The guru was their teacher, parent, doctor, friend, > adviser, coach, model, etc. The guru was paid in kind. But in this system > only higher caste students had access to education. With the arrival of > Portuguese in Goa and British in other parts of our Country, education > system was made available to everyone. Gurus were replaced by teachers, > shisyas came to be called as students. Yet, more ir less up to 1975, > teaching was considered as a holy vocation and not mere profession. Even in > grant in aid schools salary of the teachers was meagre. From Second > standard to B.Sc. I studied in institutions run by Konknni speaking Gauda > Saraswat Brahmins in Udupi district. In our primary school most of the > teachers were Catholic lady teachers. Except one, others were spinsters. > Due to this, our teachers were totally dedicated to their students. There > was no tuition system. If we had any diffuculty, we could approach our > teachers either in the school or at their homes. If any student is absent > for more than two days, class teacher would visit that student's home to > find out the reason. Those primary teachers were our second mothers. I > studied in a Kannada medium school up to X std. Classes were from 9.30 to > 12.45 pm and 2.00 to 4.30 pm. In High school most of our teachers were men, > we called them masters. Each one of them was unique and competent in his > subjects. Vitthal Shenoy, the Kannada teacher was a master story teller. > From him i learned the art of narrating stories. Venkatesh Shenoy taught us > to love and grow plants. Physical Education teacher Valerian Fernandes > taught us to become disciplined students. Philip Gracias made science an > enjoyable subject. L. Karnik, could help us to solve any maths problems. > Srinivas Pai helped us to love Hindi. Cecilia teacher taught English. Since > it was a foreign language for us, we learnt by heart all the answers with > little understanding. Later on at Bhandarkars' College at Kundapur, run by > Manipal Education Academy, we had excellent lecturers. It was Englush > medium. In Initial months we struggled to comprehend what was taught. We > had Narayan Acharya as our Maths lecturer. Really a genious but a simple > man. He came to class without textbooks. Maths was not only in his brain > but in his entire being. While doing B.Ed. at Nirmala Institute at Panaji > we had lovable educational psychology teacher Rita Paes, a gem of person. > Ramesh Sapre, Sharmila Veloso were competent and dedicated teachers. While > doing M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D in Lunguistics, at Deccan College, Pune Ashok > Kelkar, Ramesh Dhongde, S.R. Sharma were scholars in linguistics, excellent > teachers and persons. Throughout my Jesuit training any number of > competent and dedicated teachers shaped my personality. George Soares > Prabhu was not only a renowned scripture scholar but excellent teacher. > Past students were coming to attend his classes on The Gospel of Matthew. > The class room was getting full 10 minutes before the class. Since all > benches were packed to the maximum capacity, students were sitting in the > window sills, steps, and standing. Unfortunately, today education has > highly commercialized. Salary of teachers is very high but proportionately > their competence and dedication is a question mark. There are still > exceptionally competent teachers. I don't deny this fact. In general, > teaching has become more of a profession to earn livelihood, and less as a > sacred vocation for transmiting knowledge and wisdom. May God bless all > our teachers. All of us are teachers in one way or the other. Our mothers > are our first teachers. Happy Teachers' Day💐. > Pratap Naik sj >