Sultana is back with a tribute to Teachers on the occasion of Teachers Day in India. Please encourage her with your comments  - Sukumar

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Forming each pillar with patience,

Laying each stone with prayer

But the temple the teacher built

Shall endure while the ages roll,

For the beautiful unseen temple

Was the child’s immortal soul

- Anonymous

I remember today my Physics Teacher who had called us for a special class on a Saturday. Nothing special about it…. and towards the end of the half day class, she gave us the usual teacher’s tips for the upcoming board exams. Just then, the peon came in to give her a message of a phone call. She broke down like we never saw her do before. Nine of her relatives had died in a van accident. Her husband had been negotiating with the hospital authorities and having completed them had now requested her to come home.

She had got the bad news before she had started out for work : but he lady had actually thought, ‘Why waste the children’s special class? I can complete it before I’m required at home’.

A round of speechless applause rose from the class of 50 girls in St. Aloysius Anglo Indian Girls’ School. That day we knew who was standing in front of us. A rare teacher, in whose debt we were grateful and privileged to be.

With the newspapers reporting various incidents of teachers killing children with violent punishment methods and students attacking their teachers / professors, it seems that the education system is becoming like the stuff of nightmares.

Who is a teacher? In the ancient world, a teacher was almost divinity and teaching was a ‘vocation’, a Calling. In today’s competitive world, it is a profession. Sometimes, it’s just a ‘job’. Accordingly too, the characteristics of the teacher changes : if the person playing the teacher’s role is doing it because it is their ‘calling’, you can be sure you have a rare teacher to remember all your life. If it is in the ‘profession’ scenario, no doubt too you have a great person to learn from (sans the compassion element which comes by default with the ‘calling’).

What happens when teaching becomes a ‘job’ … Disaster! A teacher who is just an ‘employee’ brings all the ‘employment’ related baggage including frustration-on-the-job. Rare is the artist who is bored by color and rare is the architect who grumbles at his own sculpture! Such only can be a true teacher. The others had better change their professions to something else for their own sakes as well as for the children’s.

Through all the various types of teaching professionals that I have met ,  I think according to me, these are a few ‘default’ characteristics which a teacher must possess to just ‘be a teacher’, leave alone an outstanding one.

Truth from Within : To truly give – of one’s time, energy and attention for the pursuit of knowledge for knowledge’s sake – is the ideal maxim of a good teacher

Empathy, Attention and Compassion : To view a child as a precious resource for the future world and to embrace with empathy and compassion to so vulnerable a human being is the first and foremost duty of a teacher. Whether we produce ugly ducklings out of swans or swans out of ugly ducklings is completely in the hands of our teachers.

Excellence Beyond the Self : To be able to guide the student to vistas further than the ‘teacher’ / teaching umbrella. For eg, a truly caring teacher may put his student in touch with some icons that he considers a role model for himself so that there is an enhanced benefit. If there is no person, writings / works of that person may be used as a reference.

In an age when ROI (return on investment) is the be-all and end-all of life, we can never return to our teachers what they have invested in us. Their attention, affection and warmth is the backbone of which citizens and nations are made up in every day and age. It’s a great feel to remember Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan in whose honour teachers day is celebrated in India but also to recall each and every school, college and university teacher who played and continue to play their part in building this great nation.

Where, is  this ‘Love’ business on the ladder of Evolution? -  The Biology

As  most physiological processes are driven, emotions begin in the command center of our physiologies : The Brain. Or at least, that portion of which biologists call the ‘Limbic System’ and the ‘Neocortex’.

I strongly feel that our Original Ancestor truly was that last reptile which morphed into the first mammal, walking on ‘terra firma’ with the first mammalian limbs. From this reptile we inherited the reptilian brain formed over the millennia and from the mammal came the rat-like true mammal which is our predecessor on the long ladder of Biological Evolution : which was different from the reptilian stream of the animal kingdom in that it had ‘evolved’ another layer to its brain : The Neocortex – the seat of ‘higher learning’ so far known to our species.

Given this, isn’t it uniquely strange that it is the heart that is flaunted on Valentine’s day and not the brain? Strange creatures, we the Homo sapiens!

