“Be Responsible” is something we all have been hearing since childhood. It is one of the first few expectations laid upon us from our parents. "at-least take responsibility of your stuff" “be responsible, you are not a kid anymore” and so on, yet it takes ages to understand the simple meaning of this word.
This year, on Teacher’s day Facebook was full of lovely messages filled with gratitude from students all across the globe for their teacher’s right from primary school to college. One of the messages was, “What I am today is because of my teacher.” It filled me with awe and respect for my profession even more. Then, suddenly a thought struck me and scared me to the core. What about the ones who are in jails, criminals who never got caught, the rapists and murderers, the corrupt bribe takers? Did none of them go to the school and if the answer is NO. Is it not true for them “What I am today is because of my teacher”?
When I asked this to myself, I understood the meaning of responsibility. To be responsible, means to take responsibility of your words, actions, behavior, thoughts and their consequences. That means, my responsibility is not limited to my work, but its result and how this result is impacting other lives. In this sense a teacher’s actual performance will be reflected not with the success of her students but with the development of the society as a whole. But what can I do all alone? This thought put me into a pause. Which got cleared when Sugandha shared her experience, that how one child of her class influenced others.
After hearing her I remembered the famous quote of Mahatma Gandhi “Be the change you wish to see in the world”. And now I know that I just need to take the responsibility and will eventually get cooperation from others as Responsibility commands Cooperation.
Anubhuti has beautifully captured this video which speaks for itself.
We all have our own stories of this understanding and insight, Kirti had her realization during lockdown when she thought, “it’s a matter of one or two months and after that everything will be okay then I'll be back to the school and will resume the teaching the way I was doing it before.” But when the situation became grave then she took the responsibility of teaching her students through online classes. Which initially was very difficult for her but slowly and gradually with the cooperation from everyone she handled the situation, even the kids became her support system as they too cooperated and enjoyed this new system of learning, now it's been a year that she is able to take the classes efficiently and effectively.
Rudrani realized her full potential when she took the responsibility of looking after foreign delegates during her university seminar. Overcoming her nervousness and under confidence, she not only fulfilled her responsibilities but also enjoyed doing that, and she got support and appreciation from everyone.
Chandralekha in one of her science class divided the class into four groups and asked each group to prepare a quiz for the other three groups. This exercise became such fun among kids; they not only referred their books but also searched the internet to be creative and innovative with their questions. All the group members cooperated and came up with amazing questions. What a beautiful depiction of responsibility and cooperation shown by young children.
In Mamta’s words:-
जब व्यक्ति किसी कार्य की जिम्मेदारी ले लेता है,
तो वह अपनी उन्नति का मार्ग प्रशस्त कर लेता है।
...किंतु जब हम उत्तरदायित्व लेने में आनाकानी करते हैं,
तो हम बस दोषारोपण तक ही सीमित रह जाते हैं ।
सहयोग व उत्तरदायित्व हाथ में हाथ डाले चलती है ,
इन दोनों से ही समाज को प्रगति मिलती है।
यदि हम, अध्यापक निष्क्रिय होकर बैठ जाएंगे!
तो आने वाली पीढ़ी को कैसे सद्मार्ग पर ला पाएंगे!!
Proud to be Educators From Medley DGS at The Doon Girls' School - Anubhuti Sharma, Chandralekha Negi, Kirti Bisht, Mamta Kandpal, Neelam Waldia, Rudrani Ray and Sugandha Ahluwalia.