Page 34 - EW December 2020

Expert Comment

Remembrance of an

ideal teacher

KRISHNA KUMAR

NE OF THE FOUR TEACHERS I HAVE KEPT IN Among the great teachers I have trained
touch with passed away last month (November) I remember many who knew how to
in his late eighties. The others taught me at col-
Olege or later, but Kapil Dev Tailang was the only scold without losing their students’ love
one left from my school days. Before he was assigned to and trust. Predicatability in a teacher’s
my school, he had come in for a few days when the regular behaviour is important, advised the late
teacher was on leave. The difference between the two was American educator John Holt
stark, and not because the regular teacher was not good.
What made Kapil Dev Sir’s classes an unusual experi-
ence was that he did not scold. Decades later, I still find
this strange. Some of the boys in my class strived to irritate was important because you could score math-like marks in
him, but never succeeded in provoking a reprimand. His it. English was equally important because we were told we
style did not include harsh or loud words. wouldn’t get anywhere in life without mastering the lan-
He was a language teacher, and Hindi was his language. guage. Hindi had no such perceived advantages to uplift
He took care not to pollute it in our minds with uncouth its status as a subject.
usage. His distinction as a teacher shone in moments when Despite this, Kapil Dev Sir became my most memorable
he was under stress. He knew how to shame respectfully. teacher because he was pleasant, yet focused. What he
In any case, he always used the honorific aap for students taught came alive, and I can still recall many of his classes.
while every other teacher addressed us as tum, except teach- Even grammar came alive when he explained a rule by us-
ers who favoured more demeaning variants. For Kapil Dev ing it in a humorous sentence. When teaching poetry, he
Sir, the dignity of Hindi, his subject, was a personal value. asked us to visualise the sentiment, to imagine it. He never
Teachers have every right to be harsh at times, but some attempted to invest relevance or moral meaning into poetry.
speak in a reproachful voice all the time. Among the teach- he secret of his success as a teacher lay in the pleasure
ers I have trained, I remember many who knew how to scold The took in using the language he was supposed to teach
without losing their students’ trust and love. Predictability in a lucid, transparent manner. Why this was crucial be-
in a teacher’s behaviour is important, advised the highly came clear to me years later, when a wonderful professor
respected American educator John Holt (1923-85) who had of English, the late S. Mallikarjunan explained it. He said
deep personal insight into children’s minds and the flaws that language is used best when it does not draw attention
of America’s school system. One of his most famous books, to itself. It is like a clean glass window: you don’t feel you
How Children Fail (1964) could well be re-titled When are looking through something. That is exactly how Kapil
Teachers Fail. It is not the scolding, but the unpredictabil- Dev Sir used Hindi, with grace. He wrote on the blackboard
ity of a teacher’s anger that frightens children and makes in beautiful script, and that too with his left hand. This in-
them distrustful. trigued his students. Like all good teachers, he was a living
With Kapil Dev Sir, you knew there was no need to feel mystery. His energy and good health stayed with him to the
fearful of him. He was a peace extremist. When boys tried very end of his long life.
to annoy him, he smiled at them. Most of the time when he Great teachers are life changers. Kapil Dev Sir asked me
was teaching, no one felt like taking advantage of his calm to send a short composition I had written as class work, to
disposition. I recall, when some boys persisted in aggravat- a magazine which had a section for children. For a year or
ing him, Kapil Dev Sir left the class, laughing. Long after his so, I didn’t know my contribution had been published. After
retirement, he maintained this capability to laugh at irri- I discovered this, my association with the magazine grew.
tants. “My laughter keeps me in good health,” he would say. The relationship introduced me to a bigger world — of edi-
His subject had low status in those times, even in a tors, writers, and publishers. Engaging with that world was
government school. There were no coaching classes in our years away, but it became part of reality at school. Kapil Dev
town, but even then, science and math were regarded as Sir showed me where the doors and clear windows were.
critical to ultimate success, and teachers of these subjects
exuded an air of superiority because high marks in these (Dr. Krishna Kumar is former director of NCERT and former professor of
disciplines was the ultimate purpose of learning. Sanskrit education at Delhi University)

34 EDUCATIONWORLD DECEMBER 2020