World Teachers Day 2018 - Celebrating The Teachers In Our Lives

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Happy World Teachers Day!

October 5th every year marks World Teachers Day (also know as International Teachers Day). While I’m not a teacher myself, so many of my family members and friends are. Right now in New Zealand it’s the school holidays, and while that doesn’t mean teachers get a full break (there’s prep to be done!), it does mean the load is a little lighter right now.

I thought today would be the perfect day to recognise some of the teachers I’ve had over the years (okay, yikes, I’ve been out of Uni for 7 years, and out of high school for 10!).

The Art Teacher

My art teacher in high school was awesome. Art was my favourite class, and there were many a lunch time where I would go and hang out in the art room, either to actually work on my projects or just to be surrounded by the paint and the creativity. While my final art pieces didn’t quite go according to plan, it was still such a blessing to be in her class. She made it fun as well as educational. Out of all the classes at school, it’s definitely one of the ones I miss the most.

The Bible Teacher

I went to a Christian school, and I loved it a lot. ‘Bible’ class was compulsory as part of the school curriculum, and NCEA recognised (the NZ school system), but it was always a joy to attend. At least, in my last year it was. I’ve sort of blanked the other years out of my mind – I can’t barely recall who taught me before her – but my Year 13 (last year of school) Bible teacher was amazing. We’re friends on Facebook now.

The Classics Teacher

Who was also the Principal at the time. My high school was small – only 300 kids when I was there – so they only offered Classical Studies every second year, and it was taught at the Year 13 level. If you happen to be in Year 12 at the time they taught it, you just joined in with the Year 13s and took a class a year above you. I was in such a class; there were about four of us in Year 12 who took Year 13 Classics that year, and it was one probably my all time favourite class. My Classics teacher was brilliant. He made Ancient Greece and Rome absolutely fascinating, taught us about early medicine and science, war and nations. It’s because of his class that I went on to do Classics at University. My friend Roz and I went on a trip to Athens a few years back, took a picture on the Acropolis and sent it to him. He was pretty stoked.

The Philosophy of Religion Teacher

Headed to Uni now, and my Phil of Rel (as we used to call it) lecturer was brilliant. It was that class in my first year that made me change my major to Philosophy, and I’m so glad I did. I had the lecturer a few more times after that, and the friendships made in that first tutorial have stay solid since. Most of the things I remember about my Philosophy degree are probably from that class (though don’t tell my other philosophy lecturers that!), and I definitely don’t regret saying ‘yes’ to my friend’s question in the early months of Uni: “Hey, I have to pick a random paper next semester…wanna do Philosophy of Religion with me?”

The Logic Teacher

I’m not a straight A student, I’m a straight B student if anything, but there were two papers I got overall As on in University: Creative Writing and Logic. Yes I know those are like, polar opposites, and yes it explains a lot. But my Logic lecturer was so passionate about her work that you couldn’t help but enjoy the class. My friend and I spent hours writing up truth tables and figuring out if arrangements were valid or not. Sounds pretty geeky right? And it was, but it was wonderful, and the lecturer was wonderful, and 10/10 would Logic again.

Other shout outs

Intermediate teacher: He liked sports way too much, but he read us Holes, by Louis Sachar so all is forgiven.
Biology teacher: I hated Bio but he definitely got me through it.
Chemistry teacher: One day we all went outside to pretend we were atoms, and we used to dress up the skeleton in her classroom, and accidentally break test tubes. Sorry about that. Chemistry was fun though, I would have taken it over Bio if it didn’t clash with Classics.
Asian Philosophy teacher/lecturer: He was a bit of a nutter, and he was fantastic. We still quote him to this day.

To my friends, the teachers

You.Are.Incredible.

The system in NZ doesn’t always appreciate you, nor does it always do right by you, but you are the shapers of young minds, growing and leading and guiding the next generation, and you are amazing. Keep doing the insanely fantastic job you’re doing, keep fighting for your kids, for New Zealand’s kids, keep being you in a society that tells you you gotta fit into this box they’ve created. This country needs you, this world needs you, and it is far better with you in it.