Those who can, teaches!

Continuing my outlook {Solitude______Teaching_______, dated 29/Jan/10} where the young job seeker replied, ‘I can teach both ways,’ to a question on which way does the Ganga River runs, does this mean a teacher can teach any subject in any manner that he wishes?

Then let us take the case of plumbers. Going by that view, a plumber then is entitled to place pipes in the position his experience or quirkiness has taught him. But what if the customer’s wants are different than the plumber’s professional, artistic, aesthetic and other quirky judgment as to where the plumbing should be?

We have freedom of speech, freedom to come and go, and freedom to quit a job. We have the usual freedoms that everyone has. Thus the teacher or the plumber of course has the freedom not to take up the job if his sensibilities are outraged. (we are a ‘free country’ and do not have forced labour, except of course when some old men decide that some young men have to fight and die, all in the name of ‘patriotism,’ in our neighbouring borders, because these old men, including our neighbouring countries, could not control or keep their egos in tact)

On the other hand, he may demand not simply the right to refuse the job, but the right to take the job and to do it his way. The customer may not always be right! The plumber may of course say that ‘those who can, do, those who can’t, teach!’

Going forward, we have to deal with "doctors' freedom," "lawyers' freedom," "chemists freedom," "musicians' freedom," "artists' freedom," “politicians freedom,” and so on, in mind-boggling array.

But let’s defend the teacher’s freedom on the ground that it is perhaps the only mechanism by which control over the educational system in this country may be wrested away, at least in part, from the ruling class, or power elite which currently controls it. Now it is up to the teacher to practice and profess, “Those who can, teach!”


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