The pain and pleasure of the blackboard

The Blackboards have been both a boon and a bane. Whenever I think of the blackboards, a few names easily walk into my mind. They can hardly be erased from my memory. One of them was my Inorganic Chemistry Professor Mr. K. Swamy. He was too good a gentleman, with absolutely no ego or false attire that would speak of his position. He always used to enter the classroom with a diary in which he used to carry a couple of Papers.

After wishing the students with his gravitating smile, he used to pull out the papers from the diary and used to tell us what he would be teaching that day. “Listen students, Today I would be talking to you about the element Hydrogen.” And the irony was he never used to talk! He just turned towards the blackboard and started writing almost the entire chapter of Hydrogen given in one of the popular books in Inorganic Chemistry. Occasionally, he used to turn and say “Please copy whatever I am writing on your notebooks. It is important.” And he continued till the last inch of the blackboard.

Then, he used to rub whatever was written in the first few lines with the duster and started writing again. After a few minutes, he used to read them ceremoniously. And used to conclude by saying “So these are the properties of Hydrogen.” Almost all the elements included in the curriculum got stuffed on the blackboard with his hands. I really do not know whether the blackboard or the chalk liked to be his victims, but I really started hating the subject. I got the impression that ‘Inorganic chemistry’ is a subject full of facts and statements; I thought all that you need to be an expert in Inorganic Chemistry was a good memory. I decided that I will never pursue that subject any further. I wondered why all that is available in the books should be rewritten on the blackboard. Nevertheless, he enjoyed his writing on the blackboard that he used those chalks optimally!

Destiny always plays its game. I got entry into a post-graduation course in Inorganic and Analytical Chemistry. I entered my PG class with such a heavy heart. But when DR.VVR started teaching Inorganic Chemistry, I found he never used the blackboard. He never used a book or a paper. The way he handled the subject, it was so interesting, logical, and gravitating. The message is clear. He created opportunities for logical thinking, analytical thinking and researching. The Blackboards take the blame for all the misadventures of the teacher!

Even today, I get annoyed with teachers who do not know why we have black board in the class, what is its purpose and how much should we use them. Any educational tool for that matter, a blackboard or a keyboard must be used only when there is no other way of communicating. Any excessive use or any inappropriate tool of that becomes a misuse or an abuse.

I still remember how my class nine teacher Mr. Chella, had spent the entire forty minutes drawing the picture of the eye on the blackboard with colour chalks! Unfortunately, he was left with only five minutes to explain the structure or the function of the eye! A few minutes later when my Maths teacher entered the classroom, he rubbed it off mercilessly! The blackboards have a lot of patience, and they tolerate the differing adventures of the teachers in the classroom alongside their moods too!

I remember an occasion when the principal entered into our classroom because the teacher for the concerned period was on leave. As he entered, he saw on the blackboard the word ‘Grammer;’ he had quick glance. He looked at all of us ‘Which idiot wrote the spelling? It is wrong.” All the students kept quiet. No body had the courage to say that the word was written by the English teacher in the previous period!

The blackboards have tolerated some misadventures of the people who used them to their advantage. It got upset when the geography teacher hid its face with a big map. It got annoyed several times when he used that long stick as a pointer and pierced its body. It got irritated when some students pasted some clippings with a gum.

I fondly recall a short documentary from early seventies which was on the role of the teacher. It refers to a rural school where a young man gets a job as a teacher. This young man after studying and taking a degree in the teacher’s college goes to one of the professors with a question ‘what makes one a good teacher?’. The professor guides him with five important advice. He then reaches out to a few more professors and each of them give him a few more advices. He prefers to marry one of his own classmates who would not demotivate hum for taking up the position of the teacher. Having got the job in the rural school, he thinks the first impression is the best impression. Therefore, he plans his lesson for the class three for the next day. Having entered the class and wishing the students he goes to the blackboard and draws a picture of the tree. He uses various colours to decorate the tree. And then he turns around and asks the students “Look, how beautiful the tree is”. The students only a score in the number, leave their seats, open the glass window and point to the tree outside and say “Yes sir. The tree is beautiful to look at!” We need to understand the mismatch between what is on the blackboard and what other options are there for effective teaching!

Five decades before, one of the university professors in the department of education invited me for a micro teaching class which was to be recorded. I was given twenty minutes time to teach a topic of my choice to a group of five students with the condition that I would not use a) the blackboard b) the textbook c) will make no statements verbally. All that I had to do was to go on asking questions and should develop the concepts only through questions and drive home the concepts. The topic given to me was ‘the manufacture of ammonia’. Well, I stood up to the challenge and learnt that there are a number of pedagogical methods that can be used to make the learning interesting.

The focus must be on enabling learning than teaching! And for that task, let us understand that the blackboard is just a tool!