Debunking - Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach!

The teaching profession is undermined by people who have been taught and whose lives have been molded by wonderful teachers. Isn’t it a sorry state of affairs? Why else could such a statement have been coined and by whom? “Those who can, do; those who can’t, teach!” Really? Doesn’t this mean that those who swear by this saying are condescending and look down upon this noblest of professions, waving away the teacher’s painstaking labors by a mere wave of their hands?
This statement connotes that the persons who cannot achieve any real goal in life and have no other option of a vocation left, pursue teaching and adopt it as a means of livelihood. It implies that the vocations apart from teaching are hallowed; such as engineering, medicine, architecture, law, computer programming, etc. Isn’t it laughable then that all these so-called vocations also have to be taught by expert teachers? Does one become an engineer, doctor, architect, lawyer, programmer, etc. without being guided and coached? In fact any skill in life has to be taught and learnt! If one considers a hypothetical situation wherein a person has trained oneself to become any of the above-mentioned professionals, still he/she has been self-taught, that is been his/her own teacher!
The statement also smacks of inbuilt prejudice and bias towards teachers. It somehow implies that teachers are good-for-nothings who have nothing better to do than teach! It even smugly indicates that teachers have low levels of achievement, motivation and ambition. The ones who swear by this dictum haven’t probably heard about great teachers who went on to conquer hallowed bastions of power like Dr. Radhakrishnan, the second President of India (whose birthday on the 5th of September, is celebrated in India as Teacher’s Day) and innumerable others.
Then what about those who have been home-schooled by their parents or relatives or friends? Could they have imbibed knowledge on various topics entirely on their own? Even if one relies on the internet for gleaning information, doesn’t the internet become a teacher?
Hence it can be safely said that one cannot become an individual in his own right and gain an identity, without a teacher, be it a ‘guru’, a school teacher, parents or any other modes of teaching. It would augur well for those who naysay the teaching profession, if they introspect and revamp their negative attitudes that revile the noble teaching profession. They must overcome their superiority complex and recognize and appreciate the fact that they wouldn’t have been the persons they are, had it not been for their unassuming, caring and knowledgeable teachers.
Not everybody can be a teacher, as this is an exacting profession where the teachers are constantly on their toes, updating their knowledge and skills, sacrificing their time and efforts for selflessly bettering the lives of their students. Teaching is an art and the craft has to be learnt, honed to perfection; to seem effortless and perfect. Gratitude must be ingrained among the students or else whatever they achieve in life will be shallow and not worth their while!
Now one could say that “Those who can, teach, those who can’t, are the envious ones who make such stupid statements!”
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The copyright of this article is with Mrs. Priya Ramesh Swaminathan.