Teachers: Reforming the world, one student at a time

*Whatsapp Conversation*
Hey, what does your mom do?
She is a 'selfless'
Selfless?
Teacher** 
sorry, auto correct.

From crawling on all four to standing on our own two feet, from learning our first word to narrating epics, we are all learners. We are students' for life, and teaching is the only profession that involves the selfless grant of knowledge without any benefit to self.

Out of all the metaphors used to explain teaching, a Potter’s is the aptest. A potter starts with formless clay just like a teacher starts with innocent minds. Once onto the spinning wheel, the potter creates light pressure to smooth out the clay and moves on to increase the stress gradually as the pot starts taking shape. He knows exactly when and how to apply the pressure so as to obtain the best result, adding water in between to decrease friction. The pot is then subjected to high heat in order to permanently bolt the effect of hours of shaping.

A student’s mind is gullible like wet clay; any impression can be easily transferred onto it. It is a great responsibility to contour it in a way that molds a beautiful character out of it. The stress applied by a teacher might take a student out of his comfort zone, but like the potter, the teacher knows what that pressure does. The hardships faced during lessons are all parallels to the heat which a pot is subjected to; they prepare a student for the battle called 'life', where there are no erasers and no re-tests.

In the end, it is the pot that is praised for its beauty, not the potter. Likewise, it is the student who is applauded, not the teacher. They stand somewhere in the middle of the crowd listening to the endless admiration for their student all the while containing enormous pride inside themselves. Dedicating their lives to making someone else’s better is what teaching is all about. They never get noticed, they never steal the limelight, they just change the world, one student at a time.