You can, you have to: Professor Debanjan Banerjee

Prof Debanjan Banerjee is an author, editor, speaker, television debater and media educator. He is also the HoD of Media at NSHM Knowledge Campus, Kolkata, as well as a visiting professor at SRFTI, Kolkata. On the occasion of Teachers’ Day, he shares with us what he believes to be the mantra for winning at life, for students, aspiring teachers and also teachers.

Let me start with a famous quote from Albert Einstein “It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge”.

We are worshipped, remembered and above all felicitated with enthusiasm – zeal and what not... The D day for mentors is – the 5^th of September.

Teachers' Day in India is celebrated on 5th September to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. A renowned scholar, recipient of the Bharat Ratna, first Vice-President, and the second President of independent India. He was born on 5 September 1888. As an educationist, he was an advocate of edification and was a distinguished envoy, academician, and above all a great teacher.

As the common adage goes, the future of a country lies in the hands of its children, and teachers, as mentors, can mould students into future leaders who shape the destiny of India. We play an important role in their lives in helping them become successful in careers and business. We try to make them good human beings and better members of society, and ideal citizens of the country.

We are committed to this tireless exercise starting from dawn to dusk, 365 days relentlessly. While executing this duty, the duty of nation building, we come across many challenges – balancing diverse student needs, changing education trends and syllabus, lack of time – for scheduling and planning, inspiring students to be self-motivated, lack of “me” time, parents not being equally committed towards their child’s learning, need for disciplining students, easy fatigue and burnouts, performance pressure from schools and parents, handling too many mentors, family problems, lack of effective communication and above all in a country like India – funding.

These gruesome impediments often jeopardise a student’s continuous and smooth education journey. Here, we the teachers’ fraternity have to play a crucial role to eradicate all these blocks from their path.

And for you, my dear students, always remember these mantras –

In life, NO ONE and NOTHING will help you until you start helping YOURSELF -

Every problem might not have a solution right now, but don’t forget that every solution was once a problem

Experience indeed is one of life’s best teachers. But if you don’t study you will probably never get any experience in the first place -

Although in real life, there is no such thing as second place. Either you are a winner, or you’re not.

Good grades are a stepping stone toward getting into a good college, getting a good job and eventually living a good life. Shun those complacent C’s, avoid those boring B’s and strive every single day, to get those awesome A’s

Listen to your teachers when they tell you WHAT to do. But more importantly, think about it later and ask yourself WHY they told you to do it.

Study like there’s no tomorrow because if you keep putting off your studies for tomorrow, you’ll probably be too late.

Winners from all walks of life have their strategies and plans but they all have one thing in common – they TRY. Keep trying -

Yes, you can – you have to.