“I have lived the experience of many of my students,” writes an American school teacher, “which includes hating math and failing in math”. And she talks about her school experiences to her students – “I’m brutally honest”. This Oakley school teacher, Deborah Berry, has been chosen ‘teacher of the year’ for Contra Costa County, Calif., USA.

    I wonder if we have in Mysore a system in place to so honour our dedicated school teachers. If we don’t, won’t you say, it is time we set one up? When we can think of a ‘Miss Mysore’ beauty queen or ‘Mr Mysore’ in weight-lifting or body-building, why can’t we have a ‘Sir/madam Mysore’ award for our school-teaching community? District education department, associations of school managements, teachers, PTAs, or even school alumni could give it a thought and come up the modalities. Or it might be worth emulating the practice they adopt in the US. How do they do it?  I asked Jackie Burrell, education reporter of ‘Contra Costa Times’ which carried the ‘teacher of the year’ story.

    This is what Jackie wrote back: “Teachers and administrators in each school district nominate their own district teacher of the year. Then, each district honoree fills out a lengthy application that includes biographical and career information, and essays on their educational philosophy, experiences and background. A county office of education committee sifts through the applications and the county superintendent personally visits the classrooms of all 20 district teachers of the year. Together, they select three finalists and then, at a banquet, name one as county teacher of the year. That teacher -- Oakley's Deborah Berry for 2005 -- goes on to compete at the state level. There is a national competition also.”