Emotionally Dangerous

Teacher is a profession that is considered ‘Emotionally Dangerous’. One wise man has said, “By choosing to be a teacher, you have entered an emotionally dangerous profession”.

Following is my personal observation on the issue of WHY is it so EMOTIONAL?

Gaining poise in the emotionally dangerous job

1:            Learning is subjective in a sense that few will perform brilliantly and others will learn slowly. The awesomeness of those good performers is a different story. The issue I am beautifully bothered is related to the slow learners.

I am deeply saddened when the slow learners don’t show any improvement. It’s more heart breaking when they don’t know anything even after several repetitions. In the other hand, when the same slow learners show a bit of interest in studies and see them working hard, tears of joy flow in. In either situation I feel a tremendous current of emotion.

2:            The pride of any parents is directly propositional to the performance of their child. And a teacher who teaches the child automatically comes under this performance radar.

One father of a student had sent his old and semi-deaf father to collect the report card of his academically poor son. I felt empathy for this disheartened father. The reason behind sending him was that the father was feeling ashamed; he revealed so to me over a bottle of beer.

Yet, another father who was once demoralized due to the poor performance of his elder son has now been revived of his pride and confidence. How? His younger son who is now in class PP is doing exceptionally well. Other parents started to envy, teachers are pleased and the father is proud like never before.  This transformation deserves EMOTION! It brought me smile on my face too.

3:            Jealousy among students on the bases of my class management skill is another common ground where I find myself caught in the wave of emotion. Though I treat them equally but few students always complain me for being bias and few even burst in tears. They say I beat someone slowly, help someone else more often or allow someone go to rest room frequently. These allegations make me numb at times.   

4:            Everyday meeting with students like Pema Dorji; who has to walk 2 hrs daily to reach his school,  Thuji Dema; a beautiful girl who has to stay at different places so as to continue her schooling because she doesn’t have a proper place called HOME. She has a father but, he is a drunkard and he relies on relatives for survival and the stories of several other students with whom I have to meet my eyes has a life to live but a poor and depleted one; these stories makes me uneasy.

Photo: Thuji Dema; Girl without a Home

5:            One fine day, a student was entering our staffroom to collect his assignment book. I was standing outside the door. He took off his slipper and enters the room. Suddenly, my attention was driven by the flip of his badly torn slipper. The plastic slipper had a big hole due to over use. There I missed a breath and promised myself to help this guy buy a pair of new slipper. The sight brushed the core of my heart. Within a week he was wearing the slipper that I bought for him. He was happy.

6:            final point: As a teacher, I am somehow helping a student fulfill his dream through my presence in his life. And needless to say, I too help a single parent have hope for a comfortable life and help poor parents dream a better life through the education of their children. This chain reaction makes my job more responsible and one hack of an “EMOTIONALLY DANGEROUS” profession.