If your ladder needs help.......

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This is a very practical question that my friend asked me yesterday.

"I heard from people that one of my school teachers for whom I have good regards and a lot of respect, needs help financially. He is quite old and his family is dependant on him. Now, it is not easy and practical to just walk over to people who have been a pillar that offers support to the needy and a ladder with strongest of rungs that brought up your career/inner strength/confidence, and ask " Heard you need financial support. How may I help you?"...

How do you think I should approach this teacher? He has played a very important role in what I am today. I want to help and the problem is I have not been in touch for quite long now. I do not know what his exact needs are and what kind of assistance is appropriate to give...

Can you and your blog readers help me think?

Here is what I told him. Meet your teacher once in a while;tell him about your college and career.. In due course of conversation, you will get to know about his position.. You can recommend that he continues teaching as a guest lecturer in a college/teacher in a school or as a tutor in institutes. If he is interested, you can probably help float his profile over to a few places that you can manage to find for him. Basically, you are finding him a job to do, to help him earn a living. That's the best you can do. If he needs support on the facility to conduct the sessions, you can offer to fund the rent for the place as your contribution to the student community.Never make it sound like you are doing your teacher a favor. He may not accept it just now, but may be later after getting to know you better, he would. You can help in advertising his classes and make an arrangement with the nearest copiers for a prompt support on the teacher's requests for print outs and photo copies of hand-outs for students. If all of these do not work out, spend time talking to him over a period of time and slowly he will let you see what is on his mind.

Now dear reader, that was my take.....what is your answer to my friend's question? If you have read this far, please take a minute to respond to this post. Not every day you come across some important question like this on a blog post. Appreciate your time and effort to answer this post. Thank you.

Comments

Videhi said…
adding to your suggestion to float the profile...am sure ur fren must be a tech-savvy and is aware of virtual classroom options..may be he should facilitate such an earning option..this way the teacher can make a better living and ur fren will be elated to mediate this by himself..
12:27 PM
Videhi said…
adding to your suggestion to float the profile...am sure ur fren must be a tech-savvy and is aware of virtual classroom options..may be he should facilitate such an earning option..this way the teacher can make a better living and ur fren will be elated to mediate this by himself..
12:27 PM
Unknown said…
My take would be that it is the duty of the student to rush to his/her teacher when there is a
need - irrespective of whether there is a call or else. Since the teacher is quite old, a peaceful
life ahead would be more useful than continuing teaching. The kin of the teacher can be supported
to find a professional footing , so that the family stands to gain respect. If many such like
minded people pool in some good sizeable cash, a pension corpus fund can be set up . A teacher ..a good one ...always gives and hardly takes ... it is still the students to be a worthy of it. Pity that in our country , a nation with the highest human capital in the world.. the powerful profession is treated as thankless at it could be !!!!!
4:23 PM
Casey said…
I think meeting ur teacher and sharing ur experiences is the first and foremost thing to do. Taking fruits, sweets, etc. is normal and acceptable. After the visit, you will be better able to identify the need and how to help. The key being how best to handle the financial aspect as it is a very touchy aspect for most ppl.
3:42 PM
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