Nostalgia
One of the most vivid manifestations of nostalgia in one's life is often those of our days in school. This was a period of carefree abandon and fun. Nothing seemed to bother us. Everything was taken in a positive, hopeful and cheerful manner. It was a sangfroid that would be the envy of us as adults.

Memories of school going days are also the ones that laid the foundation for education, career and the pursuit of life goals, and crucially, the germination of personality. Nothing was more inspirational than the individual with whom a major part of this period in one's life was spent. This was of course your school teacher. It could have been the home room teacher or the science, art, humanities  or any other subject teacher. It was an individual in whose presence you took your fledgling steps in life.

Why a School Teacher?
Why is it that a school teacher commands such an important place in your hearts and memories. Well, there are a lot of reasons. To begin with, being the formative years of our lives, we seek a real life figure outside of our family (parents for example) for, apart from the obvious reason of gaining knowledge, guidance and encouragement. Considering that for anything between six and ten years we spend the major part of our waking lives in the presence of this figure, the influence is understandable.

In a way, our school teachers held a huge place in our hearts - often even more than our parents. A school teacher being an independent person tended to understand our mindsets more than our parents. Parents are very aspirational when it comes to their children and frequently are too close to them and do not understand the singular motivations and innermost thoughts of the child, which often were at odds with those of parental figures. This is not to say that parents are apathetic to a child's thoughts, it is just that they do not share a child's perspective. Your school teacher is able to do that well.

So, having said that school teachers hold a place in our hearts, it is not a sweeping generalization. There are some school teachers who we revere more than others and who we respect. They are inspiring.  While role model would be a cliched expression, we do look up to them. What is it about these special individuals which earns our esteem?

Nurturing Innate Potential
School teachers are, arguably, in a better position to nurture the innate potential of a child more than anybody else.  This is because they literally watch the child grow in front of their eyes. However, more critically, they are in a position to influence the thinking of a child.

Childhood experiences are precious since they plant the seed of self-esteem and worth which later as an adult we grow into. A strong word of discouragement or even (more commonly) a put down - you cannot do this or you are not good at this - will cause a lifelong dent in self-esteem. On the other hand, this is where probably those special teachers hold a place in our hearts. They encouraged us, praised our efforts (the power of praise is immense) and that laid the foundation to not just our innate potential but our "worth" in our own eyes. We look up to these kindred souls who are nurturing a budding personality without any expectations - what can a child give the teacher (gone are the days when the teacher demanded a gurudakshina (a mandatory gift from student to teacher in return for the imparting of knowledge).

Moreover, since your school teacher is directly monitoring your academic performance and gets to know your strengths and weaknesses very closely, they place themselves in the perfect position to nurture your talents and abilities. Whether they nurture or in many instances effectively kill your motivations would separate those special individuals from the ordinary (often awful) ones. The presence of those special personalities mean you have a favorite in school.

My History Teacher
My favorite teacher in school taught us history. History is a subject which, if not taught well can send students into slumber. This is particularly because most of the time we are looking at historical characters. The past is prime. And can get monotonous. However, my history teacher was an ace. He imparted so much life Into his history class that all of us used to wait for his class with excitement and anticipation. What was so great about him? Well, to begin with, Tripathi was a master storyteller. He infused so much color into his tales of historical figures that we were fascinated. I still remember vividly his description of Napoleon Bonaparte and his mercurial manner with his army.  His anecdotes were also hilarious and we used to be in splits constantly at his sense of humor.

Apart from his phenomenal teaching prowess, Tripathi genuinely cared that his students liked history as a subject. He thus took great pains to know how each one of his students was performing in tests and internal exams. He also encouraged us a lot and  made us feel as if we were super bright students with a great future ahead of us. Those years of being under his tutelage and counsel built a strong sense of confidence in us. In contrast, our language teacher literally considered us students as abominations. Our history teacher was a breath of fresh air among some of the dreadful faculty at our school.

I can go as far as to say that now that I am firmly settled into the marvelously fulfilling experience of teaching, I have used a lot of the foundational methods my history teacher often used to infuse engagement in students.


Let me leave you with this question.