Teaching is a calling, not profession: Lt Gen Mehta

Syed Ali Ahmed

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 16

Teaching is not a profession, it is a calling like military service, observed Lieutenant General SS Mehta, Member of The Tribune Trust, while delivering a lecture on “Ethical Leadership-Moral Purpose of Leadership” at National Progressive School Conference (NPSC) here.

If it is taken as a profession, people will think of money. If it is taken as a calling, people will take as their duty, he said.

He said teachers produce raw material for security and other fields in the nation. Whatever they do, the result does not come immediately. It comes after some time, but teaching is a great job.

“I believe the NPSC is not doing business. It is a calling,” said Lt Gen Mehta while addressing teachers, principals and other members of the NPSC.

“We are in the world of acceleration. With conversion of telecommunication and media, everything is changing at a pace. Children are also changing according to this pace. My generation had core value of producing ‘goalkeeper’, but the current generation produces ‘centre-forward’. My generation said ‘we can win’, the current generation says ‘we will win’,” he said.

“My generation was good at bonding. In my times, while changing a job, people used to think of parents, other family members, pension, etc. The current generation is changing. When a young man changes his job, nobody knows when he did it.”

Second change in today’s generation is power shifting from less active to more active. “The current generation does not ask for shifting. It shifts,” he said.

“We have to move from labour world to knowledge world. We must question on a daily basis. Children nowadays have a habit of enquiring. If in a class a child asks a question out of the subject, the teacher should answer him politely,” suggested Lt Gen Mehta, adding “teachers give products and we exploit the product”.