There is always a hoopla around teachers’ day at the start of September every year in India. On 5^th September, everybody realizes the importance of that one teacher in their life. And if the teacher is their friend on Facebook, he/ she is tagged and thanked for making a difference in their life. Done. After a few likes and comments the post is forgotten and so is the teacher till the next 5^th September.

We live in the age of technology where the buzz words are hashtag, ping, unfollow, google it.. And there is an addition to these recurrently. . With the advent of e-learning, distance learning and the best teacher of all today; Google, will the need for teachers be obsolete? No, the role of a teacher in our life is irreplaceable. Technology will never replace teachers, but the teachers who do not use technology will be replaced by the ones who do. It is important for students today to respect experience over mere information that is freely available.

When I hear obsolete I remember typewriters. Yes, those are obsolete. Typewriters have been replaced by computers and laptops. Tablets, phablets are looking to replace computers now, but not yet. However, if you add a story to these, example the typewriter used by Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa; it then becomes antique. It is true how ethos plays an important part when we classify the same thing as obsolete or antique. It is important for teachers also to realize the need to constantly upgrade themselves.  Technology can give, the quietest student a voice and the most boring subject can be taught in an interesting manner. Technology should improve our life not become our life. As Einstein once said, “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.”

So let’s not be the idiots that Einstein thought we would be and respect our teachers all the way. Not only on 5^th of September.

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