TEACHERS’ COMMAND IN CLASSES IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POWER AND OBEDIENCE

TEACHERS’ COMMAND IN CLASSES IS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN POWER AND OBEDIENCE

4-JULY-ENG 6

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

ARA--------------------------When the teacher speaks in the classroom and the students remain silent, this scene is not just of education – it is also of the relationship between power and obedience. Knowledge is not being shared there, but it is being taught that only the one who is at the top knows and the one who is below, his job is to listen.

Such education is one-sided – like there is a well in which knowledge is dripped, and the children just keep filling it. This method of education is called the banking model – as if the teacher is withdrawing knowledge from his account and depositing it in the minds of the students. The students cannot think or question – they only have to collect.

In this model, the student is considered an empty vessel – whose job is only to receive, not to think. This method has been adopted deliberately – so that minds that challenge the system are not prepared, but employees who obey orders are produced. Imagine a school where the child asks – why is there this rule? – and the answer he gets is, keep quiet! Do not question. Then the same child grows up and goes to the office, where the boss says – do as you are told – and he too remains silent. In this way the school becomes a factory of obedience to the society.

Real education takes place where the teacher learns, and so does the student. Where both of them communicate, debate, and together create knowledge. Where it is not believed that knowledge is possessed by only one person, but it is understood that every person brings something from life experiences. But the system that wants only obedient citizens is afraid of such education. It does not want students to question, think, or even try to think. Therefore it turns education into a sacred ritual – where books are temples, teachers are priests, and students are devotees.

Under the guise of this sanctity, there is actually a conspiracy going on – to stop thinking, and to accept silently. An education that does not teach to question – is the first step towards slavery. And a teacher who is afraid of dialogue is only a courtier of the system, not a guide. So if education is to be made a tool of true liberation, it must be made dialogical – where students and teachers stand together and ask: what we are studying, is it liberating us – or making us more enslaved.