Oh to be an educator!

Read this blog on my new website www.themindfulnepali.com and stay updated about newer posts!

5 minute read

"Despite the fear, it has always been about striving for the absolute joy of seeing my students’ eyes light up when I show them possibilities they were previously unexposed to/unaware of. That is what makes me come alive!"

I must confess I was slightly bemused when a young guy who goes by the name of Doniv Pradhan approached me to mentor him. As someone who believes in the power of giving back, it was amiably surprising to get approached for a change. I’ve always complained that we as people are too scared to reach out to the ones we admire and ask them for help. But as for Doniv, he outdid his fear.

But fear is a funny thing. It never really goes away; just changes forms. Once I got approached, the fear he’d released got into me. And it was not because he asked me to mentor him about self-development; I would have done that happily. It was rather because he wanted me to help him become a better writer. "Writing class? What makes you think I can teach you that?" was the honest voice that rung inside my head at that very moment. 

As someone who started writing two years ago as a blogger, I’ve never really had any formal trainings on writing. All I’ve produced so far has been based on my own experiences and my drive to share what I know. Maybe that is why a sudden sense of fear got into me: the fear of being termed incompetent in front of a young guy who was buzzing to learn from someone he deemed a good writer. I must say, I was a bit hesitant to say yes right away but like always, I resorted to my mantra of tackling fear by getting into the basics and asking why. Why had Doniv approached me? The answer was simple; to learn from someone who had relatively more experience in writing. Did I have that? Yes, of course! I’ve been writing for over two years now. Was he looking for an expert? Probably yes. But was I an expert? A definite no! Having said that, deep down, I did know that I was a writer with abundance of passion for giving back and sharing what I know. So I asked myself: what is the worst thing that could happen to me if I started teaching writing? Doniv would probably run away and never come back because what he expected and what he observed were poles apart. But what about the best-case scenario? Well, we’d both be better writers by the end of the session and Doniv would go on to write a book and credit me for it! The average case? He’d become better off than he was and I’d have some experience facilitating writing classes. Regardless of the outcome, the underlying idea was my purest intention to channelize his energy into something that makes him better.

And so, like always, starting with why helped me kick fear out of the equation. Every Thursday, I do a writing class for a group of 5. As I reflect on the classes so far, I think I’ve become a better writer myself in the course of imparting what I’ve learnt. That way, I’m not just a teacher but foremost a learner.

I’ve always believed in sharing whatever little I know in the form of writing (the fundamental reason why I created this blog) and speaking/teaching (why I take classes).  Despite the fear I mentioned earlier, it has always been about striving for the absolute joy of seeing my students’ eyes light up when I show them possibilities they were previously unexposed to/unaware of. That is what makes me come alive! Just today, the same happened in my mentorship class. Sudina(my mentee) was jumping with joy when she applied the communication strategies discussed in class and got a reply from someone she had long admired from the dance scene in Nepal. 

Likewise, the joy I experienced when my 9^th grade student Lakhsmi wrote her first article,  the time when my trainee Bipana started reading Tuesdays with Morrie on account of a suggestion made to her and that moment when my mentee Dipesh started his blog when I had encouraged him to just go out and express himself.  These little priceless moments!

Not just teach but the way my 9^th grade student makes me look at life, the curiosity of my mentees and the energy and open-minded nature my students/mentees/trainees exhibit have helped me learn so much about this wonderful world and myself in the course of giving. And the fact that they lean on you with all their trust makes you work harder to help them with their dreams.

We’re both teachers; they teach me and I teach them.

But then again, it's not always rainbows and butterflies. The way my students write off some of their older professors makes me fearful about the future. What will I be like when I'm 42? Will I still be able to connect with the students like I'm able to do when 24? Will I even be heard or tried to be understood? Or will I simply be overshadowed by my younger counterparts? Will the generation gap kick in and leave me all vulnerable? Truth be told, the fear of losing connection with my students with each passing year humbles me. 

And then there's the society. "If everything else fails, become a teacher." is the sad mentality we widely share in our part of the world. Not everyone gets what being an educator means to you but that’s okay.

“Here comes the ‘sir’.”

“The teacher is here.”

These are some ridiculing remarks I get when I occasionally go out on Fridays. I understand that not everyone will get the passion I’m talking about and it’s completely okay. They will one day; not necessarily by becoming educators but when they get to that moment where they know what it feels like to impact someone’s life or find their element and thrive on it.

I wish for not just them but for you too to find yours soon. But as for me, I have found it. And I want to continue doing what I love the most: share whatever little I know!

Read my other writings on my new website www.themindfulnepali.com and stay updated about newer posts!

In the quest of making a difference.

The teacher smiles and recalls the time when even though he scored 85.5% in the SLC from one of the elite schools in Kathmandu, he still couldn't muster the courage to step out of his own comfort zone.


