THE idiom ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’, said to have been coined by William Shakespeare, is misconstrued when it is translated into our culture as Harr Funn Maula (expert in every field). It ignores the second part of the English counterpart — ‘master of none’ — which is the critical part of the figure of speech, stressing that a person who knows something about everything cannot be an expert of any one thing.

You must be wondering what this is all about. Well, this only relates to my observations about the interest spans of students and their teachers in the fields beyond the ambit of their study and duty. The students, I find, have a remarkable body of information regarding software and hardware of mobile phones, camera specifications, social media platforms, sports and showbiz. But I find them skimming through academic books that need laser-focussed attention.

A few students use mobile phone for their studies, doing the initial research about various topics on the internet, and the rest through books. The majority, however, finds the online stuff just about enough, if not more than enough, to pass their next exam.

One important factor behind this behaviour is that the teachers do pretty much the same. They are a bit more lax as they do not have to sit the exams anymore. They exchange barbs on political and other matters of significance with their shallow knowledge in their spare time. Dirges on the rising prices of commodities consume their time and energy. Even the areas they have no business with can and do easily lead them astray from student-centric discussions.

If we want our students to devote themselves to their studies, our teachers will have to make the students and their study issues the topic of their discussions. When students see teachers dawdling with their mobile phones, even sharing things with the students, we can hardly expect the students to love their books.

Digital novelties are just fads that cause distractions among students. Teachers with books in their hands have gone extinct. They themselves do not use their mobile phones for research and development purposes.

Geoffrey Chaucer, the English poet and author, rightly remarked that ‘when gold rusts, what then will iron do?’ In this age of expertise and specialisation, one will have to excel in one area of interest, and be interested in subways related to the main area.

For instance, if someone in a struggling phase wants to be a banker one day, instead of working at a tea stall, one should work at a bank as a service boy. Serving at a bank for some menial job may give him some knowledge of the various banking processes. At least this will keep him focussed on his aim.

Excellence in one area of study bestows upon us a huge wealth of self-confidence. A teacher who specialises and branches out in his or her own subject, enjoys teaching the class with panache, and is never floored by students’ queries. A teacher’s self-confidence is contagious and wraps his/her students in its fold. Only this way, teachers can instill in their students the love for the subject.

The Quaid-i-Azam also told the nation’s students that their first and foremost duty was to focus on their studies wholeheartedly because it was their first obligation to their state, to their parents and to their own selves.

M. Nadeem Nadir
Kasur

Published in Dawn, November 3rd, 2021