Student ..... Again

My first experience of teaching was not good. I was just back from the US with no agenda for furthering my career and teaching happened by chance. I took it up because I thought... why not? I do that with lot of things in my life. New intrigues me. Every few years I embark on a journey. The adrenaline of exploring new keeps me on a natural high. Every fresh expedition is an inward journey of self discovery as much as it is of learning skills.  I find hidden facets of my personality as I align myself to new ways of thinking.

Twenty five years ago I thought why not and went to a mountaineering institute at Uttarkashi to learn the art of mountain climbing. What did I learn? Apart from how to shout 'falllllliiiinnnnnggggg' and digging ice-axe in snow to save from falling in a crevasse, I also learnt how to get along with people from the remotest parts of India. I learnt that its all right to be scared, fear can be conquered. Being naive and from a village is not so bad after all because your talent and kind nature can help you make friends for life. With this knowledge I fearlessly went to study for an MS degree to a land unknown to me, thousands of miles from home.

Every 'why not?' exercise teaches me something new but does not always end up on a happy note. That's exactly what happened to teaching, I was immature and almost as old as the students themselves. Moreover, I was smitten by technology while studying for MS and had moved away from designing. It was disastrous, I hated it and quit soon, vowing to never follow that path again. I wondered what is so good about teaching that people do it for years with so much joy.

But, life has a funny way of catching us off-guard and twenty years after my first teaching debacle I got a chance to interact with students on a project for a semester. And this time around it was magical. I loved every minute of it and loving it still.

So I can conclude that I've matured over the years :-) become patient and definitely willing to make full use of my bi-focals to intimidate young aspiring architects.

Not really!!!

Matured?...yes.
Intimidate?...no way!

Todays aspiring architects are anything but 'intimidatable' types. These are trained little warriors, armed with 3D softwares, clutch pencils, T-scales (Oof! When did they stop calling it a T-square?) and full of so-called creative ideas of unimaginable building forms without context.

AND, they have 'Google.'

I have to be cautious. Students throw googlies and wait to see the reaction. Out of context a question comes

"What do you think about water walls?"
" Hmmmm, you mean the wall with waterfall for decoration? "
" No Ma'm (with searching gaze) for thermal heating."
" Ummmm, I'll have to get back to you on that.";-P

So, I 'Google' it, study and get back.

For precisely this reason, the second innings in teaching has opened a new world to me, that of studying. I study so I can teach. I use 'Google' to study, to teach a generation of 'Google architects' (thank you Abhinav for this catch phrase). I learnt to make full use of podcasts from various universities to learn about history, technology & contemporary architects. I learnt to spend my free time listening to TED talks on architecture and learn about how architects across the world think and the innovations they are trying. This learning phase is enjoyable, I can internalize knowledge at my own speed, go back to references again and again and share it with my students.

Christopher Benninger says of teachers "The best gift you can give a student is the knowledge that he will be a student all his life". This is the knowledge that my students have given me and am willing to share it back with them.