Seven years ago, my student introduced me to Facebook. I wasn’t too keen on social networking. She teased me intentionally for being old school and it nudged me to literally ‘log in’ into the world of social networking. But what is so great about Facebook-ing? Well, today I have 1,000 plus students and friends on the social networking site which lets me share my emotions, thoughts and love via my shared posts that vary from published articles to poems to trivia status and photos. I get a peek into my students’ lives, their aspirations and their achievements in more economised time than it would take me talking to them personally.

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Learning is certainly a mutual process. Especially in today’s dynamic, multidimensional, ever explored world, where one cannot assume oneself as an owner and distributor of knowledge (as we teachers sometimes do)

Teaching is a challenging job and the challenge lies not in imparting what one has acquired over the years, but rather in keeping the preparedness to learn as we go. The challenge lies in subduing the ego to be able to allow learning from the supposedly lesser knowing students.

Many years ago, my students wanted to celebrate my birthday. For some odd reason, I was and am never okay with celebrating birthdays. I turned it down. Failing to trace me in college they waited for me for more than four hours at my residence! I was touched. It taught me two things; one — the possibility of intense love and reverence towards someone, and two — it taught me patience.

Once a student asked me, “Don’t you get bored teaching over and over the same syllabi?” I said, “I never am.” Because there is a sort of ‘magic’ that prevails in every class, every session perhaps, in every student. The magic lies in getting inspired from students — from their unsettling questions,  their unstoppable drives, and their rebellious outlook.

Like many teachers, I feel very young, younger than my age. And the credit goes to my students. Their charm, their trendiness and their implicit demand for a ‘smart’ coach keep the youth in me young. (forever 21 as one of my students choose to call me!)

This is not boasting. I have observed these learning traits in many of my colleagues in different proportions. I truly believe that if learning was delimited only to classroom teaching, it would have died with the advent of internet and Google. The teaching learning process has undergone a remarkable change. The role relationship between a teacher and a pupil is no more traditional and one-way. Teacher-student interactions are not confined to a classroom and they effortlessly swap roles without any loss of love or respect. In Gandhi’s words, “A teacher who establishes a rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns more from them than he teaches them…In this way, a true teacher regards himself as a student of his students.” Certainly, mutual learning is a step forward in creating a friendlier democratic world.

— Teacher  of philosophy and psychology, Nilesh Megnani is also a meditation  facilitator and writer who believes that individual spiritual  transformation is a precondition for the  betterment of society.