Who am I as an educator?

 Recently, someone very close to me put a question to me- ' What is your role as a teacher/educator, what value addition are you doing to the lives of your learners?' The question was simple yet profound simultaneously and I could not give an  answer then.  Steering clear of sensationalizing the so called 'higher purpose' behind my move to the field of education, I thought about it from an entirely unemotional perspective.

Being a teacher was never in my plan of things, infact 25 years back when my beloved late father suggested I become a teacher, I had the unfortunate audacity to laugh and say, 'Who becomes a teacher, Dad?' Fate had other ideas - it led me exactly to the place I thought I'd never be in !

To come back to the question raised earlier, I don't have any noble or higher purpose because of which I teach. I teach because being with children help me comprehend my own reality in a clearer manner, I teach because these children help me feel sane and whole, especially when life conspires to doubt my very sense of being. As for value addition - well, I believe that I have an innate and inherent ability to understand children, especially those troubled by the world around them. Like me, they are trying to survive in a dignified manner and not letting the darkness swallow them. It takes a survivor to identify another. 

I am not sure about the role of an educator in this incredibly volatile world, but what I am absolutely sure about is the fact that children need love and acceptance. Learning will happen- we all have the skill to teach content, but what we need is empathy to first understand. A lot of learning is lost for unseen reasons, reasons we don't not want to address and resort to simply branding children as 'naughty', ' disruptive', ' trouble-makers' etc.. If  we just delve a little deeper and make an effort to create the right learning environment... we have covered the most difficult part of the journey!