Posted On: 2023-10-05 11:57:23
Teachers play a vital, albeit underappreciated role in our lives. Behind every successful person are the efforts of hundreds of teachers, who have moulded them into a remarkable human being.
October 5th is annually celebrated as World Teachers’ Day to commemorate the signing of recommendations by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). This recommendation outlines standards relating to education personnel policy, recruitment, and initial training as well as the continuing education of teachers, their employment, and working conditions.
This day focuses on celebrating and improving the conditions of teachers around the world. So, to celebrate the teachers, we would like to include five stories of inspiring teachers:
Without Savitribai Phule, the feminist movement in India would have been held back by decades. Being illiterate, she was trained by her husband Mahatma Jyotiba Phule to be a teacher. She and her husband opened the first school for girls in India in 1848, and Savitribai Phule went on to become the first female teacher in India. However, her mission was not a path of roses, but roads laid with thorns and stones, as she endured constant societal abuse. However, the anger of the mob failed to deter her, as her legacy lives on in every female student in India.
Ranjitsinh Disale first rose to prominence in 2020, after bagging the coveted ‘Global Teacher Prize’. Seeing the condition and low attendance rate of Zilla Parishad School in Paritewadi, Solapur, Maharashtra, Ranjitsinh went beyond what was expected and changed the school and its students. Ranjitsinh not only translated the textbooks into the mother tongues of students but also embedded QR codes to give students access to audio poems, video lectures, stories and assignments. His impact cannot be put into words, as teen marriages have been completely stopped in the village and the attendance rate of girls now sits at 100%. One of the girls even went on to graduate from a university, a dream which seemed impossible at one point.
Being born with trachoma, Anne Sullivan thought that she would never be able to read and write. Little did she know, that she would serve as an inspiration to not only the disabled community but also change the life of one of the most celebrated figures in modern human history. Enduring pain and humiliation, Anne Sullivan not only learned how to read and write but also excelled academically. She then went on to adopt an improvised teaching technique to help Helen Keller become the first deaf-blind person in the United States to obtain a degree from college.
Matiullah Wesa recently made headlines on March 27, 2023, when he was arrested by the Taliban for his advocacy of women’s education. Activists from around the world spoke in his support, including the famous Hollywood actress, Angelina Jolie. In addition to being an activist, Matiullah is an educator, who runs an NGO called Pen Path, which with the help of 2,400 volunteers, helps to set up local classrooms, find teachers and distribute books and stationery. After the Taliban banned women’s education, Matiullah fearlessly protested the policy, leading to his arrest. Sadly, this remarkable man is still imprisoned.
Erin Gruwell is a founder of the Freedom Writers Foundation and created the Freedom Writer Methods, a progressive teaching philosophy and curricula designed to achieve excellence from all students. Erin gained popularity in 1998 when she led 150 students on the brink of dropping out to high school graduation. She achieved this by asking students to keep a journal, make movies of their lives, and relate the family feud in Romeo and Juliet to a gang war. She also encouraged her students to read books like The Diary of a Young Girl, Zlata's Diary and Night. Students used to express themselves anonymously through journals and shared them with classmates. As a result, children who refused to speak with students belonging to different races became like a family. Her life was later adapted into a film called Freedom Writers, which gained critical acclaim.
Filaantro realizes the important role teachers play in the life of a child. Filaantro, along with its crowdfunding partner, Child Help Foundation has trained numerous teachers. So they can educate children better.
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AUTHOR: Adil Sayyad
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