1. Growing Demands on the Contemporary Teacher All eyes seem to be turning on education. The contemporary civilization is science-based, and during the recent times, there has been an increasing growth of democracy. There is also today an unprecedented explosion of information and unprecedented speed of communication. As a result, increasing masses of the human race are getting seized by the need to grow in awareness and knowledge and to determine their future by conscious and deliberate participation in the process of development. The goal of education for all has gained universal acceptance. In every discipline educational activ

3. The Role of the Contemporary Teacher It will now be clear that the role of the contemporary teacher has essentially to do with something which is exceptionally subtle and complex. The role of the teacher has always been basically psychological in character, but the dimensions that come to the view of the contemporary teacher are much more difficult to deal with. It may be said that the role of the teacher is not merely to promote the quest of the knowledge of man and the universe, and the sciences and arts of their inter-relationships. It is not also merely to build the bridges between the past and the future. These tasks are indeed important

A Philosophy of the Role of the contemporary Teacher Acknowledgements Some of the illustrations, photographs and pictures which appeared in this book were used as a part of Exhibition sponsored by the Ministry of Education and Culture, Government of India, and organised by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, in November, 1984. Several other illustrations, and pictures have been prepared by Shri Niren Sengupta, who has also prepared the design and layout of this book. We have received invaluable help from Shri Bhuddhadev Bhattacharya, who has also helped Shri Nire

5. A Model Framework of Teaching-Learning for the Contemporary Teacher There is a conceivable and realizable model framework of education, at once flexible and stable, which would meet the varied needs that are imperatively demanded by the contemporary needs. If we want education for peace and education for development; if we want our students to have not only intellectual development but an integral development of personality; if we want to underline the value of physical education and manual labour as also that of the moral and spiritual austerity and discipline; and if we want each student to discover his own inner law of development and real vocation of li

Let Us Not Forget the Essentials There are four essentials that we must not forget while restructuring or reforming the educational system. Firstly, we must recognise that the child and its latent potentialities and its quiet yet perseverant soul are to be subserved; we must not build a system that would suffocate or smother that little child—that little prince. This essential point is brought out forcefully by Rabindra Nath Tagore in his short story "The Parrot's Training". It is so instructive that we may recount it in full. "Once upon a time there was a bird. It was ignorant. It sang all right, but never recited scriptures. It hopped prett

Wonder Invention Page - 12 2. Educational Objectives and the Contemporary Teacher In order to understand the meaning and significance of the role that the contemporary teacher is called upon to play, we need to clarify to ourselves the fundamentals of education as also the perennial and emerging objectives of education. There are three fundamental ideas underlying the educational process. There is, first, the pursuit of man to . know himself and the universe and to relate himself with the universe as effectively as possible. This pursuit constitutes the very theme of human culture, and education deri

4. The Contemporary Teacher and Dynamic Methods of Teaching-Learning The contemporary teacher will not be in a position to fulfil his role adequately unless educational methodology and contents of education begin to improve. And the more these improve, the subtler will become our demands on the teacher. The use of technologies might in due course reduce in certain respects some burden of routine instructional work. But it will open up the possibilities of individualized learning-teaching processes. The teacher will begin to be judged not only by the substance of what he will communicate and his power of stimulation, but also by what he is in his inner self, particu