A Teacher’s Worth

The world is one big classroom, I must say.  And we are all the students learning how to figure out life’s great lessons.  Just as we are looking at that big greenboard of countless possibilities of reading, of thinking, of testing ideas, of talking and of course, communicating.

We all sit there in our own chairs and desks doing what is required by our society. Taking up life roles quite unique to us and doing what is expected of us to do. And the challenge, is for us to contribute. To open up. To understand. To question. To clarify. To accept.  To be better.

And like most of the students, we have varied approaches to learning. Some diligent, some irresponsible, some bookish, some drifters, some enthusiasts etc. Same as true as how we do in our lives. No one in the class can contend who did well or who did not, but only the teacher, who had the lesson plan. The teacher who has the pen to write down the grades.  The teacher who is in the front like a mighty warrior quelling ignorance among us. 

They say, a teacher is a great influence to your well-being, second to your parents.  If the teacher has inspired you, there you’ll get inspired.  If the teacher has empowered you, then you’ll be of power.  And if the teacher make you see wider than you are used to, I bet, you will go a long way than you could ever imagine.

And the success of the teacher is not on how many doctors, lawyers, CEO’s and government officials they had produced.  But teachers who produce another set of responsible teachers and mentors in other fields enriching and nourishing.  The workplace. The community. The church.  The government.  The society.

Even after university life, we all have mentors in our workplaces. We have elders in our churches to encourage us.  We have community leaders who prod us to be responsible. We have fathers and mothers, whose voices are still relevant. In this life, no one survives on his own. We need teachers, who can tell us the difference between right and wrong.  We need teachers, who had a definite view of what is acceptable or not. We need teachers, who have a strong moral ethic and can’t be compromised.

That is the worth of a teacher.  That was how their profession is simply the noblest.  You might say, that it seems like forever their turf is in the classroom.  Staying there as long as they have the energy to teach. But can you imagine, how their ideals travelled the world, among their students?  Can you imagine how the society at large being built by their minds among the movers and shakers of this generation?

The world may boast of its many achievements.  But these rest upon the shoulders of the teachers whose influence help shape it.  The teacher whose idea fire an imagination.  The teacher whose life becomes a beacon of hope between the present and the future.