If you dare to teach by Rithin Nair

"Who dares to teach must never cease to learn."

Said cotton to the teachers of the world

Telling all ears that he hearkened

I stand before you

Showing you the ocean that is the world

And ask your eager heart.

"If you dare to teach, what will you teach?! "

A subject?! Maths? language? ,

Perhaps a skill? To fish? To drive?

Or will you guide on how to live?!

To survive? To thrive?

If you still have no answer

I'll ask you another

"If you dare to teach, how will you teach? "

Will you scream? Scrutinise?

Demonify yourself for utmost obedience?

Or will you love? Cherish? And coddle?!

Or will you be one of those who stands on the desk?

Urging their pupils to "look at things from beyond."

If an answer eludes you, my comrade.

I have another

"If you dare to teach, who will you teach? "

The new? The Unmolded? The innocent?!

Or the old? The opinionated? The self-aware?

Or is it those in between who don't know

wether to watch Sunday cartoons

Or fill up their SOP's?!

If you answered all these

Then humour me for a moment

"If you dare to teach, why would you teach?! "

For the pennies, this society pays you?

For the respect that will precede you?

Or because it seems like an easy thing to do?

Like a cup of tea in a winter morning

Smooth, no huss, no fuss

 

What? I was wrong?!

You don't have answers to them?!

Then fret not

For you have already understood your first lesson

That to teach, all you have to do is

Stand!! Stand up for the cause.

They say no cause is greater than the one.

Who stands up for another

A teacher, like a strong springtime wind

Is the air beneath their student’s wings

"You don't just go to a classroom and start teaching."

"You map, you plan, you chart and then start."

Once said a shepherd to their sheep.

"You have to keep learning to teach."

Said the scribe to their kin

"You just have to trust in yourself."

"Learn as you fall and smile as you rise."

Said I, to you

The ones who dared to teach!