World Teachers’ Day: The architects of young minds

Published October 5, 2013
Illustration by  Ghazala
Illustration by Ghazala

IN teaching, you cannot see the fruit of a day’s work. It is invisible and remains so, maybe for 20 years.

— Jacques Barzun

A good teacher is like a candle — it consumes itself to light the way for others.

— Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

SANA was having difficulty understanding a certain topic in her textbook. But then she recalled what she had studied in earlier classes, things started to make sense. It was only then that a thought emerged in her mind. She suddenly realised that each and every teacher who had taught her in the previous classes had helped her learn all that she knows today.

Starting from Montessori, nursery and junior classes — her teachers had been the ones who had taught her how to read and write. And all that Sana had learnt about every subject was helping her not only in studies, but also in her everyday life.Sana’s thinking is absolutely right. Teachers train us in every aspect of life — academic, social, ethical, financial, etc. They also help us to develop our thinking and intuitive power — in short they train us to be a better human being and live a better life.

Just like parents, teachers too shape our lives for good and help us grow and become better persons. That is why they deserve as much respect and care, and should hold as important a place in our lives as our parents and close family members do.

World Teachers’ Day is marked to remember all that we discussed above and to show our appreciation to teachers for all the good they do or have done in our lives. It is a day as important as Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.

The day is celebrated on October 5 in more than 100 countries and by over 400 member organisations of Education International — the international body of teachers. The day was established by United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) in 1994 to generate awareness, understanding and appreciation of the teachers’ role in education and development; to generate support for teachers’ wellbeing and to make sure that students’ needs continue to be met by teachers.

Understanding the significance of the role, teachers play in our lives is the starting point for showing our appreciation to them. It is only then that we develop and generate the respect inside us that all our teachers deserve. At a collective or general level, it is only teachers who are responsible for giving our society successful individuals.

It is a tough task to teach young children who have just entered school. Teachers have to adjust to the learning capabilities of children to make sure they learn the basics of every subject. And while doing that they also have to generate and maintain the interest of young students. Teachers also have the added responsibility to give occasional words of advice. And for doing that and laying the foundations for development of the mind, they deserve praise and respect.

There are many ways of celebrating this day and showing our respect to teachers. The simplest way would be to say ‘Thank you’ to all your teachers for their efforts and role in our lives. We can give them greeting cards or we can assign a class representative to say thanks, on behalf of the entire class, to each subject teacher at the beginning of every period.

Teachers like to be appreciated for their work, effort and concern and any disclosure on students’ part about what they mean to us would mean a world to them.

You can request your principal to organise something to honour your teachers, such as an essay contest in which students are asked to write about their favourite teachers or a speech contest on the importance of teachers and the role they play in our lives.

Apart from these things, there are several other things that you can do easily to honour your teachers. You can raise awareness about teachers’ importance via media by contributing articles to different newspapers.

Many of the basic rights of teachers are being ignored in our country. With the approval of your school teachers and parents you can join hands with teachers in safeguarding teachers’ rights. Unfortunately, teaching is not a well paid profession in our country, particularly in government schools. And, in private schools, more often than not, teachers are being exploited by school authorities in one form or the other. This is just to give you a basic idea of the issues faced by our teachers.

A society cannot progress unless it learns to value and respect its teachers. So, if you want to earn respect, money, name and fame, value your teachers — as they are the ones who feed our souls, inspire our hearts and nourish our minds.

Opinion

Editorial

Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...
Provincial share
Updated 17 Mar, 2024

Provincial share

PPP has aptly advised Centre to worry about improving its tax collection rather than eying provinces’ share of tax revenues.
X-communication
17 Mar, 2024

X-communication

IT has now been a month since Pakistani authorities decided that the country must be cut off from one of the...
Stateless humanity
17 Mar, 2024

Stateless humanity

THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two ...