Teacher's day.....more than a brick in the wall

Teacher- Why don’t you do anything like I tell you to?
Student- But sir, I thought of acting out my presentation.
Teacher- Acting. Do you think you have come to an acting school? Do you think what we do here is a joke?
Student- No sir. Don’t get me wrong. I have come here to become a pastor. I want to be the best pastor there is.
Teacher- Ha ha. Do you think you can do that? Look at your grades! You have to be cut out to become a pastor. It is not an easy job.
Student- But my grades are okay. They are not great. But I feel I don’t get the grades I deserve.
Teacher- That is true. I think the low grades you have are much higher than they should have been.
Student- Don’t make fun of me sir. I try my best. My point is that you can grade me in a different way.
Teacher- Different way? And what way is that? Not grade you at all? Or giving you the freedom to put your own grades?
Student- No. But I also have something to contribute. I have something to say. Why don’t you listen to that?
Teacher- All that you can say is rubbish. And then do a bit of acting. Rubbish. This is a theological college. We make pastors not actors. If you want to act, you can go to an acting institute.
Student- I heard that you used to act well sir. You were a talented person.
Teacher- Who told you that?
Student- I have my sources. Why are you trying to hide it?
Teacher- Why? Because I was always told to hide it. I loved acting, expressing myself and learning about others while doing it. It was the most liberative thing to do.
Student- Why did you stop then?
Teacher- I had to move on. Acting didn’t get me grades. It only got me reprimands in the end. Acting is just extracurricular. What is outside the curriculum is outside. People will come and appreciate you while your fellow students use that time to study their notes and write exams. While we internalize our dialogues and let our heart speak, they will mug up their notes and write treatises during the exam.
Student- Can’t you change all this? Isn’t there someone who understands?
Teacher- Many may understand. There is an actor inside everyone you know. But no one will come out with it and support it and give grades for it.
Student- Can’t you use it in your classes then?
Teacher- I can I guess. But then I will have to handle the drama that follows.
Student- I feel relieved having talked to you. I never knew teachers would understand students like me.
Teacher- We are all actors. Small and big, but all actors.
Student- Can you allow me to act out what I feel in your class? Just like an exam by showing you what I have learnt and how I feel?
Teacher- I guess you can. But I still can’t give you grades for it!
Student- I don’t want the grades. I just want to act. I want to express myself. I want to show what I have learnt. I want to break all the walls that have prevented me from speaking to those around me.
Teacher- Well, let us act between ourselves. You can be the teacher and I the student.
(The student gets into the character.)
Student- Don’t make noise. Sit down I say.
Teacher- Yes sir. Can I say something?
Student- You can say whatever in your room. Not here. This is my space.
Teacher- But sir. I thought you were someone who would share your space with me.
(Both look into each other’s eyes.)
Student- I will share the space and my role with you. Speak, act, express yourself. That is why you are here.
Teacher- Thank you teacher.
Student- You are welcome. Now act out what you learnt today.
Teacher- (Grabs the student by his hand.) I learnt that there is no difference between us. We are all humans. You have something to say just as I have something to say. Let’s….
Student- Let’s break down these walls. Let’s break them down.

St. Mary the teacher

In Christian theology Jesus comes through as the teacher who answers and guides those who question him. This irrepressible quench for teaching starts at a young age and many are amazed by what the carpenter’s son accomplishes. Even as Mary and Joseph shared this sense of amazement one has to also acknowledge the role they would have played in the development of Jesus.

One can question this quest to identify Jesus’ teachers as a futile attempt that will lead nowhere. How can anyone teach God? Jesus being the child of God would then have known everything and what would then be the reason for anyone teaching him, leave alone Mary and Joseph? But isn’t keeping quiet when needed and non-teaching also a form of teaching? In this regard we can look at St. Mary the teacher.

The wedding at Cana initiates one of the few lines credited to Mary which the biblical writers finally manage to part with. Mary says in John 2:3, “They have no more wine.” Even though this looks like a lecture about the state of wine in that house, it is a question directed at Jesus by Mary in teacher’s robes. The answer is something like Jesus is not ready to answer the question. Unlike many teachers in our time who would then proceed to beat out the answer of the student, Mary tells the others, “do whatever he tells you.” The un-complaining teacher gives space to her student to make sense of the question she has put forward.

What happens later is history and well documented in our minds. To look at this passage for teachers’ day brings about a total re-working of the concept of who a teacher is. In the luminosity of the relationship between Mary and Jesus we are still left in the dark because that is indeed what a student-teacher relationship is. It is abstract to the one looking but clear to those involved. The best teachers I have had are the ones who made me think, who left a space for me to be me, who left the jars empty for me to fill up!

For teachers’ day the concept of a teacher has to be re-defined before we wish happy teachers’ day. Who is my teacher? My teacher is the one who allows me to learn and do. For this reason I cannot define who my teachers are. They are one and many. My mother, father, priest, aunt, school facilitator, theology guide, college friend, wayside vendor, co-journeying passenger! Happy teachers’ day to all of you. You have left the jar empty so that I could figure out what to do with it.