You "Mean" Teachers...

When I was in 2nd standard, I had a nexus with 2-3 kids; we used to sit close to each other during tests  and cheat from each other. As the time went on, I became better and better as a student but my cheating powers kept on diminishing. In fact, I became so bad in copying, that I have been caught 'cheating' even when I wasn't! And as one can imagine, a lot of my friends have also suffered due to this 'inability' of mine. Sometimes, they used to feel guilty that I was caught helping them cheat (but invigilator always thought it was me  :-/) while other times they would make me feel guilty saying they failed only because I couldn't help them cheat (:O).

Anyways, now that you know I am a path3tic cheater, we can move on to the actual topic for today, shall we!!

Last year, on our Teachers' Day I wrote a post about the teachers I have encountered in my life. I didn't tell you about my social science teacher in 3rd standard. After 2nd class, we got reshuffled in different sections and hence my nexus of cheaters was broken. So, now I was alone in this big cruel world of cheating (believe me this post is not about cheating!). I had never cheated alone, so it was bound to hit back. So, in a simple Social Science test, instead of learning, I preferred to write the answers at the same place of test notebook where I was supposed to give the test. The next day teacher caught me (again with my bad luck with cheating, it wasn't cheating that made her caught me) and then I was beaten with wood stick; so badly that my left ankle was bruised for 2 days.

As I grew up I got better in studies. I being an innocent child, used to think that the teacher by beating me, had changed my life, since I was never inclined to cheat in exams ever again. It's only in the last few years that I have realized that I am what I am NOT because of that stupid incident but because of the good things that happened to me later and I would have remained the same sans that incident.

And that's the whole point of writing this post. I am sure you would have been beaten by teachers as well. But today, think about how many times it was justified. I mean yes, I deserved punishment sometimes (I once tried to copy my teacher's signature on some 'late' work which in fact she was still to check, so I got slapped). But other times it was just plain cruelty (keeping the hands up for 1.5 hours in 4th standard, causing me to cry in pain for the whole next period, just because I didn't bring a freaking notebook).

I won't say that students should be given a free run, some form of restraint is definitely necessary (seeing the new generation and their behavior I think it is even compulsory). But I don't think kids in lower standards deserve such treatment. You must have heard horror stories of how the students got fractured or went into coma, or even died because of cruelty from their teachers. Well, believe me a lot of these incidents go unreported (because kids, like me, think that it was 'their fault'). I have experienced teachers punishing students by making the issues too personal (they won't teach until student X gets out of class).

I am not writing this to bash the teachers. I really respect some of the teachers that taught me, and I know even if they punished me it was for my own good (no, Not that 3rd standard teacher; she once slapped me because I entered her class 10 seconds after her). But they commanded so much respect that thought of letting them down was the biggest motivator for me.

Govt. and courts are doing there bit in making this physical punishment a crime. I hope we as a society also wake up and take notice of this issue. Here is wishing for better disciplined but pain free future for the small kids studying in schools right now (including my little brother).

And for my 3rd grade teacher, Mam I dedicate this to you...

Happy Teachers Day everyone!

Paper Setter's Mindset

"Let her/him attempt this paper and pass it"

"Did they copy the paper from another university?"

"WTF was that, was the paper of some other subject?"

"Did they got this paper made from the peon or from the lab assistant?"

Sound familiar? Heard of them? Well these are a few things either I have said or heard people talking about whenever the conversation turns to exams. And these days, I can't really blame anyone for thinking or talking like that. When one works really hard (well cramming GBs of data is not easy!), you expect to get rewarded for it by an easy paper (Of course, when you know the answer, the question is easy) and then some good paper checking, making the hard work successful and giving the mind the right signals that hard work is rewarded.

OK?? NOT OK

But the way we (OK, at least 'I') get the exam papers, my mind gets the signal that it is OK, if I don't work hard. It is OK, if I don't prepare fully for the exam. It is OK, if I bank on my general knowledge of the topic rather than actually knowing the answers to questions. It is OK, to just study a topic 5 mins before the exam and go and write the paper (ask me, I did it in my exam on 31st December 2010). But everyone including me knows, in reality it is NOT OK.

Ideally

(please take note of the word) the exam should be taken to check your 'general' understanding of the subject (not everybody is an expert in Analog Electronics alright). But the paper setter seems to think as if we would have become an expert in 3 months of studying the subject, like it was the only subject that we had to study.

Ground Reality

I find it most ridiculous when you get a 15 marks question when all 'you know' AND/OR 'it can be written about' is of 5-7 marks. So, what options do we have? • Growing the limbs and redundant body parts of the answers which should have only got the mid-gut (read core).• Choosing larger font size (16 rather than normal 11 or 12). Also making use of cryptic fonts (think Webdings or Monotype Corsiva). • Making the text 'centered' rather than 'justified' (leaving margins on both sides of sheet.) • Leaving a blank line after every 3 lines or so of text, on the pretext of making the answer seem legible and neat.

Size Does Matter

And teachers also seem to go for the length rather than the content of the answer. 

"You see, he has written 7" answer so he gets 8 marks while your answer is just 6.25" inch, I still gave you 6 marks, what else do you want?"

"You should have explained this also (even if it means going out of context). This is not enough for a 10 mark question (crap some more)"

Choices. Really?

