Teachers are keepers of the faith, no matter the manner, no matter the circumstances, the setting or milieu. Some people ridicule teachers by saying, “what kids can learn from someone who decided early on that his best option in life is to become a teacher?”
But teachers persist in their avowed profession despite the low pay, long and sometime dangerous work hours, discrimination and many such other matters that can diminish nay maim those lowly spirits out there in their comfort zones. The teacher persists because of the firm belief that good education is the great equalizer between haves and have-nots, between colors, creed or gender or nationality. The teacher persists because of love of country even if the long longed promised salary is really long in coming.
The teacher is a hard worker. He can make kids wonder, question or criticize. He can make students read and show their works in math. He can make students pledge allegiance to the flag. He can make students sit for 60 minutes of class time when parents cannot make them stay put for five minutes without iPad, playstation or Netflix.
Why are teachers not appreciated or if appreciated, when? When teachers are retired and enfeebled? When Alzheimer’s disease has set in, when twilight time has come when he can no longer feel the touch of a vanished hand or hear the sound of a song that is gone?
Whether the teacher is appreciated or not, he will persist because, as the Avengers would say: “We’ll do whatever it takes” to save the world. True, the teacher will do things not as dramatic as saving the world but as simple as a touching the wrinkled brow of a kid, of lifting his sagged shoulders or saving him from depression even if the teacher himself is heavy with the mundane cares of living.
Trust the teacher to man the ramparts of education against all odds. He’s like an avenger trying to always do what’s right even when everything seems wrong. The teacher will fight for right and good and peace. As the soldiers would say” theirs is not to question why, theirs is just to do or die”
And so, when you meet a teacher, please smile at him. It doesn’t cost a thing but will enliven your spirit for you would have done something good that will surely make the teacher happy and, more importantly, it will ennoble your being. Alleluia!