Seeing is Learning

Teachers’ Day is an occasion for remembering all those teachers who played an important role in one’s life.  Two years ago, I wrote a blog on Prof. K Balakrishnan of IIM Ahmedabad (http://ajoy-reflections.blogspot.com/2019/09/the-teacher-i-love-to-be.html).  

Today, let me talk about another teacher, Sri. C N Ranjith, who influenced me a lot.  Ranjith Sir was my science teacher in high school at Kochi.  His style of teaching made him different from other teachers.  He believed in teaching science through experiments.  Since it was a government school, there was no laboratory and facilities for demonstrating science experiments hardly existed.  This is where the creativity and ingenuity of Ranjith Sir came to the forefront.  He used whatever materials and properties were available in the school to design experiments.  It could be anything like paper, books, ruler, leaves, flowers, chalk piece and so on - he found a way to use them for demonstrating science.  His ability to connect the experiments to a concept in Physics or Chemistry was exemplary.  

Ranjith Sir had limited resources at his disposal in the school.  He couldn’t afford to make the students do science experiments.  So, he demonstrated them to the students, kindled curiosity  and explained the concepts – he strongly believed – ‘Seeing is Learning’.  This made him the most popular teacher in my school.  He used to crack lot of jokes and his loud laugher was infectious.  At the same time, he was a strict disciplinarian, having been in-charge of the National Cadet Corps (NCC).  In 1987, when I was in the tenth standard, a district level science exhibition was organised in a school at Chottanikkara, about 20 kilometers from our school.  Ranjith Sir gathered a small team of students and prepared them for participation in the exhibition.  Since the school didn’t have a vehicle, we travelled by city bus.  Like a father, he accompanied us on all four days of the exhibition and made sure that we were all comfortable and had our food on time. 

After my schooling, when I was in college, I approached Ranjith Sir with a request to organise a quiz competition for the students at my school.  He quickly agreed and sat through the event.  Within few days he came to my house asking me to assist him in organising a quiz competition, for which he was invited as the quiz master.  I was extremely happy that he had chosen me to assist him.  He took the responsibility of preparing questions based on science and asked me to take care of general knowledge and questions based on audio clips.  That was just a beginning.  We both conducted many more quiz competitions during the next five years.  One day I saw Ranjith Sir in my college campus.  When I asked, he told me, ‘In the new textbook of Physics for the tenth standard released recently, there is a concept on which I have some doubts.  So, I came to meet Prof. V J Antony to get them clarified’.  I was literally surprised looking at his commitment – a government schoolteacher approaching a college professor for learning a concept before he taught the same to his students! 

Five years ago, I visited Ranjith Sir.  After retirement he continued teaching school children in a classroom that he had constructed adjacent to his house.  When I reached, he was engaging a class.  He was very happy to see me and took me to the classroom and introduced me to his students.  When he asked me to speak something to the children, I had nothing much to say, but to tell them how lucky they were to be Ranjith Sir’s students.  Ranjith Sir is also actively involved in socio-cultural activities in his area.  This societal commitment led him to contest the local body elections last year and become a Counsellor in the Corporation of Kochi.  

As a teacher, I learnt two important lessons from Ranjith Sir – any concept, however tough, can be explained in simple terms with the help of real-life examples and illustrations; and a teacher has to be a lifelong learner.  He continues to be a great source of inspiration for me.  On this Teachers’ Day, let me offer my humble ‘Pranaams’ to Ranjith Sir.