The Few Students Who Made Teaching a Pleasurable Task
for Me
I
taught courses in structural engineering, both undergraduates and
postgraduates, and also the basic course in applied mechanics in a private
“Deemed-to-be University”, in its School of Civil Engineering. Over 20
semesters, teaching perhaps as many as 2,500 students, I could count on the
fingers in my hands the students who left a lasting impression on me. It is not
that the others were non-performers. Yet, performance was not what I was
looking for. Many of them were, but they, in my way of thinking, learnt only
minimally of what a university has to offer. Indeed, at least two of the students
topped their classes. They did not make my list here. I am putting my thoughts about the special
students here.
These
might not have been the best students, as usually measured, unfortunately by
the marks/grades they obtained. What made them special was they made themselves
my tools for teaching the classes better!
Many
books on applied mechanics follow the historical development of the field. The
oldest of the old were geometers, they thought through geometry in their minds,
plane geometry at that. Every semester there were eighteen sections of first
year students who needed to be taught applied mechanics. Most semesters I took
two sections and in at least during one I taught three sections, each of 60
students. And this girl student stood out.
Most
teachers teach the subject in two dimensions, in x- and y-directions and use
scalar operations, at the beginning and then as they approach the first test
for internal evaluation, they give the subject the vector-treatment. I too do
the same but with a difference. I teach the fundamentals of vector manipulation
(only to the extent it is needed for the course, which truth be told, is high
school level) first, and then extract the required parameters and how to
manipulate them in two dimensions.
When
I was in the middle of the first lesson using scalar treatment for problems in
two dimensions, this student raised her hand and asked whether she could use vector
analysis for such a problem. I was shocked. Of course, one can, I answered and
showed her how to do it. She already knew and felt comfortable with it! My
nickname for her (I would not reveal the name of any of the students I refer to
here) was, “The vector girl!” This name stuck with her too, apparently. She
sent her wedding invitation as attachment to her email with her covering letter
signed, “Vector Girl”. Tell me, isn’t that a tribute for which a teacher would
beg, borrow or steal? It came to me unasked, some seven or eight years later.
One
semester and like a bolt from the blue, the university asked me to set the
end-semester examination question paper (and also the brief answer for each
question) for the subject Transport Economics. I was zero in the
subject, yet I could not say no to the demand. The time available was about
three weeks. I borrowed the necessary books from a colleague, and as I went
through it, I could identify strong correlations and make sturdy connections
between what is given in the books and the things I worked on in a project, the
first ever Public Private Partnership (PPP) project in the road-cum-bridge
sector in India−across River Hooghly in the northern reaches of the Kolkata conurbation.
The books validated what I did earlier and my experience in the project enabled
me to put meat into what I read in the books.
The
examination was found to be moderately difficult for the students, the average
score coming in at about 60-65%. I felt OK. The next time the course rolled
around I was told to teach the class, and I was prepared. There was one student,
for whom I had taken the I year course who kept asking questions to get
clarified on many points within himself. Then, he found out that I had not
studied the subject at all.
He
knew I was qualified to teach structural engineering courses, which grows
naturally from applied mechanics. I gained enough confidence in me to take me
as his mentor, in a loose sense. This, again, would have been about seven years
ago. Then, he calls me now and then to enquire about how I am and other regular
stuff, and is always willing to try answering questions in mechanics. Yes, he
does, though he did some post-graduate courses in Project/Programme Management
and is employed by a bank! We talk for no less than half hour each time. To
him, my best quality is, I believe, that I listen.
The
next three students I am going to write about are all girls (now young ladies).
To some extent this makes me think that girls are quite open minded and are not
afraid of challenges. For the sceptical few, I love all my students
irrespective of their sex (sex is biology whereas gender is grammar, for the
uninitiated and those who feel queasy). They are students and no more.
Let
me explain. I have a deservedly bad reputation among students, not because of
anything I have done, but what other faculty members do. You get what you
deserve, and I am extremely careful while deducting marks. If I erred at all,
it would benefit students. Hence, students fail in their efforts to out argue
with me for ½ or one mark out of 50.
Now,
one girl student came to me and said, “I wish to do my main project under your
guidance.” I asked, “Are you aware of my reputation that I give tough problems
and I am hard to satisfy?” This was in her final semester and she has not taken
any courses I taught. This was bold. She brought with her two other boy
students who, I knew, were tail-enders in the class. So, this girl was not only
aware of my characteristics but also of the two students she carried. That is
doubly bold.
I
gave her a problem that involved doing structural analysis using a particular
software that had captured high share of the market. That way, the project could
make her “Job ready!” I told her how to access the software, and if she had any
trouble capturing the nuances, she could come to me; maybe she did once or
twice.
