One must be a saint and hero to be a good teacher.
– The Mother
One must be a great Yogi to become a good teacher.
At our Institute the children do not address their teachers as Miss/Madam or Sir but call them ‘Apa’ and ‘Bhai’. This is never imposed; during the first month of school, there emerges a warm and deep relationship between the children and teachers. Some children give loving expression to this with a gently pronounced ‘Apa’ and ‘Bhai’. The teachers respond with a warm smile and the trend is set.
To become a teacher the main pre-requisite is love for children. Also required are a deep concern for the earth and its future, and the joyful feeling that to grow, to progress, is a natural urge in each human being.
A teacher is aware that adults have only to create opportunities in an environment full of beauty and understanding for the child to feel inspired, free and secure to explore his/her potential. A teacher knows from the depth of his heart that fear is never a good incentive for progress. He is conscious of his own motives and actions because he knows that a child learns mainly through example. He is a teacher who does not lay an adult pattern of thinking on the child’s mind, but who learns together with the children, and tries to understand how the children think, and how they experience their environment.
He is a teacher who is willing to unlearn his mental formations and preconceived ideas: he understands that judging a child limits the child and himself. He knows that the best way to reach the child is not through mental judgements, but through loving observation and, if his consciousness allows, through identification.