I don't know which syllabus the paper setter follows, because you almost always get 10% or more of question paper 'out of syllabus'. What's hilarious is that those questions will be given as a choice. So, you exhaust all your choices in 'don't-know-from-where-the-MoFo-gave' questions. So, now all you are left with are the questions that are 'compulsory'. Hey, don't blame the paper setter, he/she gave you a 'choice'. It's you who didn't take it. The choices between questions is also horrible (See my this time's ACN paper to know what I mean).

And what's more ridiculous

...is the way the question paper is set. Instead of asking the question in a simple manner, they will twist it like Jigsaw Puzzle. There will be wrong or incomplete information provided in the question (shame for an end term question paper). The paper seems like has been made at the last moment, just like we prepare near the judgement day. So, whichever question is seen first is given without caring that it is actually going to be attempted by thousands of students in coming days and may be the deciding question for whether the student passes. Recently, a friend told me that his question paper contained significant number of questions from a single page of a book!

I know

...what I have written here is not 100% applicable for all the papers we get. I was quite impressed by the way last paper I gave was set. And University exam papers can't exactly be set like School Board exam papers, all scientifically prepared because they don't have that much resource or time. Also, some of what I have said might be the result of some bad exam experiences (lack of preparation, lack of intelligence, hard luck etc.). But what I have said is not entirely wrong. If you have ever faced University Semester style exams, you will agree with that.

PS: Now that I am all bossing around here like I know how to set the perfect paper, I wonder how I would have set the exam paper. Hmm.. Interesting! Well all I know is that I would have definitely experimented with different styles, like I do in blogging and life in general!

My Idea... of an Ideal Teacher

"Teachers teachers everywhere, everyone has to preach

Teachers teachers everywhere, not a single to teach"

I have been a student all my life. And as a result, have encountered teachers of every kind based on region, language, gender, color, and physical appearance. They being a teacher, these criteria does not matter also. But may be barring a few, most of them haven't been able to meet my high (impossible?) expectations. But this post is not about showing negativity and disappointment. This is about positivity and hope.. that may be aliens will teach us someday.

I myself have been a teacher in some sense (teaching my brothers, and being a part time tutor). But I know I am nowhere near the perfectionism that I want from a teacher. But that does give me some idea about what I, as a student, want from my teachers. Here is my idea of an ideal teacher:

1. Impartial: An ideal teacher got to be impartial towards students and give each student the same time and support, keeping personal perception aside. She (from now onwards, 'she' implies 'he/she') must give more marks for the same question, only because it deserves them, not because the answer was written by her favorite student. Many a times, I have been guilty of getting better marks this way, and believe me I feel really embarrassed.

2. Understanding: Is it too much to ask from a teacher to be understanding? If one becomes a teacher, does she stops being a human? Its a known fact that, not every one has as high IQ as me (no, don't laugh, I am really intelligent!), some students need more time to understand the concept than others. Anyone can teach students who can self study, to teach the students with low motivation towards the subject is the true test of a teacher.

3. Patient: So many times I have heard teachers telling students to ask any concept 'n' no. of times, till the time they don't understand it. But it is amusing to see the same teachers getting irritated when the student is unable to understand the concept even after the third attempt (may be n=3). When I was a kid, I used to get beaten by the teachers for not knowing the alphabets. I learnt them properly only in 3rd standard. Today, I ask myself, what difference did it make in my life to learn alphabets 4 years later than what children normally do? Was it justified to get slapped and scaled on the palms?

4. Adaptable: The field from where I belong keeps changing overnight. In this scenario, it is unacceptable for a teacher to be rigid about her teaching methods. She should be ready to accept that a student can find a better solution to a problem, he/she can know more than her. An idea should not get rejected just because its not mentioned in the book. Anyone would love to go into a class, where the teacher is innovative in her style of teaching. Takes real life and unimaginable examples rather than copy book examples.

5. Knowledgeable: It never hurts when your teacher is the master of the subject, truly passionate about the things that she teaches. It only gives a student confidence that he/she is in the right hands. But to tell the truth, I give a rat's arse about the teacher's knowledge of the subject, as long as she meets the above criterias. If the teacher is willing to do the hard work, ready to accept her ignorance about a topic and willing to learn with and from the students, it doesn't matter to me, whether she is a B.Tech or a PhD.

"I may not be the best of the students.. But that is the precise reason why I deserve the best teachers"

PS: In junior classes I studied about ideal gases only to be told later that there is nothing like an 'ideal gas', but its poor cousin the 'real gas'. I think an ideal teacher is an endangered species, if not non-existent. So, my real teacher will be:

1. Hot: I mean not metaphorically but literally. If her temperature remains high all the time, this will mean nobody will dare ask the questions (such a waste of time). The syllabus gets over well in time, and you can concentrate on better things in life. Also, when she is burning hot, that means she will take loads of holidays (she is not well stupid), implying loads of free classes.

2. Sexi(st): Its been a long since boys have been victims of discrimination in the class. Its time girls should also get the know what it is like to be beaten, just because you are not a boy. Grr..

3. Charming: There I said it. She doesn't know anything about the subject? No problem. She can't solve even the basics of problems? I will manage. She doesn't think she is qualified to be a teacher? You are in majority, mam! All I want is that she (here she implies she) has a nice personality, good looking face and sweet voice. If you can't be easy on brain then just be easy on eyes and ears. Just don't make the 50 mins of an already boring class a torture for me.

Happy Teachers' Day!