Well, this may or may not be a familiar quote when it comes to regard with teachers, but to me, it does suit my tastes well. In our society, we have a major misunderstanding that the title ‘teacher’ belongs only to our ‘academic educators’, but we need to know that the title is extended to all kinds of educators just as ‘education’ is not just ‘academic education’ but roofs many other domains of life in a single word. In better words, all are teachers – we teach ourselves and we teach others, intentionally or unintentionally – but some of us don’t enjoy this well... But on the Teacher’s day, we specifically take time to appreciate those teachers who have spent considerable time of their lives in sacrifice to teach others and also enjoy doing it as a part of their life. This includes our parents, who have become our life’s best teachers with whom we have spent time far greater than with any other teacher...
Being a high school student, I have already come across different types of teachers at school: some so strict & fierce that everyone goes to cowed silence at their sight, some others very soft at words that we exploit their freedom to make a market out of the class, some so interactive & lovely that we indeed fall in love with the subject, some who load up piles of home work that won’t be finished even after 1 am the next morning, others who talk & write in lightning speed leaving us all the way behind, some on whom the ‘daring’ used to play pranks, a few so boring & moody as their subjects and some so funny who even slept in the class…but amazingly, each one has had a different impact on us: some deeper than expectations and others leaving barely a trace on our minds. Most of us at that age would dislike teachers who punished us for our mistakes and love the teachers who said nothing even if we jumped on their heads. Yet now when we think back, there rises an unusual respect, gratitude & love for the former type from our hearts as we come to taste the fruits of the pains their sticks & hands had offered us. They had actually left ‘gooseberry lessons’ in our little hearts then which now brings out its sweetness. It’s no more their sticks that appear when we think of them but the concealed love in their eyes that flash in our memories. Their words of instruction & advice still continue to resound in our ears. It’s not just the academic lessons that bears fruits but even the value education which they poured out into our hearts in words of love. I remember that in the lower primary I used to scribble in the back pages of the note book when frustrated, unable to write some newly taught English alphabet. Once my teacher caught me by my ear, red handed and made me erase all the back pages after which she placed her hand over mine and helped me to write out the letter. It was my first lesson of patience – which I’ll never forget! – It taught me not to be frustrated easily at anything and never to give up trying...
Teachers are like one of the first candles that light up our world of imaginations; they indeed open our minds to the world. Real teaching is in fact more than a profession as the commoners see it to be, it is rather what that flows out of a person’s experience (knowledge), wisdom and love… and therefore the truth is that ‘great teachers never in reality teach!’ Most of us barely realize this but we all know the story in which a king learns from a spider the lesson of perseverance.
Moreover, we’ve got one of the great teachers of nature creeping right beside our feet – ants! – There are a lot of lessons which these small fellows teach us without actually teaching us [but by their lives itself]. Learning is a lifelong process, i.e., in other words, Life is by itself the best teacher all throughout our lives…It first tests us and then teaches the lessons unlike our present academic education which does the other way round. The result is that in the former instance, one is bound to never forget the lessons as the lessons are more valued than the marks of the test whereas in the latter we easily forget the lessons within two weeks of exams as it pulls out more value for the marks of the test.
In relation with teacher’s day, my message is that, it is a day on which we remember all the lessons we’ve learnt and then whole heartedly appreciate the one who taught them to us – not by just simply appreciating by empty words but rather appreciate from the bottom of your heart which means to follow what the teachers have taught us through the lessons, for that is true appreciation. And nevertheless, those teachers shall be always bound in our memories along with their lessons – and plainly speaking, implementing from what we learnt from them is the best tribute to our teachers. Let’s all remember that a good teacher is like a candle that burns itself to give out light for others; once the candle is over, the wax that is left of it has no meaning but the light that was spread by it holds the meaning and continues to live in the lives of other candles…and together the whole world will be lit up because of that single candle…! I would like to hereby anchor my words saying that, “Mistakes are welcome as long as a teacher is present, but without a teacher in sight, mistakes give way to serious consequences…”
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