Teaching takes a lot more than what may be apparent from afar

The profession requires the development of capacities that go far beyond just technical expertise

- ANURAG BEHAR is CEO of Azim Premji Foundation.

The ruins of the fortress were a couple of kilometres away. The class had returned from a history walk there. The teacher gave bananas, which she had got from her home, to the students before starting the walk in the morning. She knew that many would be hungry. She gave more to the kids whom she suspected would not even have had dinner the previous night. Shepherding nearly two dozen 13-year-olds on this adventure was hard but fun. Back now in the classroom, she planned to spend the next hour discussing the adventure, and with that teach some fundamentals of history. How is history written? What are the different sources of history and how to observe and interpret them? After this session, she was planning to introduce these Grade 7 students to the Constitution; she had extra time for social science as the science teacher was on leave.

For a clear view of each, she got them to sit in a semi-circle. Skilfully, she ensured that the over-eager ones did not dominate the class, encouraged the unsure ones, avoided putting pressure on those who were diffident, and controlled the attention of those who were drifting away. This was just another day in her role as a teacher. Most other days would not have this kind of excitement. Nevertheless, each day was an adventure that she had to create and handle with similar sensitivity for each child, and then use that for teaching.