The Everyday Super Hero
“Teaching is the most powerful weapon which you
can use to change the world.”
~Nelson Mandela
If you can solve a mathematical problem, read a book, write a letter, calculate distance, or even cook a meal, then you know who you should be thanking. One of the most important professions across the world, that of a teacher, is one that commonly comes with little thanks or acknowledgement.
It doesn’t really matter what kind of community you are talking about, they all have teachers. If you think about it, teachers have the ability to make an extreme impression and contribution to society, even changing the world. Educating, not just our future but our present, is what allows us to function as a blooming society. They inspire success and encourage us to venture out of our element, allowing us to prove to ourselves that “yes, we can.”
I have had many inspirational teachers throughout my life that I think of often and thank constantly. Like many good teachers a few I had cleared the cobwebs from my brain and made the completely incomprehensive suddenly understandable. This gave me the confidence to push myself farther and excel. Their excitement for the subject and creativeness to make it interesting, passed to me and in turn made me interested and excited as well. Really? Excited about Algebra? Me? Yes! My professor in college completely turned around my confidence. Mathematics was never my strong suit in school but after learning from my college professor, I realized it takes that special person that loves what they teach to inspire you to love it as well.
Sometimes teachers are the only constant in our lives. Someone we see on a daily basis and that you can count on will always be there. Not just to teach but to listen, coach, guide, console, encourage, and mentor us for our future goals and aspirations. A good teacher knows that no dream is too big or small for their students and they take the time to encourage those dreams.
Teachers also understand the importance of life skills and work at introducing those skills within their teachings which is a creative and necessary way to educate our youth on important life lessons that would be very hard to learn any other way. A teacher usually does not ask for any thanks, they are humble and quiet. When I tried to thank her, that college professor I spoke of earlier, told me “no thank you was necessary.” Her thank you was seeing me succeed and enjoy Algebra and mathematics in general.
This, being teacher appreciation week, remember to thank all of our teachers. Without them we would not be who we were yesterday, who we are now, or who we will become in the future.