Tuesday 9 October 2012

World Teachers' Day- October 05


Flashback...

I was three and a half years old, holding my mom's hand and staring at my first school's first teacher. As nice and sweet as she seemed, she did not impress me at all. So as soon as I was left in my first class, I demanded to be back at home with my mom again. I hated my teacher, hated school at first sight and never wanted to be there. And as much as I hated it then, I absolutely miss it now.

Twenty years later...  

I rubbed my eyes and looked at the alarm clock. It was 7:45 a.m already!! I had to reach the lecture hall by 8:00 a.m. So I rushed as fast as I could, grabbed my notebook and headed straight for Dr. Ihsan's class. May I come in Sir? I requested for permission and my teacher nodded as he watched the wall clock. It was 8:05 a.m. The door was closed right after I took my favorite seat in the front row along with my friends. What took you so long? My best friend whispered to me. Dr. Ihsan didn't allow any late arrivals and we were all perfectly aware of that. It was my fourth year at Medical school and like every year, we had new teachers for new subjects. It was like, they had become an important part of our life. They were the subject of discussion and their methods were both appreciated and criticized. They saw through us and pointed and corrected our mistakes and sometimes it had to be made a hard lesson. One of the perks of being in a med school is that you constantly learn and re-learn and many aspects of your personality will depend on your teachers. So whose class is next? I asked my friend. "The snaky's" She replied. Cool. I told myself calmly. I knew who would that be. The snake like teacher who everyone hated because he was too strict with his principles. And as much the students detested him, it turned out that they learned the most from him. Then there was this much enjoyable "psychiatry" class that everyone awaited all week !! Its amazing how your teacher makes the subject so much more interesting that your priorities of subjects change and that's not because of the subject itself but for its teacher. 

I remember how boring "physics" used to be in college and how amazed I used to get at any person telling me how fascinating this subject really was. Is this person crazy? I would ask myself every time somebody told me that. Then I happen to change the teacher and there's the magic. All of a sudden physics became the most alluring subject for me. So who did this magic? It wasn't me but definitely my new teacher.

Oh no. Not her!! I exclaimed as i saw the time table and found out that its time for the teacher whom nobody liked. She was an excellent teacher of her subject but she had eyes for no one except that one little favorite student. Its funny how nobody likes favoritism and yet favoritism is all around. That's our teacher's pet!! We would call the student who would never lose an opportunity to be the gem of this teacher.

Everyday, every year we get exposed to new teachers who become our mentors. They inspire us in many ways. They constantly correct us and as much as we can like or dislike their ways of teaching, we owe them all that we have learned from them and much more than that!! 

World Teachers' Day is being celebrated on 5th Oct annually since 1994 - since it was created by UNESCO. Its aim is to provide support to the teachers Worldwide. This day signifies the appreciation of the vital contribution that teachers make to education and development of a nation. Over 100 countries observe this day. "Take a stand for teachers!!" is the slogan for World Teachers Day 2012 . And with this slogan, lets extend our support to all the teachers around the world !!


"Those who educate children well are more to be honored than they who produce them; for these only gave them life, those the art of living well." ― Aristotle


(Written by Komal Bukhari-member CEAP team)




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