"THE DREAM begins with a teacher who believes in you, who tugs and pushes and leads you to the next plateau, sometimes poking you with a sharp stick called 'truth'" - Dan Rather

 

Speaking of Aamir Khan as a best actor, director and filmmaker is not enough to compliment him. In his efforts to make a difference in society through the medium of films with diverse subjects like “the triumph of human spirit” in Lagaan and “triumph of a child’s mind” in Taare Zameen Par, now Aamir seems to rise beyond his role in reel life like Ishan Awasthi, a dyslexic boy in Taare Zameen Par, rises up beyond his problems. It’s because he always “love anything that has to do with the positive side of the human spirit.”

 

After exploring the subject of dyslexia and also the teacher-students relationship, the Bollywood icon and also the brand ambassador of Teach India campaign is concerned for today’s education system, teacher’s profession and teacher’s role in moulding the students.

 

Observing that too much competition has taken away the humanitarian aspect from schoolchildren, who seem to be lost in the race of mathematical calculations and report cards, perfectionist and method actor of Bollywood feels that rather than focusing on memorizing subjects by the students, the teachers should ask the intelligent students to help his friend who is weak in a particular subject. This will incorporate the feeling of sharing and caring among students and will help in making them good individuals.

 

In an interactive session with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the 140-year-old St. Xaviers’ College recently, the actor expressed that today’s education system hardly encourages children to ask questions. Khan also emphasized on encouraging and appreciating those minds, which are thirsty and hungry for knowledge and children who believe in questioning, searching, disagreeing and not just memorizing and cramming. Besides, he stressed on giving much value to teaching profession.

 

With the backdrop of several incidents related to teacher-student clashes, increasing crime rate among juvenile and teacher’s strike demanding hike in pay scale, Aamir’s concern, effort and most importantly his points are very laudable that also charmed the US Secretary of State.

 

However, other than aforementioned points there are several other problems which are existing in our education system like mugging (which is the theme of Aamir’s forthcoming film called 3 Idiots).

 

Whereas providing infrastructure and other facilities are up to Government, but problems like mugging, teacher’s, student’s unacceptable behaviour can be controlled through the initiative of this community only as Khan aptly suggested that everyone should take the responsibility to contribute something towards education which is the foundation of any society.