Learning to teach

Sandhya Bhattacharya (acj, 98)

Thank you for letting me know about Mr Sanyal's death. Like Vijay, I must admit that being his student was nerve racking, to say the least. But I was shocked and saddened by this news.

Surprisingly, I've thought about Mr Sanyal many times in the last decade, (he would even rant in my dreams). As someone who is now herself a teacher I've spent a fair amount of time reflecting upon effective pedagogical strategies, and reviewed those of my mentors. I remember reluctantly coming to the conclusion that Mr Sanyal was (despite my deep seated resistance to him), among the finer teachers I've had. Like my peer in ACJ I still cringe when I see writing in passive voice -- and thanks to him, am conscious about adopting the apposite word in a given context.

As I try to teach my students to write efficiently and get frustrated when they can barely string two words together, I find myself actually sympathising with Mr Sanyal! I honestly never did think I would be tempted to lash out like he did, but have come close to doing so several occasions. But I always remember how his temper would affect students and have learned to keep mine in check.

So aside from learning how to write I suppose Mr Sanyal also inadvertently taught me how to teach. We never do think of telling people that we have learned something from them (and honestly, I don't know if I would have done so had he been alive). But I did want to share this with you, who have known him perhaps far better than I did.