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The Last Word
The Moral Progress
Rajen Kumar
Aug 2010
Aug 2010
As close friends and neighbours, three of us started our education in a government-aided school as public schools at that time were few and were a costly affair.
We used to dread our teachers who always came to class wielding a stick or a wooden ruler. Absenting from class was a serious matter. If we came to school without homework, our teachers used to reprimand us with punishment ranging from wooden ruler beating on our palms to 'stand up' in the sun. Yet all the teachers were our idols. The classroom teaching drew our rapt attention. Everyday homework was given.
Not that our teachers were without a heart. I recall a heart-rending incident. When one of our classmates came to school after absenting for many days, he was angrily asked by our English teacher for the reason. The boy kept quite and started shedding tears. One of us informed our teacher that he lost his mother. Immediately a strange silence dawned in the classroom. The teacher closed the book and came to the boy's desk and helped him stand placing his head close to his chest. With moist eyes, the teacher said, “My son, don't cry. I know what it means losing a mother as I too lost my mother sometime back and started caressing him.” That day, we remember, he shed classroom studies and narrated us various moral stories on how we should take in our stride all the painful incidents of our lives.” It moved us all and our reverence for our teacher became more evident.
My father used to narrate the story of a Muslim whose son was getting education from a Maulvi. He would come home with his face having a mark of a slap everyday. One day the young boy had no mark and his face was clean and fresh. On seeing this, his father felt greatly perturbed and decided to go to the Maulvi, the next day.
He asked Maulvi most ardently if his son had committed any mistake yesterday. Maulvi asked him why he is asking this. The father replied, “yesterday when my son came home, he had no mark on his face. It seems you have not slapped him. I feel sorry and beg your pardon for the mischief he may have committed. But for God sake, you must slap him everyday lest he forgets all his lessons. I want my son to be your obedient student and to become a disciplined citizen.”
I well remember that the topper in our all India secondary school examination had secured 66.7% marks. Securing a first division (60% marks) in English paper was rare. Today, when a student secures 80% marks, he is despised and has to run from pillar to post to secure a seat in the college. If a student would go for tuition, he used to be looked down upon. We had no stress. Suicide by students was not heard of.
Times have now changed and we seem to have advanced in technology and morality. Now classroom lessons are given on
internet. Students are told to have their respective IDs on face book and linkedin etc. and are also advised to surf the net for gaining general knowledge. There was a fear of the teacher who always kept a 'cultural' distance from students in all matters.
Now teachers are reprimanded for scolding their pupils and principals face stern action for slapping them. Sometime back, our administration had mooted a 'scheme' wherein students would evaluate their teachers. Now laws are being framed to punish teachers for punishing their students. Discipline is now long forgotten and the word is now on the verge of being deleted from the dictionaries. The days of yore when we had world famous learning centers like Takshila and Nalanda which imbided the famous 'Guru Shishya' parampara, all look like a farce now.
We have happily ushered into an era of technology and prosperity. Honour killings, rapes, extortions, children killing their parents, scrupulous use of MMS and SMS are the gifts of the modern era.
Of the three us who studied in cheaper and ordinary schools, one became a Vice President in a multi national company; the other is a top civil engineer and myself went on to become a media person.
Happy Times.
1 Comments >>
Bhavesh Kothari
20 Aug 2010 (08:35:59)
Aptly said sir...I think we should never forget our ancient knowledge temples like the Takshila and Nalanda which gave us very valuable lessons...a very good article. Its time we wake up..
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