Who would you consider to be the best kind of people in society?
Families? Undoubtedly unmatched. Doctors? They literally expand what can be possible! They have got to be up there. The youth? Future of tomorrow! Teachers—definitely just beside our guardians, and in such a chaotic time for our ill country, the 5th of October reminds us of the choice to remain hopeful for the good in society.
They are not called our second parents for no reason. We spend what feels like an eternity with our mentors, constantly seeking their insights, which allow us to shape our desired identity. Between a student and an esteemed counselor lies a strong bond, and it is that time we spend with them that makes them barely distinguishable from our families.
I know you also have a special teacher you annually greet on Teachers' Day or occasionally talk to even outside of school. In my case, it was a certain English teacher during my elementary days. She was all types of A’s: affable, assertive, admirable, you name it! She left to further advance in her career—something I support as one of the many students that looked up to her, but it never stopped me from loving her as, aptly, my second parent. And occasionally, even she would check in on the feats I too have achieved. This is what I mean when mentors become our second families.
Their presence never leaves our lives. How could they? These masters of education have taught us not only career making but also important life lessons. I am not the one to completely share my hardships with people other than my family, but I know a lot of people who do bond a lot with our superiors at school, sharing their experiences with love or even diving deeper on future academic goals, and in these cases, I feel that these coaches of ours perform better than our families.
It cannot be helped to say that there truly are some areas our vigilant counselors become better at than our families—the most obvious one being teaching. It literally is their forte. I am sure many would argue that our families especially provide real, concrete, practical advice in life, but you need more than willpower and ethics to succeed. You cannot become an engineer only with proper manners. You cannot become a successful entrepreneur without the necessary skills and practices applied in such activity. You cannot strive for more without the mentors that test us in different abilities, and although both kinds of advice are extremely important to our personal development, I would argue the latter carries more weight in success. Teachers are really like that—they become our true fathers and mothers in building a career-ready self.
I have always admired how they iterate varying topics to hone a person uniquely. Absolutely: the way you interpret history and the contemporary issues of the world will be different from how you collect your thoughts in physics and problem solving. Some of my professors periodically encourage us to raise questions, others make us take quizzes after every lesson, and a few—interestingly enough, mostly English teachers—apply a pointing system for our recitation, handing out pieces of paper that carry different points given depending on how well we answered a question, how difficult the question was, or how hard we tried to at least answer.
It is a shame that, despite how many times they have seen their children receive medals and merits, teachers have rarely received this kind of recognition throughout their careers. Such a heartwarming sacrifice, I tell you, and as the National Teachers’ Day’s presence looms before us, let this be, at the very least, an opportunity to genuinely show that we see the sacrifices and reality of being a second home to us students. Happy Teachers’ Day to any teacher reading this!
