LIVING LONGER AS A TEACHER?

Dr.T.V.Rao MD
The principle that members of a hierarchy are promoted until they reach the
level at which they are no longer competent
Peter Principle
I have spent teaching students for more than four decades one thing the students held in common
with me was how hard it was for any of us to acknowledge our ignorance! as Peter principle even
enter the teaching professionals more so in Medical Profession, AS MEDICINE IS CHANGING FASTER
THAN WE IMAGINE Today many teachers feel proud they were the, professors examiners and
marks givers, and feel they are a source of knowledge however the world has changed, remember
how I discovered this rather gradually students are potential evaluators of our ignorance and
knowledge. The knowledge we deal with in the classroom has not only a content but also a
characteristic way of imaging the transaction been the know and the known. In the present
canonical Debate over what knowledge we should teach, more debate over how we gain
knowledge would help if good teaching is our objective, Todays students are brighter than when we
were students, and smart to search for desired goals in the life, It led me to realize that one of the
first critical tasks that I needed to accomplish at the beginning of the year or a New batch of
students are assigned was removing the notion that my primary task was not just evaluating my
students, the best way to create the sense of responsibility, reminds them to make the students to
realise what are the priorities to be better Doctors . Many students said that they always tried to
hide their ignorance from their teacherseven the ones they liked. Its deeply ingrained. I tried to
convince them that once they think their teachers are convinced they are smart, then they ought
to ask the questions that the dumber students are afraid to. Never forget the real contact between
student and teacher is our knowledge rest are all forgotten very soon, I never faced any difficulties in
many places where I do not belong in India and even with African/ multi-cultural students. I wanted
them to be good people even if it risked the teachers assessment. I always tell the students do not
try to hide your shortcomings you will never reach your goals. Today teaching needs courage to
sustain in the competitive world, the word courage comes from a root that means heart, and I
like to transpose the words. How can we develop and sustain in the system when we live in
ourselves. Next comes the question, the heart for good teaching? Good teaching requires courage
the courage to explore ones ignorance as well as insight, to yield some control in order to empower
the group, to evoke other peoples lives as well as reveal ones own. Furthermore, good teaching
sometimes goes unvalued by academic institutions, by the students for whom it is done, and even by
those teachers who do it. Many of us lose heart in teaching. How shall we recover the courage
that good teaching requires? When we are half-hearted to take a greater dedication to teaching, it
means that talking the matters beyond what we are doing for many decades, I wish one should
possess a Talking heart. as Taking heart means overcoming the fears that block good teaching and
learning. Fear is a driving force behind objectivism, that mode of knowing that tries to distance us
from lifes awesome energies and put us in control. Fear is a driving force behind the kind of
teaching that makes students into spectators, that pedagogy that tries to protect both teacher and
subject from the give-and-take of community, from its rough-and-tumble. When our fears as
teachers mingle and multiply with the fears inside our students, teaching and learning become
mechanical, manipulative, and lifeless. Fear, not ignorance, is the great enemy of education. Fear is

what gives ignorance its power. In is original meaning, a professor was not someone with esoteric
knowledge and technique? Instead, the word referred to a person able to make a profession of faith
in the midst of a dangerous world. All good teachers, I believe, have access to this confidence. It
comes not from the ego but from a soul-deep sense of being at home in the world despite its
dangers. This is the authority by which good teachers teach. This is the gift they pass on to their
students. Only when we take heart as professors, we can give heart to our studentsand that,
finally, is what good teaching is all about. Let us realise as Teacher where we stand in the system
today the remedy is clear: establish settings where silenced voices can be heard into speech by
people committed to serious listening. The classroom can be such a settingif the teacher will work
hard to gain credibility with students who have learned that silence is the safer way. Credibility
comes as the teacher empathizes with the voiceless and with their struggle to speak and by heard. :
earn to listen to the inner voice of our students or else we live and perish in the system without a
purpose to recognise our potentials. Anyhow our bad assumption about students will hurt the
students. The bad teacher's words fall on his pupils like harsh rain; the good teacher's, as gently as
mist of dew. Just read the good quote to teachers
In a completely rational society, the best of us would be teachers and the rest of us would have to
settle for something less.

Lee Iacocca
DO NOT MIND THE PETER PRINICPLE ENTERS IN OUR LIVES HOW TO SUVIVE IN THE
SYSTEM MAKES THE DIFFERENCE
HOWEVER COMPETENT AND LIVING TEACHERS SHOULD POSSES THINKING MIND,
TALKING HEART AND LISTENING EARS REST IS YOUR CHOICE ? LET US TRY TO
POSTPHONE TO BE A PART OF PETER PRINCIPLE?
Dr.T.V.Rao MD Professor of Microbiology Freelance writer