When I was a student, I always thought that I was not the teacher’s favourite. I always thought that I was below my classmates in academics, in intelligence, and in money. Have you experienced the same?
There are teachers who pat the studious and condemn the ill-behaved children. The second category is watched all the time. They have to move the way they are asked to, eat the way they are asked to, work the way they are asked to and behave the way they are asked. Who understood such children and their problems? What should have happened in the classroom with children who performed poorly? What should our teachers have done?
The teacher should bring the awareness of what a student should do and not do in a given situation. He/she should have the feeling that he/she is a student with his/her own characteristics and that he/she is a member of the student community of his/her class and of his/her school. That is called the feeling of oneness among individuality.
Even as one retains one’s individuality as an independent student, one should have the feeling of oneness with all fellow students –from self to selflessness. One knows oneself but one will use it only where it is required. Otherwise you are part of a group where the group is self and you are the member of the group in selflessness. If this consciousness is brought into our daily life, most of our problems will be solved.
For example, there are places where we have to behave as if ‘I am myself. I am different.’ This happens within the family, public places, transport, waiting station and in cinema halls. In such places there are certain things an individual should respect. We have no right to touch others money, power or independence as we enjoy ourselves. Enriching self is respecting others in their freedom, rights and privacy.
The consciousness of the self goes when we join ourselves with another for a common purpose as in a household. In a house, the husband, wife and children are united under one purpose. Particularly, in a relationship between the husband and wife, while they respect themselves as individuals with their freedom and rights, they merge into a family at home. When they merge into one, everything is acceptable as long as it serves the common goal. When they merge and melt into oneness, one’s weakness is the happiness of the other and one’s strength is the protection to the other. This relationship has got the basic values of home life and children enjoy the strength, comfort, leadership and direction of parents. And then we call it a home and not a house.
Similarly, in an office, you have to respect the individuality of each person, his/her rights, the privacy and freedom of each person, and the career focus of each person. But together we are united for a common goal. Strengths and weaknesses merge into a common strength by collaborating and supporting each other because no more we are differentiated from the common goal.
The story of John F. Kennedy who went to NASA, before the first man landed on moon, Neil Armstrong, went for a final run-down before the Saturn V rocket lifted off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center is an excellent example of collaboration. As John F. Kennedy was walking out of the centre, he saw a boy cleaning the floor. He called him to his side and asked him what he was doing. The boy answered. ‘Sir, I am working hard to send the first man to the moon.” So, when people collaborate, showing togetherness for a goal, people across the rank merge into one purpose. That’s what is required of schools.
When your prime minister addresses you, you and he melt into the single goal of nation building. We really don’t need a policeman to watch over us. If we can know how to differentiate into self and then manage and work together in selflessness then we don’t need police stations, militaries and constitutions.
You can draw inspiration from the life of Krishna and Kuchela. Krishna was a child from a rich family. Kuchela was a poor boy. They went to a small school that did not discriminate against children. When the teacher was able to bring all the children together, Kuchela became the best friend of Krishna and that friendship continued. One became a king, another a poor man. But they were still best friends. And, whenever they met, they never thought about their social status. That is the selflessness that needs to be addressed by a school.
So, if classrooms have to become heaven and children have to be the best, they have to perform their best. Nothing should bother them. They must have the ability to reproduce a teacher’s questions, give answer to a teacher’s question, secure the highest mark, and become the teacher’s pet.
The fear of making mistakes, the fear of going wrong, the fear of losing the prestige, and getting punished in front of others should vanish away. Classrooms are great places for persons to know one’s self and remain selfless towards one goal.
The day when our teachers realise this basic requirement in classrooms, our schools shall produce youth for tomorrow who will build a nation as they know themselves. That day is the day for happiness.
