SUPER HEROES WITHOUT A CAPE

 From the heart of a teacher.

Ever since the closure of schools/colleges following the lockdown, I have been feeling a strange awkwardness in being a teacher.

The entire hue and cry over school fees(to be paid or not) has led to an uncomfortable feeling in my heart.

Almost every colkege/school went on a war footing to be online.

Suddenly, a teachers work and worth is being made to look directly proportional to the school/college fees being paid. This part saddens me. This lockdown made me realise that teachers are many miles and mindsets away from ever getting their due.

The closure of educational institutions was immediately looked upon as though teachers had decided to sit back home and have a "happy time" holiday.

However, the online classes initiative by all educational institutions was the time when the teacher was back in action, though on an unfamiliar territory.

People not even for a moment emphathized with the problems of a teacher. Almost immediately, the things which were considered to be very important like shopping, salons/parlour visits, hotelling , going to the malls, theatres took a back seat and entire focus of the world was on the "teacher." We, the teachers hardly worried about the Pandemic. What we worried all the time was the next virtual lesson plan/class. The pressure on the teacher today is enormous.

We were pushed into a situation we were never prepared for.

But, a teacher being a teacher rose to the occasion, as it is always and today I can proudly say that most of the teaching fraternity is handling the online classes with considerable ease and creativity. 

The corona virus has lost all its potency as a deadly virus for all the teachers. She/he is over and above its lethal sting.

And so, I say the teachers are real "survivors" We know how to weather storms. We know how to rise above the tide. We have the super powers and we definitely know how to use them right!

Parents, who sit with their kids in these virtual classes have greater responsibility today than the teachers, making sure the students attend the classes and learn.

The social media is abuzz with parents criticizing teachers at the slightest reason. Now, the onus is on the parents to make it happen successfully.

This pandemic will end one day, what will remain for a long time is this rather uncomfortable but a proud feeling of being a teacher in a lockdown world.