Today, October 5th, is World Teachers’ Day and the theme this year is: The right to education means the right to a qualified teacher. I’m thankful for all the qualified and unqualified teachers who have been my teachers. In the small, third-world country in which I grew up and was educated, primary school teachers were not “qualified.” There was a Teacher’s College but I’m not sure that many teachers went there. Yet, thankfully they taught us and we learned. They just knew how to teach.
Teaching is the only major occupation…for which we have not developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the naturals, the ones who somehow know how to teach. ~ Peter Drucker
Here in Canada, we’re very fortunate that our students have qualified teachers who have been to Teachers College. There are standards laid out for the profession and we expect a high level of excellence. Some of those standards, are Commitment to Students and Student Learning, Professional Knowledge, Professional Practice, Leadership in Learning Communities, and Ongoing Professional Learning. Those are all worthwhile goals and combined with compassion, kindness, and understanding, there exists the ingredients for the making of a “great” teacher.
One looks back with appreciation to the brilliant teachers, but with gratitude to those who touched our human feelings. The curriculum is so much necessary raw material, but warmth is a vital element for the growing plant and for the soul of the child. ~ Carl Jung
I’ve had all kinds of teachers in my life – music teachers (private), Sunday School teachers, exercise teachers, flower arranging teachers, and so forth. With due respect to all the qualified teachers out there on this World Teachers’ Day, most of these “unqualified” teachers have a special place in my heart. They taught what they were supposed to teach and also showed interest in me as a human being. They didn’t go to Teachers College but they taught me many important skills and life lessons that serve me in good stead today.
What makes people smart, curious, alert, observant, competent, confident, resourceful, persistent – in the broadest and best sense, intelligent – is not having access to more and more learning places, resources and specialists, but being able in their lives to do a wide variety of interesting things that matter, things that challenge their ingenuity, skill, and judgement, and that make an obvious difference in their lives and the lives of the people around them. ~ John Holt
There’s no end to what we’re here to learn as human beings. We need to learn what schools are here to teach us but we also need to learn how to live our lives. Education goes way beyond the classroom and finds its way into our everyday lives. What kind of citizens do we become? Are we concerned about the welfare of our planet? Are we concerned for others less fortunate than us? What kind of difference does it make that we are here? What are our contributions in life? This list could go on and on but I think you get the gist of what I’m saying.
Congratulations to all our teachers – those who are qualified and those who don’t fit the bill. You’re all doing a great job. Just remember that your students all have their own talents, skills, and abilities – just not all of the same ones.
Here is a list of ten quotes that are some of my favourites on education. Enjoy!
Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves. ~ Ernest Dimnet
Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered. It is something molded. ~Antoine de Saint Exupery
Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. ~ Chinese Proverb
A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering on cold iron. ~ Horace Mann
It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge. ~ Albert Einstein
It is in fact a part of the function of education to help us escape, not from our own time — for we are bound by that — but from the intellectual and emotional limitations of our time. ~ T.S. Eliot
The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery. ~ Mark Van Doren
The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, “The children are now working as if I did not exist. ~ Maria Montessori
Fear is not a good teacher. The lessons of fear are quickly forgotten. ~ Mary Catherine Bateson
I am not a teacher, but an awakener. ~ Robert Frost
