Sri Sri Academy Principal Mrs. S.Shunglu shares her thoughts on International Mother’s Day

What makes school so special is the fact that it is not home. And for this very reason, the classroom is a place of delightful learning because the teacher is not the mother! Why do we send our children to school? To learn in a setting that is formal and structured in terms of time and a routine quite different from what binds the home and family together. So a teacher should not try to be the mother but be someone who plays a role that in so many ways transcends the role of a mother’s. Since a teacher has the power to transform the student in a very short time, this role is in many ways more far-reaching than a mother’s. In one academic year, a teacher can be the friend, philosopher and guide in a relationship that is liberating for both because neither is tied down by the emotional bonds of a mother to her child and vice versa.

So we can go further and look at the teacher’s place in a child’s life as that of a super-human-mother! Let us see how this is so. In a formal and courteous relationship (which can never happen at home), nurtured by mutual respect, the teacher opens the doorways to knowledge and hands over the keys to more independent searches. Moreover, the student is encouraged to discuss what has been discovered with peers fostering the ability to compare and analyse. The very nature of school enables time for questioning and critical thinking and the development of creative points of view leading the child to think of life as an experience where his/her participation has the power to make a difference. The teacher guides the child to strengthen values especially of kindness, the importance of listening in order to be a good communicator and cultivate an awareness of the ingredients that make a good friend and a leader. The teacher has the advantage of teaching the value of collaborating in order to achieve goals and simultaneously recognising a child’s individual qualities that make him/her unique. Are we, therefore, wrong in concluding that the teacher is a super-human-mother? Especially since all this and much more are accomplished in such a short time but the effects last a life-time.