Law school faculties are a rare breed.
I am sure this post applies to all the faculties but I am in a law school and so will comment only on them.
So, where was I? Yes, they are a rare breed.
‘Good’ law school faculties are even rarer.
There is a very simple reason behind the situation. Why would someone who has such a qualification and decent presentation skills want to become a faculty?
What does a faculty get? Around Rs. 50,000 per month give or take a few. Normal perks. Partially human conditions to live in, if they are lucky. The worst part is that students treat faculties very harshly. There are only two categories of faculties when students classify them. Great and pathetic. There is no middle level.
A faculty does not get enough appreciation for the effort they put it. I have done one hour presentations and I can assure you that you need to prepare for atleast three hours for giving a decent presentation. Law school faculties have to update themselves constantly to survive. They are expected to surf search websites and learn how to use softwares as soon as they are out. So we can see that the expectations are pretty high.
What’s the flip side?
The results aren’t that good even if the faculty meets the high expectations. Students sleep off in class. It’s not that the lecture is boring, it’s just that he was playing Counter Strike all night or she was watching One Tree Hill, but the reason that will be given by them is that the faculties are not up to the mark. Criticizing is so easy. It takes away all the blame from your end. As soon as anything happens, “Oh, the faculties are not good”.
Whoever said truth was the ultimate defence did not know that he could also blame the faculty instead!
If I had a LLB, LLM, MPHIL degree and had cleared the NET exam, I would never teach. If I can get a job which pays a lot more than a faculty’s salary and that too with amazing chances of growth, my life is set.
What people don’t understand is that to become a teacher you need to have a tremendous sense of public service. They watch students they teach get more starting salary then their current salary. They see that in 10 years of their teaching carriers their students have gone on to become important people in big companies and are much more successful. They are the butt of all jokes in the college. They are a generation behind the students and still try to learn all the new things. They also encourage the good students. They take extra care of the not so bright students. They give tips of all aspects of life. They take all the criticism from the students. They do academic work and are more often than not also assigned administrative work. They sometimes live away from their families just for the sake of teaching. They are the last support the students have before the students’ start their ‘professional lives’. They sacrifice so much and get nothing in return still they never complain to the students.
I now understand why in ancient India people used to respect their ‘Guru’ so much. They knew the sacrifices that he/she was making and respected it. It is that respect that I feel is now gone. It is a very sorry state of affairs. People who want to teach are not given the opportunity and those who teach are not given enough credit. They transform a student into a professional and do not get enough credit for it.
I have, and will respect all my faculties. I might criticize them from time to time but that is because I am weak and because I cannot appreciate their effort sometimes or because their methods are a bit traditional but in the end when I sit and think about it, they are pretty darn awesome!
If you think you are better than any of your faculty then try taking classes for a week, I am absolutely sure that at the end of the week you will be a changed person. You will become more tolerant, more open to criticism and above all, more content with life.
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My other posts
Entry of Foreign Law Firms: Let them in
Love in the times of Law School
Nari Adalat: A Social Experiment
Thank You!
Napster.
Constructive suggestions are welcome.
P.S. - I might end up being a faculty :)