Beyond the book

Jasmine Singh

Ideally, a student is a student. But how is it for a male teacher to walk into a classroom full of girls or a female teacher to walk into a room full of boys?

They are an unpredictable lot. Some days they would be listening with rapt attention and on other days, they would show total disinterest. Some day they will throw a volley of questions, which could be followed by a no question day as well. And if the bunch looks like an all-girls class or all-boys class, imagine what they can do.

Now what could be more interesting, if there is a male teacher vs a classroom full of girls and a female teacher giving lessons to a more than a handful of boys! What do you make of interesting anecdotes? Well, on Teacher’s Day let’s hear their side of the story!

Let’s have some fun

Pranks, this is the most used word in this situation. Something up everyone’s sleeve? Smiles Prem Lata, an associate professor at Post Graduate Government College, Sector-11, who has been coming to a class full of aspiring students, all boys, for the past 17 years. “They are all very well-behaved. They respect me and they are also serious about their studies.”

Her colleague Kanwaljit Kaur Dhillon, associate professor nods in approval. In the period in which she teaches her subjects, there are more boys than girls. “The ones who are serious about the subject, I can make out, others, well…” she laughs leaving it here.

Throw in the word pranks, the two just beautifully smile. Kanwaljit agrees this is an inevitable part of every student life. “They respect our age and experience,” both add, “but then students are students.”

Keeping nicknames, does this ring a bell! “Not just boys, girls do it too.”

To sir with love

Dr Jaspal, assistant professor teaches Punjabi to the girl students of PGGC for Girls-11 and he understands the sensitivity of this topic. He says, “One, while teaching an all-girls class there are so many things that one comes across and one has to be ignored.”

He lists them out. “I can never give attention to one girl. Secondly, if someone is taking more interest in the class and looking at me, I have to convey through some incident or story that there should be respect and distance between a student and a teacher.” Dr Jaspal is not unaware of the compliments girls can pass. He laughs, “A male teacher has to delete all personal details from his FB account. Sometimes, I get some kind of cards, well what do you do? Smile and get back to teaching. It is part of student life, that’s all.”

Boys will be boys

Not many teachers relate to the Sushmita Sen (teacher) Shah Rukh Khan’s (student) glamorous equation in Main Hoon Na. Namita Koul, assistant professor in BBA at Post- graduate Government College-11. A young teacher, she had never had any problem handling boys of her class.

“I ignore the pranksters, rest are pretty decent. I think it depends on the kind of impression you create on the first day that determines how students will treat you.”

Namita sees that boy students of her class would have sisters of her age, so they sometimes think they can talk easy to me. “I am known to be strict. The other day a student told me that I sing well, so they want to hear me sing. I made a stern face and told that this could wait and I would sing some other time.”