A teacher is ...

A teacher is a person who gives lessons in a school, college, or university, or to help someone learn about something by giving them information. That is what the Longman Dictionary says.

But in reality, a teacher plays many roles in school. Today, I have the privilege of interacting with teachers from around the state in a seminar. And all of us agree that in today's education system, the actual teaching in the classroom takes up the least portion of our time. A lot of time is spent on other activities - attending meetings, planning, implementing and evaluating projects, supervising school/divisional/state/national programmes, organise events, and so on and so forth. On top of that, teachers need to plan for lessons, grade essays, prepare examination questions, mark examination scripts and God-knows-what-else.

In school, we teachers are not just teachers, we are all superhuman beings. We are expected to know many things and be able to do many things.

I am expected to know how to trim a students' hair, if it is a tad too long. Never mind had I no training before this. I am expected to train debaters at school though I have never debated in my entire life. I am expected to choreograph a traditional dance, though I have co-ordination problems even in doing aerobics exercises. These are just a few examples.

I guess it would not be inappropriate to call teachers Jack of all trades and master of none.

I am not a superhuman being. What should I do? Quit my job?