Passage 9

Tap any word for its meaning.

In plain words

When there are fewer, we can develop quality much more. When quantity grows, quality falls. As they say in Telugu: The more people there are, the thinner the buttermilk. In the same way, we need not wish for a great many students. We should take fewer, and get more work done with them. Above all, we must win from the students a sacred feeling and trust towards us. If such trust and Prema towards us are missing, however much we labour there will be no result. How do this Prema and this trust arise? Trust, Prema and faith arise when we satisfy them with good words, right advice, and, when the time comes, answers that solve their problem. We must solve the students' problems in time. If he says, "Sir, I have a problem," and we say, "not now, tomorrow, go," depression comes upon him. However much work we have, however many family problems we have, we must solve their problem then and there. There is no one in the world without family problems. Everyone has them. There may be some small quantity difference, but the quality is the same. They are all of one quality. So we must not make this one more new problem among our own problems. When this problem is solved, our own problem too cools down to some extent. So, while we are teachers, solving the students' problems must be our chief aim. When we solve that, our own problem too shrinks a great deal. We must deal with students closely, in the natural matters of daily life.

Moral and spiritual values must be joined to science and taught with it

Teachers teach one matter in each subject. There is Physics. There is Chemistry. It is not good to teach, for the most part, only what belongs to those subjects.