Teaching the Teacher

I have been planning for this a long time. As usual, always found a reason to skip it quoting other reasons. Even today had a reason of not feeling well but then today's determination was strong enough to beat the sickness with a tablet & move on.

As I was nearing the place, found a similar person like me with a question mark on his face in figuring out the place. Guess I looked comfortable as If I knew the neighborhood as the person approached me & was asking for the same place I was heading. Thankfully I remembered the direction & was able to get him also to the place finally.

The place is called “Nethrodaya” which serves visually challenged. Thanks to whoever found this word "Visually Challenged" instead of "Blind”. They provide space & support primarily for the visually challenged. I was making my visit to do reading service to help them in learning. It was two storied building almost looking like a mini version of my high school.

After knocking the door, was surprised to see the gatekeeper who was physically challenged. The very first indication of this place made me realize that this place is full of people with real challenges. We always think our work is the best challenged of all but then erased those thoughts quickly on the flash once I saw him.  

As is it my first time, there were thousand questions arising on my head like a foot ball passed without shooting a goal on what exactly should I do. Should I just read out from books? Should I also explain what that means? Would I even have the knowledge to understand what’s in the book (especially after my brain lost its learning/thinking capacity to this IT world with the excel & word)?

I remembered my actual work place as I always get assignments on something that I never worked up on & hence used to be a start from square one always. This is much better scenario I assumed. Hence I moved ahead with the confidence that I will do something at the end though I could screw up in between.

Till this time, I always thought I would be assisting someone studying in a school (5th or 8th standard) & was in the mode of rewinding my past on what I studied during my school. But there came a surprise as a person with almost my age entered the room with his hands & use of walls. Now I started praying to god to save him from me screwing up as the probability got increased more now.

He introduced himself as "Rajan" studying B.Ed (Bachelor of Education) which is a mandate degree to be completed to be a teacher. I always wanted to become a teacher someday some time down the line which looked a remote chance after entering the IT world but still the hopes were not dropped. Here I am sitting next to a student who required assistance on the books & I just realized I am fulfilling my dream indirectly in a very small way walking him thru the lessons & especially teaching a King (Rajan means King in Tamil). 

He had three books. We started with the interesting subject which was about "Education & Management". What else I could ask for to start out a lesson. I asked him which lesson should I start reading. This is where I started realizing the challenges faced by them as he was not able to recall the chapter as they can’t write down or remember the list of chapters as we normally can after seeing the contents list. But they had a good practice of folding the paper of the book where they stopped. So started reading from the folded page.

It has been long time I have read in Tamil & hence my words started dancing around. Though it is my mother tongue that I speak everyday from morning to night, this is a new experience trying to read subject oriented books & not story book or magazine. I felt the difference on my knowledge level & fluency of my own language while I had a good comfort in reading a foreign language (English). Then he asked me to ignore the second subject & he placed a biggest challenge in front of me by asking me to write an assignment for him.

From childhood, my handwriting was something which was always been bothering & it is even hard for me to read what I have written sometimes. More than getting marks I always prayed that the person evaluating my answer paper first understand what I have written. Normally people used to call "Chicken Scribbling" but mine is worse than that. I call it "Physically Challenged Chicken Scribbling. I politely refused to write to save him from me.

Then we went on to the third book that made me feel comfortable as it was about Computers. Finally, I can read something I know & something with I spent most of my time than anyone else in the world in the last decade. Virtually I was lifting my shirt collar with a proud smile without knowing the knot plotted for me later & was flying in the sky.

He asked me to explain the terms Internet, e-mail, website & a lesson on PowerPoint. I started with ease explaining him the terms technically as how I used to do with the client but could see his face turning differently from which I read “What are you talking about?” I then realized that I am talking to someone who understands computers thru visualization virtually & hence obviously it won’t make sense to him on how I explained.

Now I am back to the land from the sky fly & the situation reminded me of Einstein’s saying “"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.". It was very true.

I closed my eyes to go blind for a minute to get myself out of the IT world & put myself as a basic layman. I gathered the practical examples & explained him by comparing things that he could imagine in the practical world so that he could make out. I could see him little confident this time as he was nodding his head positively this time.

Finally, we got out of the subject & he shared the practical difficulties that they face including 6 hour travel to college every day, expected written assignments on a daily basis, competing with other unchallenged students, non-availability of students/permission denial to write exams on their behalf etc.,

There is definitely a change needed on the educational system to encourage these champions to achieve success understanding their challenges. I wish I had the powers to fix them all instantly but unfortunately all I could do is to listen & tell myself let’s do something.

He inquired about my details & figured I was little far from this place. He was suggesting me to talk to the office & make sure I don’t miss out on my way to home as it could take more time. I had nothing else but just curse the god for taking the vision out of a human who didn’t want me to miss my way though he struggles to find his way for everyday. I wished him good luck to be great teacher (he already taught me a lot indirectly). I thanked him internally by making me a teacher and allowing me to teach a teacher.