CHANGING ROLE OF TEACHERS

CHANGING ROLE OF TEACHERS

A teacher has to renew himself each and every day as his students are full of youthful energy and vigour. They are able to internalize new technologies and novel scientific advancements with great ease. As facilitators, teachers need to keep pace with their students. This is true not only to teaching profession … but true to all professions. A tailor, for example, stitched ‘bellbottoms’ in 1990s. if he continues to stitch clothes in the same style and fashion followed then, he will have to close shop. He has to fall in line with the world.

‘I don’t know how to handle computers, I am used to pen and paper or blackboard’… teachers who stay aloof from the changing time have been rejected by time itself. Likewise, this is the time of specialists. Doctors with only MBBS degree have less value. He has to upgrade himself with M.S. or M.D. degree. One has to specialize in any particular field. But it is not right to run a hotel with the tagline that ‘we serve only special dosa’. A hotel has to serve other things than only special dosa. This is the time of multiplexes. There should be specials as well as other items available to suit different tastes. Positive attitude towards being constantly updated, the urge to be skillful in one’s chosen field, the urge to gain knowledge all that is relevant to one’s chosen profession, always ready to accept and learn new technologies and novel ideas – all these are basic requirements in all professions.  

These are basic requirements to be successful even in the most ordinary jobs. Teachers who shoulder the responsibility to guide generations, need these qualifications more than others. The changes happening in education systems, the pros and cons of the country’s education system, the way developed countries put technology to good use in classroom teaching and the latest in educational technology …. A teacher has to possess unquenchable thirst for these things. If it is not so, it is only the students who are affected and suffer.

If a tailor is not worried or bothered about latest trends, it is his personal loss. Whereas, if a teacher is behind his times, it is the loss of all his students, their families which in turn will affect the society and the country. A teacher needs this wide perspective to be passionate about his job.

It is now time for the best human brains i.e. the teachers to go hand in hand with technology to make our country walk shoulder to shoulder with other developed countries.

-          Courtesy anantha vikatan 10.08.2014

-          By S.AKILANDESWARI

The Invisible Man by H G Wells ----- Summary of Chapter 1

The Strange Man's Arrival

It was a wintry day, in February, with biting wind and driving snow.  He was wrapped from head to toe, his hands were thickly gloved and his face was completely hidden. Only the tip of his nose was visible. He reached ‘Coach and Horses’ – a local inn - and as he was feeling terribly cold he wanted a warm room. He threw a couple of sovereigns (gold coin of the United Kingdom used in the past) and settled in his room.

Mrs Hall, the innkeeper, prepared a meal for him. She felt happy and satisfied because

1.     A guest in Iping (the name of the place) in wintertime was a piece of luck.

2.     A guest who did not argue or bargain, who immediately gave the money demanded by her (couple of sovereigns).

When she entered his room with the meal, the fire was burning and the room was quite warm. Mrs. Hall was surprised that the visitor had not removed his hat and coat. He was standing with his back to her. He refused her offer of taking his hat and coat for drying. Her attempts at a conversation were cut short by the strange visitor.  She served him lunch and left.

Only the sound of his scraping the plates could be heard by her from the kitchen. Then she noticed that the mustard was not served. She scolded her help Millie about this, took the mustard to him. (mustard – is a condiment made from the seeds of mustard plant. The whole, ground, cracked or bruised mustard seeds are mixed with water, salt, lemon juice and other flavourings to create a paste or sauce).

As she entered his room with the mustard, she saw he had removed his overcoat and hat. She was about to take them for drying when she heard his muffled voice asking her not to take the hat.

When she looked at him, she was too surprised to speak. He was holding a serviette over the lower part of his face and was speaking through it. This had muffled his voice. But it was the face which startled Mrs Hall. All his forehead above the blue glasses was covered by a white bandage, and another covered his ears. Not a scrap of his face was exposed excepting the pink bright and shiny tip of his nose. The collar of his brown jacket was turned up about his neck.

