A Poet Is Shocked And Teacher Is Ashamed! Poem by PARTHA SARATHI PAUL

How will the teachers` day be happy
if teaching turns a farce?
I am ashamed as I belong to this community!
One English teacher in an English Medium school
is teaching Tagore`s 'Where the mind is without fear'
with least knowledge as to whether it`s a sonnet or not!
One brave student protests and shows the teacher an
authentic reference book by Xavier Pinto.
The student was rebuked and the teacher persisted
in her opinion that the poem has eleven lines!
She does not know that only the octave part
is given in that syllabus let alone the sextet part!
In another Convent school William Blake`s Poison Tree
is read out to one class with the teacher`s personal interpretation.
Most of the short stories even American ones are just
read out in junior classes with little elucidation.
A sixth standard student is compelled to read Tennyson`s poems.
This is just the tip of a huge iceberg!
All these things are just mockery in the name of education!
Teaching wrong thing is worse than teaching something bad.
How could a teacher misguide students with arrogant authority?
Some students are alert and many others are just instruments.
It`s high time all stood up to this cancerous system.
Bullshit with the celebration if empty goes education!