The Fear Within

COURAGE TO TEACH - The Fear Within is an exercise being done by the educators at the DBN Centre of Excellence, they are exploring the professional development journey, and trying to find out what was their biggest fear, and how the overcame the moment. 

The Fear Within 

"One of the blessings of teaching is the chance it gives us for continuing encounters with the young, but whatever eventually blesses us may at first feel like a curse! We are more likely to survive the curse and arrive at the blessing if we understand that we may be as afraid of our students as they are of us—and then learn to decode our own fears, as well as theirs, for the sake of creativity in the service of the young".  - Courage To Teach

The Exercise

Ask each teacher to write brief descriptions of two recent moments in teaching: a moment when things were going so well that you knew you were born to teach and a moment when things were going so poorly that you wished you had never been born.

Image courtesy MindTools.Com

I learnt that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.

My first experience of fear in teaching was when I had given the class of Air Force Officers to teach them LINUX Operating System. That time I had the experience of instruction for more than four years, but that time I felt that it was my first class. They all were mature persons, and I was younger than most of them. But when I entered the classroom I was blushed with fear my heart was sinking. I gave my introduction to them and started my lecture. They all were listening to me carefully after that their question answer session started. I made their confusions clear about that Operating system. Then practical session started, they all enjoyed that first class. After completion of that day I was relaxed and my fear within was all gone. Their feedback of the first day was all good. Next day when class started, I was more enthusiastic than yesterday and enjoyed a lot in teaching them.

At the end of one month, of the training session with them, they appreciate my teaching and patience to tackle them to understand the practical on LINUX. That was one of the experiences of mine when I fear most in teaching.

- Komal Bali is a teacher at the DBN Mubarak Mandi School and her email is mm@dbntrust.in