Still holding the serviette (napkin or face towel), he told her again to leave his hat. She tried to converse with him and tried to find out the reason for his strange appearance. She assumed that he had met with an accident. As she left baffled and bewildered he pulled the blind down and the room was left in with a dim and dull light.

When she went to clear his lunch, she observed that he was smoking his pipe. He had a silk muffler wrapped around the lower part of his face, and without removing it, he put the pipe’s mouthpiece to his lips.

He enquired Mrs Hall about his luggage. He wanted them brought from Bramblehurst station where he had left them. Mrs Hall replied that it would be possible to arrange for the luggage to be brought only the next day, but the visitor wanted them earlier.

Mrs Hall guided the conversation towards accidents and operations in the hope that the visitor would disclose the truth about his appearance and what exactly had happened to him.  But her attempts were cut short rudely by him. She wanted to reply him but the two sovereigns shut her up. Everything was quiet till four o’ clock in the evening except for the occasional sound of the visitor pacing the room and the creaking of the armchair as he sat down.

THE RATTRAP by Selma Lagerlöf

1.    Rattrap is a device for catching rats using baits (like a piece of cheese or bread) to make the rat enter the trap. Once inside the trap, the rat cannot escape as the only exit of the trap gets shut.

2.    Rattrap also means a daunting situation. (daunting makes you feel slightly afraid or worried about dealing with it.)

‘The Rattrap’ is a metaphor to highlight the human predicament. Just as a rat is fooled by a bait and gets trapped, most human beings are likely to fall into the trap of material benefits. Here human beings are compared to the trapped rat which is lured by the bait. The lucrative (profitable) baits for human beings is the material benefits such as food, shelter, clothing, good life, fame, joys or anything else that attracts a human. The story upholds the belief that the essential goodness of a human being can be awakened through love and understanding.

The protagonist of the short story the Rattrap, is a ratttap peddler.

The story begins like a fairytale. The central character is a beggar and a petty thief who goes about selling rattraps of wire to make a small living. He finds it difficult to make both ends meet. It makes him reflect about his own condition and the world at large.He fancies that the whole world is nothing but a big rattrap. This thought amuses him.

One dark and cold evening, he was made welcome at a cottage and the owner was alone without a family. This loneliness made the old man share porridge and tobacco with the peddler. He even played a card game with the peddler. The old man started talking about his days as a crofter and how now he lives by selling milk for the creamery. He even shows the 3 ten kroner bills he got last month as proof.

His confidence was not respected by the peddler when he stole the money next day by smashing the window pane, to get hold of the pouch with the thirty kroners. In order to escape from the authorities, he avoided the public highway and went into the woods. He got lost in the forest and did not know the way to get out and recalled his thoughts about the world being a rattrap waiting to trap the humans with many baits. He felt he was fooled by the money which was the bait.

His gloom and despair increased as it became darker with increased dangers in the forest. He thought he would die there itself. Suddenly he heard the sound of hammer and understood that there was an iron mill nearby. He located the mill and saw that the master smith and his helper sat near the furnace and on account of the noise in the forge they did not notice the peddler entering. The peddler lay down to warm himself and sleep. He did not exchange any words with the smith.

The owner of the iron mill’s greatest ambition was to ship out good iron to the market. He had made it a habit to check the work done both day and night. When he entered the mill that day, he saw the stranger. Unlike the blacksmiths, he went and removed the hat to get a better view and addressed the fellow as Nils Olof. The peddler, in the hope of getting some money did not refuse that he was misidentified by the ironmaster.

The ironmaster took the peddler to be one of his old regimental comrades (belonging to the same military unit), misunderstood that his pathetic condition was because he had resigned from the army.

He compelled the peddler to come with him to his house but the stranger continued to refuse this offer and the ironmaster left. Some time later, the ironmaster’s daughter returned accompanied by a valet. She was not at all pretty, but seemed modest and quite shy. She introduced herself as Edla Willmansson and noticed that the man afraid and concluded that “either he has stolen something or else he has escaped from jail.” She reassured him that he will be allowed to leave them as freely as he came but requested him to stay with her and her father over Christmas Eve. The peddler accepted the invitation and was offered a fur coat but regretted taking the kroners from the crofter.