Whilst majority of class 10 students in Nepal are already busy preparing for next year’s SLC, something more, something different is happening at Columbus International School in Maligaun. Instead of sticking to a schedule that focuses only on rigorous practice on just the 8 SLC subjects, you’ll see that the students are challenged to be better at communication, reasoning as well as in their vocabulary and delivery of ideas.

And whilst you may contemplate that it’s the same case with the other elite schools as well, please note that this school is not among the elite- well at least not in terms of exorbitant monthly fees or infrastructure that boast of swimming pools or gymnasiums.

The 'Smart Class' as it is referred to, begins each day with a ‘WHY’. The teacher enters the class, spells out the lesson plan for the day but before getting into it, feels that the students should first be convinced that the particular class is actually worth 50 minutes of both of their time. If there’s a test scheduled for the day, the class will probably begin with a debate on whether a test is actually valuable. It’s the same with homework assignments.

I asked the teacher if doing so was a risky affair. After all, wouldn’t that make students a bit of a rebel? Challenging the status quo, challenge authority and likewise. But he smiles and says-“Exactly! Let’s not confuse ourselves with someone who is rebellious and some who is ill-mannered. We need more people to challenge the existing status quo or else, Nepal will be stuck in this state forever”.

So if change is deemed necessary, what have the kids been up to? For starters, they’ve been told that life is hard and that just by getting 85% in the SLC will not guarantee them success until and unless they are trained to adapt to the tough market. That they will be competing against thousands of other students who perhaps, they will never even see. That until and unless they are smarter than the one trying to deceive them or bully them, they will just turn out to be average. And for these kids, that battle starts with choosing a college after SLC itself. The goal is to make the kids smart enough to at least be able to evaluate two or more colleges and make it hard for the admission counselor to sell the college to him/her.

On recalling, the teacher despises an awful incident from a couple of months back. He speaks of the time he was asked to train a bunch of kids from another school to emcee their parent’s day show. “I told them on their face- you can’t train these kids of grades 7,8,9,10 to be great at speaking within 5 days. Speaking in front of a mass requires rigorous practice and commitment”.  The teacher remembers the school management promising him how it was just a start and that they were committed to all round development of the children. 4 months on, as the teacher tracks the progress of the kids there (apparently it’s easy since they really liked him and added him on Facebook on the last day of their speaking workshop) they complain that they have been forced to focus on just their SLC academics and are rarely involved in any of these sort of speaking drills.

So I asked the teacher- is getting a distinction everything? What does it measure? The teacher smiles and recalls how even though he scored 85.5% when he appeared for the SLC in 2063, that too from one of the elite schools in Kathmandu, he still didn’t have the confidence to find a new college or at least to step out of his own comfort zone and therefore, joined +2 in the same school. “It’s just a measure of one’s ability to recall repetitive information and nothing more. Schools are cashing in on this awful trend of making students rote learn from old question papers which offers nothing more of a challenge than memorization and working under pressure. Life is so much more than just remembering information. You've got to be smart enough to learn, un-learn and re-learn. The ability to receive information, interpret and give meaning to create something from one’s own ability is sorely lacking in the schooling system in Nepal” he says- slightly agitated by whatever is going on.

This is where the effective speaking classes have been creating an impact. Creating an English speaking culture in a lower grade school is often hard with not all students having access to resources like the internet. However, like mentioned earlier, the idea is to poke into the minds of these young kids and instill a sense of how important it is to be able to speak and write better in English to be able to compete with students from other elite schools. Not just speaking and writing, but the mechanism the teacher is trying to build is based on the idea that one has to become a better listener at first, analyze the information received, take the variables from the environment into context and then go on to make a decision to present in front of the stakeholders.

The curriculum designing and delivery of the classes are based on the same philosophy. Is it working? Well. Only time will tell. However, as it is with every other product or service, the ones volunteering to try them out are the ones best suited to give a remark.

'"I want to be better than you." says one.

" I'm committed to making the most of this opportunity that has been offered to us". says the other.


" I used to ridicule others who spoke in English and dared to be different. Now I think I'm turning into one of them". 

 Based on what the last 10 days suggest, the students seem to be warming up to the idea of a teach focusing on ‘WHY’ over what and how, constantly asking for feedback and confessing that long lectures alone will do nothing to improve the average performance of a class that is used to being taught in a primitive educational method dominating the Nepali education scene.

As for me personally, I’ve always lamented the theoretically driven Nepali education system. I’ve cursed the system for not doing enough to bring out the best from the inquisitive minds of the young children. I’ve shunned the schools that focus on memorization of text books just so that the students offer better marketable opportunities through the SLC results. I’ve been upset at schools for not doing their part in developing a child in an all-round manner. I’ve complained all along. But one day I asked myself. What have I been doing to change that?

 I’m the teacher.

 (The author would like to thank his colleague and good friend, Mr. Ashish Silwal, the Vice-Principal of Columbus International School for trusting him with the partnership role in this pilot project.)