Do you have fond memories of a special teacher from childhood, or feel warm gratitude for a teacher who inspired one of your children? I do.
This week, in the U.S., it is teacher appreciation week. And although I wanted to write about my memories of people who have influenced my life, I find myself angry instead.
Angry that we give trite gifts and cards to teachers on a designated day, rather than honor their amazing contribution with wages that show the impact they have on our future, individually and collectively. Frustrated that so many of our children are warehoused in school–not inspired and their genius nurtured–because their teachers are locked within the confines of pre-determined structure and testing. Saddened by the sense of “other” between adults and children in most schools, and the violence both experience daily in some schools.
The future of our world depends on the ability of the next generation to use their minds beyond memorizing facts. The great teachers cultivate all our mental faculties:
- Imagination
- Intuition
- Will
- Perception
- Reason
- Memory
If you think back to your own list of teachers who stand out in your memory as impacting your life, you will notice their gift to you was probably in helping you develop one of your other strengths like will or imagination.
The amazing teachers of my youth might not have survived the weight of today’s education system on their creative ways of pulling the genius from students.
And yet, incredible teachers still surface in every city and school throughout the world–men and women who are passionate about inspiring the next generation.
Yes, thank them this week. But more importantly help them to succeed. Support their field trips and projects. Ask them what they need. And do whatever you can to help them stay enlivened to their calling–whether you join in global, national or local movements or simply work to keep the education system in your own community an enriching space.
Education is so much more than stuffing facts into little people so they know what we know when they grow up. As Maria Montessori noted,
Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is keep us out of war.
What a great idea!
My INCREDIBLE teacher – literature and philosophy – was always open minded and listener to all our thoughts and problems. He was the first adult who took pupils serious. His helping steps to think by yourself inspired all of us pupils – gave me confidence for future!
My INCREDIBLE teacher, in which I fell in love when I was 17, is my partner and friend and lover now. And yes – he is suffering that education in school today means , that there is no time for discuss about life, no time for talk and listen and thinking individually, cause children forced to learn harder and faster, strictly what they have to learn – nothing less or more. Poor childhood.