The next day at breakfast Edla told her father that she never thought that the peddler was an educated person. Te ironmaster told her that she should have patience and with a little bit of cleaning up and good clothes, the tramp will lose his tramp manners and show that he was an educated army man.

The tramp entered and he was now clean and well dressed. The ironmaster understood that he had made a mistake in taking the tramp to be one of his regimental comrades and was angry with the peddler. The peddler answered that he did not accept the ironmaster’s invitation and said that he would wear his own torn clothes and go away from the place. The ironmaster threatened him the sheriff would definitely have something against the vagabond. Now the peddler struck the table with his fist and told the ironmaster that the whole world is but a rattrap. He said that if the sheriff takes him away then one day the ironmaster himself would be baited by the world and would be caught in the trap. The ironmaster asked him to leave immediately.

Edla was very happy that morning as she had planned to make the peddler comfortable. She felt that Christmas is a time for charity and good cheer which should be shared with the needy. She argued with her father that the peddler is never welcomed anywhere at anytime. He is always afraid of being arrested and Edla wanted him to enjoy a day of peace, just one day in the whole year. She said that they had promised Christmas cheer. The father gave in to the daughter’s plea and was fed.  He slept the whole afternoon, and again after lunch he slept. He went down to have Christmas dinner and saw the decorated Christmas tree. He went around and said tank you to everyone. Edla said that the suit he was wearing was to be a Christmas present and if he wanted to send next Christmas Eve in a place where he could rest in peace and be sure that no evil would befall him, he would be welcomed back again.

The next morning, the father and daughter went to church where they came to know that one of the old crofter’s had been robbed by a man selling rattraps.

As they entered their house, the valet informed them that the peddler had already left but he was empty handed. He had left behind a package for Miss Willmansson as a Christmas present.

Inside the package the girl found a rattrap containing the wrinkled three ten kroner notes.There was also a note which said that “I do not want to you to be embarrassed by a thief. You can give back the money to the old man and the rattrap is a Christmas present from a rat who would have been caught in this world’s rattrap if he had not been raised to captain.”

It was signed “Captain von Stahle”.

The peddler experiences a change of heart after experiencing Edla’s sincere kindness and essential human goodness. He attains nobility of spirit as he ‘becomes’ Captain von Stahle.

It is the victory of human goodness.

Selma Lagerlöf’s  THE RATTRAP as a fairytale…

One of the elements of fairy tales is that they often start and end with special words like "once upon a time," "a long, long time ago," When you read those words, you know that the story could be a fairy tale.

Another element of a fairy tale is that the story often takes place in a castle, a forest, or a town. This is called the setting. The setting is where the story takes place.

Fairy tales always have at least one good character, or person, in the story. An example of a good character is Cinderella.

One of the most important elements in a fairy tale is that they always have a problem that must be solved. For example, in the Princess and the Pea, the prince wants to find a real princess to marry. His mother, the queen, helps him find a real princess by putting a pea in the bed to find out if the princess can feel it.

·         A fairy tale begins with "Once upon a time...”

·         Fairy tales have a problem that needs to be solved.

·         Fairy tales have happy endings –

·         Fairy tales usually teach a lesson or have a theme.

In the fairy tales the magic and the supernatural permeate everyday life, showing that everybody can live happily ever after, that the poor man can make a fortune and that everybody has to face some trials and overcome some difficulties in order to get a better life. In this way the fairy tales deal with real problems and there is a deep meaning in them that you must be able to catch in order to understand the human nature and better realize one's own individual history.

Although we live today in a very different world, the fairy tales' language is still alive and rich in meaning: it is true that those tales always refer to distant times (Once upon a time there was…), but the message they include - success and happiness reached thanks to one's own merits and to other people's help - is universal.