Triveni Journal

1927 | 11,233,916 words

Triveni is a journal dedicated to ancient Indian culture, history, philosophy, art, spirituality, music and all sorts of literature. Triveni was founded at Madras in 1927 and since that time various authors have donated their creativity in the form of articles, covering many aspects of public life....

Eleven Commandments for Teachers

H. H. Skilling

The good teacher likes his students and enjoys helping them, understanding their thoughts and feelings. You should:

1.  Remember the students whom you teach, for they alone are the measure of your success.
2.  Forget yourself, for your own excellence is good only as it helps your students.
3.  Consider the purpose of your teaching, and show the student a goal as far ahead as you both can see.
4.  Accept him as he is and improve him as you can; the student is guided by intellect but driven by emotion–to complain is futile, and to ignore his motivation is to fail.
5.  Show him the real world of fact for interest and the ideal world of theory for understanding, each illuminating the other.
6.  Relate new thoughts to what the student knows, for this is how he learns; lead him from the known to the unknown. 
7.  Repeat and repeat, yet never the same; let each idea be seen three times in different lights.
8.  Let the student work, for work is remembered long after words are forgotten. Hearing is weak, seeing is better, doing is best.
9.  Let the studcnt seek; lead him to discoveries of his own, and these will be his choicest jewels of knowledge.
10. Provide light and air and quiet, for all your work is lost if attention fails.
11. Know thoroughly the subject that you teach, and where it leads; present it with interest and enthusiasm.

-Collected by Dr. R. Seshadri Naidu, Director, U.G.C. – Academic Staff College, from H. H. Skilling’s book ‘Do You Teach’.
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ON FREEDOM

Rabindranath Tagore

‘Prisoner, tell me, who was it that bound you?’

‘It was my master,’ said the prisoner. ‘I thought I could outdo everybody in the world in wealth and power, and I amassed in my own treasure house the money due to my king. When sleep overcame me I lay upon the bed that was for my lord, and on waking up I found I was a prisoner in my own treasure house.’

‘Prisoner, tell me, who was it that wrought this unbreakable chain?’

‘It was I,’ said the prisoner, ‘who forged this chain very carefully. I thought my invincible power would hold the world captive leaving me in a freedom undisturbed. Thus night and day I worked at the chain with huge fires and cruel hard strokes. When at last the work was done and the links were complete and unbreakable, I found that it held me in its grip.’

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