The
input was quite exhaustive but she did not flinch. And, I had a surprise for
her when she finished it successfully. I showed the analysis of the results of
a similar structure designed by a German consulting firm. I consider one of the
eight managing directors of that firm my Godfather in the field. She is short;
yet, she hit the roof and let out a loud, “Whoopee!”
I
cannot tell you who, out of the two of us, was happier. She lifted up my
spirits so high, I was floating cloud high.
She
had two job offers, one from Amazon and another from the Indian Engineering
Major Larsen & Tubro. I suggested that from L&T she can jump any which
way, as I knew people who leveraged that experience in ways not many recognize.
Yet, she chose Amazon, and is happy with her choice. The word I used is
“suggested” and not “advised”. Students at the age of low 20s tend to rebel
against “advice”, but are OK with “suggestions”. I guessed she was one such and
she proved me right. Such students ...
I
was hardly ten days old in my teaching job and a girl student barged into my
room and demanded, “Where were you all these years?” with probably a scowl on
her face. I was stunned and asked her to cool down and explain the situation. Until
then I had taken not more than half a dozen classes for her, an advanced class
on steel structure design that included some highly empirical design processes.
I was wondering how I would handle that. One thing did help me: I had done my
M.Tech project on the same, in 1977-78.
To
come back to the topic and the personality, in the first few classes it was a
method of design that was drastically different than what the students had
learned in their previous design course. So, I thought that she had lost
herself in the concepts that underpin the process, particularly the assumptions
that are made in devising the design process.
No.
She was tuned perfectly to what was being taught. Her question was why I had
not come to the university a few years earlier so that she would have had
better grounding in the basics. That was a compliment given in a scolding tone,
delivered by a student to a teacher. I could not have asked for anything
better. If I remember correctly, she did have a doubt and I cleared it for her.
Now
she is a family friend of ours. She is in San Diego, the US, with her husband
and their six year old boy and she has longer conversations with my wife than she
does with me! From a student to a family friend! Whoa ...
There
is this girl student who sat in the last row and I could see only the
silhouette of her face as it was back grounded by the bright afternoon sun
through the window. But she made herself visible by asking quite a few
questions and seeking clarifications and she had a classmate across the aisle
who also pitched in. She was not an extraordinary student in the sense of
maxing everything under the Sun, but a well-rounded one (I do not mean obese!);
she was an athlete too, played basketball and volley ball, the two sports I am
keen and in which I know my ‘x’s and ‘o’s. She must have done well in her
seventh (or, perhaps sixth) semester subject I taught.
I
marked her out as someone different but not special. Was I ever so wrong in my
life? No. She is special.
Upon
graduations she sought out a teaching job in a high school (a government
school, if I remember right). She was with them for a couple of years and
gained the trust, and more importantly, the affection of her students. Her life
situation was such that she did not have to be an earner in her family. This
gave her the freedom to engage herself in her passion, teaching young ones.
Then
she switched schools and again was the centre of attention of students. I
happened to be in Chennai on the day of her Wedding Reception (the eve of her
wedding, as it is these days). I was sitting by myself and joined the line
waiting to present myself to the King and Queen of that evening, with a gift in
hand. She noticed me in that conga line moving slowly as a wave form and
whispered to who I learned later is her brother. He came rushing towards me,
accosted me (truly, like a constable grabbing the arm of a suspect) and moved
me to the stage. I was introduced first to her fiancée and then to her mom and
dad, and all were so gracious. The best wedding reception I had ever attended. She
is in one of those North Atlantic countries (Denmark, but not in Greenland,
Netherlands, Belgium ...I am very bad in geography) and I am still in touch
with her. Such a friend she has metamorphosed herself to from being a student
of mine.
I
must end this with two other students from my post-graduate students, and both
left me with bitter aftertaste. One of
them came to me for her project (as all the other faculty members had rejected
her; I was not aware of this). She also had a job lined up for her in a college
as an Assistant Professor (some influencer, of course; how cheap the post had
become). After eight semesters of undergraduate and three semesters of graduate
study, she knew nothing. She did not know how to spot a total of five points on
a straight line going from point A to point B in space. I had to show her how
by working it out in front of her. Anyways, the School of Civil Engineering did
not care whether she passed or failed. So, she passed.
The
other instance of a student who despite my demurring strongly, wished to work
under my guidance, and I raked my brains to come up with a problem−one that
teaches while being solved. For whatever reasons, she changed her mind and went
to work with another faculty member. I would have taken this as her prerogative
and that would have been that, if only she had shown courtesy to let me know
her change of plans. She did not do that. Let me tell you that she was a
wonderful student, really beyond a teacher had a right to expect. Yet, she
showed no maturity.
Thanks
for listening−I am telling myself−to bits of my history as a teacher.
Raghuram
Ekambaram