When began this ‘Love’ business ? – The Psychology

It was a milestone when the first paleo brain was developed well-enough – to make the first turtle burying its eggs under sand to hide them from predators, the first mother-bird hunting for food for its chicks and the first mother-mouse that fed it’s young one on its milk. In short parental care, arising out of a ‘nurturing’ tendency – making a new beginning in an era where the dominant custom was starkly ‘reptilian’ : an era where the extreme went up to prenatal cannibalization. As in sharks, for example – one of the young  ate up its siblings before they were born. Or  the mother snake swallowed up many of her young  as soon as they hatched. And in the honey bee colonies where the queen killed her young sisters to become the sole ruler.

Evolution and genes, of course go hand in hand. How far we have come, where from we came is clearly mapped in our genes. Till date the theory that the entire human race was descended from one woman – nicknamed Mitochondrial Eve , from Africa and one man called Y-chromosomal Adam holds good! And so the next question comes up…..

Is Love in our DNA?

As much as ‘rage’ is in our DNA, emanating from that part of our brains called the ‘reptilian brain’, (lower part of the brain), so is Love part of our genetic make-up.

Ma Evolution skillfully designed complex behavioral patterns which ensured that!

A healthy male peacock with a diffuse colorful tail is ‘loved’, albeit through sheer physical attraction mode, by peahens. A lion with the blackest and thickest mane is in ‘demand’…. Godmother Nature has been an excellent matchmaker through the millennia in which higher life forms evolved!

Evolutionary psychologists are of the strong viewpoint that many behavioral traits, are influenced by the genes that our ancestors passed on to us – which were shaped as we see them today -  as a result of millions of years of natural selection placing the emphasis on their ‘survival value’.  However, we the human race have mastered the ability not to let only the genes rule us : We let the ‘rational’ brain / Moral training take over and therefore make conscious choices when it comes to ‘equal adults’ , ‘mate preferences / partners’, and the young ones we bear.

Where to from here on?  Will we love Robots or vice-versa? – The Evolution

Intra-species love has been by far rated the best of survival value by the rule of natural selection. Hence a human being loves another human being when it comes to pair-bonding. Surely its only Puck Goodfellow’s magic juice squeezed on your eyelids that can cause you to fall in love with a donkey.

However, the love that a human organism has towards his fellow animal counterparts, be they in the domestic context of cattle, household pets, concern for wild animal species etc though has overtones of symbiosis, is different from that towards our own kind.

Thus, so far summed up is the biology and psychology of Love as per today’s Human Society. But the future of Humanity might not be entirely ‘Human’. It might to a certain degree or large extent be ‘Post Human’, or even become Cyborgs? If we were to have household, para-human robots……..how would that shape the interaction between them and us ? Would that trigger the formation of another ‘society’?.  Would this be a triangle of para-human, human and post-human love?

The fourth Dimension -  Spirituality?

As much as I believe in Darwin, I’m a staunch believer of Spiritual Evolution. My musings on Love would be incomplete without this dimension. Though I’m not clear as to where an Animal ‘spirit’ stands and where a human stands on the ladder of Spiritual Evolution, I certainly can grade this within our own species tilting the scales across the spectrum of Altruism,  right down to extreme mercenary behaviors.

What would be the ‘Love’ pattern of such personalities and would there be a dichotomy of natures  within that future organism…….? For, though we are descended from very ‘biological’ principles, we have ‘evolved’ differently from the rest of the animal kingdom – the proof being culture and language and software. And war and holocausts, not to forget! We also have our saints, sufis and priests whose perception of ‘evolution’ is very different from the scientist’s.

What would be the next level of ‘Neocortex’ that we would develop? Would be it be bio-physical , or would it be psycho-genetic? When integrated, what would the Love-form that humanity would adopt? Or as many Enlightened Ones say, lose those shackling emotions once and for all and stand as a Supreme  Ocean of consciousness where Emotions are just the small waves lapping on the shore, unmatched with the intriguing depth and Majesty that is the Ocean itself?

We are pleased to add another writer, Sultana Fakhri, to this group Blog. She has written this post to more or less coincide with “Children’s Day”, celebrated on November 14th in India. Please welcome her warmly by commenting on her maiden post. – Priya Raju.

