Teaching the noblest profession

Finding a good teacher that inspires and educates one has become difficult and is the subject of most discussions about our educational systems. Most of us can remember with clarity the few teachers in the past who inspired us and for whom we still harbour great respect. So how do we find these great teachers and how do we make sure that our children can learn from them?

Technology has at last provided at least a partial answer. Here is a course on Justice that caught my eye which is both free and really really inspiring as it explores the origing and morality of justice. The teacher is Michael J Sandel of the Harvard University and I encourage all of you, even the old ones, to just click and listen to his lectures ( there are 12 of them) and I guarantee that after you have heard one, you will not want to miss any of the others.

He is now become exceedingly popular in Asia touring China and Japan recently. Should India be far behind?

“Students everywhere are hungry for discussion of the big ethical questions we confront in our everyday lives,” Sandel argues. “In recent years, seemingly technical economic questions have crowded out questions of justice and the common good. I think there is a growing sense, in many societies, that G.D.P. and market values do not by themselves produce happiness, or a good society. My dream is to create a video-linked global classroom, connecting students across cultures and national boundaries — to think through these hard moral questions together, to see what we can learn from one another.”