October 5th of every year is when we celebrate World Teachers’ Day. For a whole day, we remember the ones who have helped mold us into the person we are today. They may have different ways of imparting knowledge on to our brains, but the end game is all the same — to make sure that we are better prepared for whatever life has in store for us. It may sound cheesy af, but that does not make it any less true.
I come from a family of teachers. My mom and her twin, my dad, my dad’s sister, my grandmother, two great aunts, and my current favorite person are all teachers. Since I was a little child, I was already exposed to the things teachers do to prepare for class on a daily basis. Everyone sees what happens in the classroom — teacher explains things, ask questions, give exams, scold the noisy ones, etc. Make no mistake, those things are tough to do everyday and can be physically, mentally and emotionally draining. But the behind the scenes stuff aren’t exactly a walk in the park, either.
Teachers often have to stay up late and wake up early to research their lessons, compute grades, make lesson plans, and for the incredibly extra ones, make visual aids and tools to make class a little bit more engaging. Sometimes these Knowledge Warriors take a lot of crap for being uptight, scary, and unnecessarily fierce, but truth be told, they are like this because they want students to learn. We don’t see it at the time, but with the introspective look that hindsight provides, we can agree that most, if not all, of our teachers are part of the reason we’ve reached the point we’re in today.
Admittedly, there are teachers that give half-assed effort when doing their job, all the while receiving their full salary and benefits. But they are the exception rather than the rule, as with every profession, and should not be seen as the picture of what the teaching force truly is like.
So show your teachers some love! They will appreciate it and will be used as inspiration for them to continue doing what they do.
Happy World Teachers’ Day!
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