`Who are you?’ said the Caterpillar.  `I can’t explain myself, I’m afraid, sir’ said Alice, `because I’m not myself, you see.’ (from Lewis Caroll’s “Alice in Wonderland”)

I have felt the truth of these lines several times …the most I must admit in my professional life.

If I had consciously known as a child what my inner sub-conscious leanings were, (for the Child is Father of the Man!) then life would have led me on a path less traveled indeed. But what I did was only to fall into line with the many bustling passengers on the path most traveled : The Rat Race.

It so happens that I was not destined to be a Rat. Maybe I was destined to participate in the graceful royal walk that is a jungle cat’s birthright !  Instead of scurrying fast through the undergrowth of life as if afraid that something or someone would get me if I’m not fast enough!!

Now that the moment of truth knocks, I never wanted to be a rat, what do I do?  Does it mean that I wasted my life all along?

That brings me to the moot point of this post: childhood counseling and its importance in shaping the child’s future professional calling :

• I recall the counselors of my early age:  very sober dames, multiple-degree holders in psychology, pointing out better ways of behavior to awkward teenagers who just now realized that they are no longer children; or those strict, spectacle-clad ‘Aunt Polly’ of Tom Sawyer kind of ladies with strong notions that children about ten are best treated sternly; I benefited from neither kind.

• Who knows a child best? No, not his father and mother; not even his teachers who’ve heard him blab his alphabets; it’s the child himself. He knows what tugs at his tender heart-strings, he subconsciously knows what he is meant to be when he grows up. In true childlike fantasy when a three-year old says he wants to go up to the moon when he grows up, his frustrated father cuts him short and jokingly tells him that he better remain and learn to build things on Earth. A lot less jokingly when the son is entering college and wants to be an artist or a musician and the father says none of this nonsense, please can he fill up that engineering application form? And the innate vision is lost in the shadow of a mundane so-called reality.

There seem to be cropping up various kinds of questions on the subject of helping children decide the path of their professions at an early age based on what their innate capabilities are … and here I ask some of them…

• Who is to take the responsibility of probing these capabilities in a child without influencing the tender mind too much on the virtues of one profession over another?

• How to make sure that the child himself / herself is not misled by the glamorous ‘outside’ of a particular profession (like the Media/ Film /Aviation Industry for example) without knowing the hard inside story?

• What is the ‘fitment’ ratio of the child’s capacities / soul urge to his or her choice of profession? Who could possibly be a fair judge if it will not be a case of a ‘square peg in a round hole?’

• Who is it who will take the time to observe the child so well so as to observe the particular ‘flair’ that the child may have got : for those of us who have watched these films ‘Monsoon Wedding ‘, Lakshya or  ‘Taare Zameen Par’. regarding the temperament of children/youth in relation to choice of pursuits and capability.

Now what is needed for our future generations, friends is a Sorting Hat. Yes, I mean the very same Hogwarts’ Sorting Hat of Harry Potter fame. And for all the great reasons!

• The Sorting Hat is not the child’s parents or Teacher; so it does not matter to it whether the child grows up to be an Engineer, scientist or Carpenter! Impartiality therefore enables it to make a fair decision from a detached vantage point

• The Sorting Hat groups children based on their innate capabilities and leanings : the ‘core’ of personality

• The Sorting Hat LISTENS to the child’s inner voice : In the ‘Philosopher’s Stone’, the Hat almost sorts Harry Potter into the Slytherin House but it also gives ear to Harry’s mental protest that he wants to be in Gryffindor and there he is sent. It does not overrule the leanings of the child though it holds its own judgement very superior.

Psychometric analysis at an early age definitely comes close at identifying the strong and not so strong areas of a personality which, along with the child’s own intuition can nudge in the right direction of a future vocation / profession. And no cowing the child down please in the name of all those good intentions that we are capable of!

The key essence here being ‘uniqueness.’ If a Sachin or a Sania are to shine on the sports field, what good would it have been to push them into an IIM? Imagine the agonies that an Einstein would have gone through trying to be a ‘good student’ at college?

And so to unleash this unique color is to add to the Rainbow of Life on this Earth! We need to reflect all this as we celebrate the Nehru-chacha inspired “Childrens Day” on the 14th of every November. Lets give a new deal to our children!