Teachers have always played a big role in society.
In the olden days, there was prestige in having a teacher in the family. Teaching was seen as a desirable profession, way up there with medicine and law.
The high regard was well deserved. Teachers molded the minds of the young, who then grew up to become nation builders and accomplished individuals. Teachers were steeped in knowledge and discipline. Their word was held sacred; their opinion sought.
These days, the reverence reserved for teachers is more a response to their numerous sacrifices.
Their salaries, for instance, have not become competitive. Not a few leave the profession for higher-paying jobs.
It is also a thankless and punishing occupation—imagine starting your day so early, only to still be hard at work long after the students have gone. Straining your voice. Standing up most of the day. Correcting papers of dozens, some, hundreds. Dealing with disrespect and politics in the academia. Braving disaster, long distances and all other inconveniences just so they could show up.
As in any other profession, teachers come in different forms. Who’s to say which approach or method is more effective? Who can tell which teacher is able to make a lasting impact on a student’s life?
This year is no different from all the other years we honored teachers and told them how grateful we all are for what they tirelessly, consistently do for our children. Indeed they taught them many things in many fields of interest.
But perhaps the best thing our teachers have taught us is not what to know, but how to think. This is especially true in today’s environment when falsehood is presented as truth, sometimes inadvertently, most times malevolently.
There was a time when knowledge’s worst enemy was ignorance. Now disinformation—information known to be wrong but disseminated anyway—comes into the picture and may be an equal, or worse, threat than the absence of information.
Teachers who teach us, first and foremost, to think for ourselves after arming us with tools of logic and fairness are the best teachers of all.