Classroom is the wellspring of motivation

In June 2008, teachers and students from various Krishnamurti Foundation India schools in Bangalore got together to open a small school called Shibumi in Avalahalli, near Whitefield.

All these youngsters were in their twenties; while some had just graduated from college, others tried their hands at other professions before deciding that their hearts and minds lay in education.

A few had been teaching at Krishnamurti schools already and wanted to spread the innovative ideas espoused by the group about education further.

Today, Shibumi has 43 students and eight ‘adults’ — they don’t refer to themselves as teachers because they believe they are learning as much as the students —  who interact with them and train them to ask questions about the world around them. They believe it to be the primary role of education — to acquaint children with the world and encourage them to question it.

“Our job is to make sure they are enjoying what they are learning,” says Sharad Jain, 27, who teaches at Shibumi.

What makes a bunch of bright young people with first class education invest their futures in an experimental school? For that matter, what keeps any teacher motivated and inspired to carry on with the business of teaching — and learning alongside — day after day?

Be it experimental or conventional, free-spirited or highly structured, teaching is motivating because it involves learning every day, believes Zehra Abbas, who teaches at the Bangalore International School and heads the English department there.

“It’s one of the most challenging and dynamic professions there are. It provides opportunities for incredible amount of personal growth,” she says.

According to Abbas, who is in her late twenties, to be able to really engage with today’s children one has to enter their world and be able to talk to them about the things that they are passionate of. This could range from anything from the latest Latin dance form to everyone’s favourite footballer.

“I have to draw upon every personal resource to connect with my students. That is very stimulating,” she says.

“Teaching is an intense process and takes a lot of energy. We have to be with the children, engage with them at all levels. Our jobs aren’t over when we finish school and go home. It means as a teacher you have to keep working on yourself,” says Jain.

Most impassioned teachers believe the motivation must come from their work and not from society’s recognition, or the pay cheques they receive at the end of the month and make their peace with it.

“Almost every batch of students I teach asks me why on earth I became a teacher. I know they mean it as a compliment. What they really want to ask is ‘what’s a smart person like you doing in teaching?’” laughs Abbas.

That is an attitude reflected in the way many parents treat teachers, says Anuradha Shyam, a special educator at a leading city school, who says she “stumbled” into the profession through her volunteering stint with the Spastics Society of India (now referred to as Vidya Sagar).

“Cliched as it may sound, this is one job in which you do to touch lives, whether you are working with ordinary children or those with special needs,” says Shyam.