Teaching profession is considered and IS more a vocation than a career. There are very many teachers who treat their work more as a service than a timed-duty which they fulfill merely for the remuneration. These are the teachers who go over and beyond the mere classrooms and exams and marks. They see students more as children... at times, like their own!
However, with the shift in market trends and culture in the society at large, education is more seen as a ladder to prosperity than a moulding of character. In such a context, it is often the teacher who ends up at the receiving end. Parents demand that teachers 'teach' their children, convinced that having paid the fees, it is now the responsibility of the school and teachers to 'educate' their children. Their role as primary educators is easily forgotten and passed on to the teachers.
I came across an article which aptly described today's education scenario as a 'customer service' enterprise, where parents and students are out to demand from the teacher. The wrong notion that the parent or the child is a customer is at the root of it all. The worst is to misunderstand education as a commodity; rather than a value based skill to improve one's character, personality and convictions.
The teacher, like stated by Socrates and Aristotle, is only a facilitator who assists the student to become wise (not merely a basket of knowledge or information). The teacher does not 'pour' or 'fill' the student with knowledge - that would be an insult to the child/student itself!
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