My Favourite Teacher!

O Captain! My Captain! Rise up and hear the bells;

Rise up – for you the flag is flung – for you the bugle trills, 

For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths – for you the shores a-crowding,

For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning.

“We don’t read and write poetry because it’s cute. We read and write poetry because we are members of the human race. And the human race is filled with passion”. To presume that teenage boys may not take a liking towards poetry may not be contested with vehemence, but what was it about poems, and a Dead Poet’s Society, clinging to the bosoms of a class full of young men? What allured these students towards rhythmic verses of words strewn together to evoke passion and contentment?

John Keating.

The brilliance of Dead Poet’s Society lies not just in its moving screenplay or the master class in acting by Robin Williams, but in the approach it adopts to turn classrooms into learning spaces, and teachers into motivators. Keating’s unconventional methods of teaching that aligns with the pulse of its students, engaging them in poetry, not as a subject but as a way of life is a lesson for all. It is not what you teach but how you teach; physics, chemistry, math, arts, literature or trigonometry.

Keating created a platform for young minds to unfurl to their potential, by leading the way yet not dictating where they must go. ‘Carpe Diem boys,’ he says to his students, ‘Carpe diem! Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary.’ Keating will go down in history as one of the best on-screen teachers ever.

And so will Mark Thackeray. 

While the Dead Poet’s Society focussed on an elite boarding school and its prim upbringing of students, To Sir, with Love brought to surface, the turmoil of race, class, poverty and defiance. The students of class 12 at the North Quay Secondary School are anything but obedient and disciplined. School to them was a drudgery that they despised, and couldn’t wait to get a respite by the end of the year. If it wasn’t for the nerves of steel combined with limitless compassion, with a side of stern directions served to them the right way by Mark Thackeray, these children would have been another batch of victims created by a blinkered approach of conventional pedagogies.

To Sir, with Love teaches us all a lesson; a classroom is a space where both teachers and students grow as individuals, together, while respecting each other’s individuality, boundaries and harbouring mutual respect for every step they take towards creating a life full of wonderful experiences. This screen teacher, who has aged so well with time, demonstrates why teachers are some of the most important people students meet in our lives, irrespective of technology swivelling us around its cables and radio waves.

School Cinema’s ‘Who Needs Teachers’ is a favourite among everyone who’s seen it – as  we’ve all either challenged a teacher, or felt challenged by one!

When a boisterous ten year old Isha Sahni challenges the authority of teachers over students, ridicules their mistakes, and questions their necessity in the age of technology, she’s neither rebuked, nor reprimanded for her antics but given an opportunity by her English Teacher, Mrs. Khanna. 

Matching Isha wit to wit, and word to word, Mrs. Khanna one day asks Isha to don the role of a teacher, replete with the sartorial choice of an educator. Putting a student in a teacher’s shoes is one of the wisest and unconventional methods to impart the seriousness and importance of a teacher in a student’s life.

Observed closely, all the above (screen) teachers created unorthodox and safe environments for their wards to thrive in. They believed that young minds can achieve great success when provided with a platform where they manifest their hidden talents sans inhibitions.

One such platform that urges children to wear their creative caps, and brings out their inner storytellers is the School Cinema International Film Festival. Hosted by schools, SCIFF globally diverse children's films to students, helping them understand the language of cinema, and encouraging them to make their own short films.

So, this teachers’ month, let’s encourage children to adopt a path that aligns with their individualities, and helps them grow as strong personalities.