AN IDEAL TEACHER BY YAQEEN UL HAQ AHMAD SIKANDER

A teacher is a glorious component of the society. His rank is exalted in the social hierarchy. In the hierarchy of relationship, a teacher is the one who is ranked just after our dear most parents. Without any selfish motive he gives his precious ornament i.e. 'Knowledge' to his disciples. The teacher is the pivot in the education. He is the one who elevates us from the earth to the heavens. It is the teacher who plays the most authoritative role in the life of the student. His consequence on the student's life is genuinely eminent. The student is an uncut stone. The stone has to be chiselled a number of times by the teacher by using different types of tools. The teacher has to take every pupil as an uneducated individual. It is the teacher who can surge the standard of education to the Himalayan height. The role of a teacher in building a strong nation is very great. A nation's upheaval depends on the teachers, who are dedicated ones. A teacher may be an agriculturalist, a doctor, an environmentalist, a builder, a sculptor, all assembled in a single person. The word 'Ideal' according to dictionary means, "Something which is perfect" or "Model of excellence". So in the words of Confucius, "The Ideal teacher guides his students but does not pull them along; He urges them to go forward and does not suppress them; He opens the way but does not take them to the place". The teachers as we cognize are plentiful but 'Ideal Teachers' are rare of the rarest. Everybody can be a teacher but an Ideal teacher is 'One in a Million'. An Ideal teacher can make a lot of great students. It is an acknowledged fact that an Ideal education cannot be imparted in absence of an Ideal teacher. Ideal teachers are therefore, the dire need of every society. In fact, Ideal teachers are the backbone of any progressive scheme of national education. A teacher should possess some sublime traits which will make him 'Ideal'. An Ideal teacher sows the seeds of knowledge in the mind of the taught; the fertilizer is the unbowed experience he acquires over a period of time. It is but natural that pupils trained by an experienced teacher would become a precious asset to the state in general. Like a doctor, the teacher treats the illness of ignorance. The pupil's illness is ignorance. The ignorance is darkness in the mind. The darkness has to be taken out by imparting knowledge. Knowledge is light. It drives away ignorance from the mind of the people. The sun obliterates darkness in the night. Likewise, knowledge wipes out darkness of the mind. An Ideal teacher is like a searchlight who removes darkness completely from the mind of the pupil. He should help the pupil in developing an all round personality. To become an Ideal teacher, academic attainments are not the only requirement. Eleanor Roosevelt aptly perceived "I have known many erudite and scholarly men and women who were dismal failures as teacher. I have

known some learned teacher who had the gift of inspiring youth and sending them on heights where perhaps, they themselves were unable to follow". The unique and the foremost traits of an ideal teacher are the total dedication on her part in the field of education. The teacher-student relationship must be established in a harmonious way and teachers must create conducive atmosphere for imparting the best education to students and students also in turn will show great enthusiasm in learning their day to day lessons. An Ideal should pay respect to the student's perception and the teacher should work is such a way that he gains respect. On the other hand, to enhance the intelligence quotient in the minds of children the teacher must introduce all novel methods. The Ideal Teacher must get acquainted with all the students in the class and must try his/her level best to pay individual attention to her students so that all of them fare well in the class. The teacher plays a very vital role in moulding the character of every child in general, since most of the time the children are with the teacher apart from being at home other than the school hour. This feature can be best explained with the help of the following quotation, " if wealth is lost nothing is lost, if health is lost, something is lost, if character is lost, everything is lost". It is also essential that an Ideal teacher should try to cultivate civic sense amongst students since our society should be ensured pollution-free environment in the nearest future. Punctuality is another feature of an Ideal Teacher which he has to foster amongst the pupils and should explain the importance of time factor which is the dire need of the hour, particularly in a fast moving phase of ours. Being punctual to school is also a sort of discipline that cannot be infringed upon at any cost. And Ideal teacher must evolve best and innovative methods to tap the potentialities that are dormant in every child. Thus, teachers help in nurturing positive thoughts in the minds of their students and there by adopt an optimistic outlook towards life. An Ideal teacher introduces value-based education in school curriculum which will help the children to enrich and mould their social behaviour and adopt themselves to varied circumstances of life. Hence it is imperative on the part of the schools to create room for spirituality and propagate it through proper channel and thus spiritual environment also must be given due weightage so that the mind gets relaxed in a very serene atmosphere. It is essential that the spirituality must be developed at the budding stage itself so that we may not lag behind in any walk of life. Besides knowledgeable information, an ideal teacher of repute imparts emotional and moral moorings, vitalisation of approach, deep sense of understanding, student psyche, communication skill, and interaction with students and above all the sense of humour to make an everlasting impact on the character of the student. An Ideal teacher should have flexible approach to things. He should understand the deep senses of understanding of the mind of the student. Knowledge is light that removes darkness. The darkness in the mind escapes as soon as knowledge sheds its bright light in the mind. One can remove the hunger

of the stomach by feeding one but that is a temporary step. If one removes the hunger of the mind by feeding the mind with knowledge, it is a permanent step. Sense of responsibility should be developed in the student. That comes naturally from within, where the student is afresh with respect and listened to by the teacher. The old idea of controlling the students through fear of punishment is out of date in the culture of today. An Ideal teacher should be sensitive and understanding so that he establishes a strong rapport with the class and he finds his pupils only too willing to learn from him. In this way, an Ideal teacher can play the role of a good friend, philosopher and guide for their students. Thus it can be said that the teachers role is multi-faceted personality and the teacher should take precautionary steps to follow the right path keeping in mind the pros and cons of their thoughts, speech and action which will leave an everlasting imprint in the young minds. Thus the Ideal teachers have got to shoulder the greatest responsibility of moulding the character of their students and they should try to adhere to strict guidelines and their tremendous contribution to the society and also for the new generation ahead will be multi-fold. An ideal teacher is one we respect from our heart. He acts, as a guide to the students, but at the same times does not pushes them too much. A perfect teacher motivates the students and boosts their morale. He tries to encourage the students and refrains from criticizing them. Such a teacher prefers to give positive motivation to students. His comments are always constructive. With an ideal teacher we will find that we have learnt something new at the end of every lesson. An Ideal Teacher should never tolerate any negligence of his students. In the formation of his students character a teacher must play the role of a friend and philosopher whom they may easily understand .An ideal teacher should treat his students with affection but should never allow them to indulge in indiscipline. The perfect teacher is our friend, guide, educator, confidante, all rolled into one. One such teacher builds the whole life of the students. Everyone in this world should get an ideal teacher. They wont have to look back in their lives ever. A teacher teaches only in class but an ideal teacher teaches for a lifetime. An ideal teacher leaves the trails of his footsteps for his students to follow and create their own niche in this world. So to conclude, an ideal teacher would be a teacher who without any thought leaves an impact in mind throughout the odyssey of my life. A teacher might be great scholar but until he is unable to create an interest, curiosity to learn, zest of liveliness in learning, bond of understanding, friendliness, trust within his pupils, I would not consider him my ideal teacher. I visualize my ideal teacher to be an incarnation of a motivator, facilitator, to facilitate me with pearls of knowledge, philosopher, whose philosophy becomes an epic book for me to be referred forever and a friend in the time of despair to encourage me. I would love to become an ardent student of an ideal teacher who is synonyms of honesty, truthful, straight forward, humble, knowledge bank and charismatic personality. Above all

he should be a good human being to present this world his carbon copy with all imbibed knowledge.
(The Author can be reached at www.yaqeenulhaq.info or can be mailed at yaqeen@ymail.com)