As I pick my pen to write, I took a moment first to remember inspirational teachers who had taught me from primary through secondary school, I closed my eyes to reminisce about those teachers who had made huge impact on my life. I visualize what they look like. How their voice sounded, what sort of things they say and the funny things they did. That moment of reminiscing brought a large smile and a broad grin to my face.
Why is it easy to bring those teachers back into my mind even after so many years? I have not seen them for many years but they are still there like a small voice in my heart, a video in my head and the picture of their face never fade from my memory. Because they are the tool of the past that has helped to form me into the person that I am today.
Anytime I pick a pen to write, the amazing memory of how my nursery teacher held my hands to trace-and-write alphabets and numerals always flash through my head. And here I am today, a product of a teacher’s past sweat
‘The one who teaches, they say is the giver of eyes that sees beyond the future’.
A.P.J Abdul in his golden words said ‘Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber and future of an individual’
Teachers play an important role in the lives of individuals to become successful in career and business. Teachers help kids grow up to become good human being in society and a great citizen of the country. Teachers know that students are the future of any nation. and so, the future development of any nation is in the hand of teachers.
If education truly is the passport to the future and tomorrow indeed belongs to those who prepare today. Then, the future unarguably dwells in the palms of teachers.
Without the teacher to hold our hands and take us into it, there will be no future.
The future is like a bus full of passengers heading for a fatal accident and the teacher is the unsung hero shouldered with the responsibility to rescue.
Imagining the future without a teacher is like having a plan to build a house without a builder.
This article seeks to prospectively explore what the future holds, reveal a glance of teachers’ effort to create a beautiful future for the society, the nation and the globe at large, and to clearly sketch out the importance of a teacher in the society, in the universe and for the expected future.
Show me a future without a teacher, and I will show you a blurry future with dummy-robotic individuals.
The past… The present… The future.
According to United Nation Statistics Division (UNSD), one of the oldest profession in the world is ‘teaching’ through storytelling. The practice of storytelling persisted even after written language was developed around 3,100 BCE.
According to International Labor Organization (ILO), Education and Training presently ranks amongst top major industries in the world with close to 69 million new teachers needed to reach year 2030 education goals.
In the golden words of the first black president of America Barak Obama, he said “we did not come to fear the future, we came here to shape it”.
The world today is experiencing a dramatic and drastic change. The world is changing faster than ever before. Things are not the same as they were 10 or 15 years ago. The world is significantly shifting and drifting not only because of global recession, but also because of technology development, digital advancement and new generation of parenting.
In 2011, Statistical Office of the European Union (EUROSTAT) predicted that by 2050, robots will not only take jobs, they will create them and human labor will go down history lane, offices will become a thing of the past as work will be done with technology at fingertips without going to the office. Meetings and conferences will hold via hologram representation and human relation will be diluted.
With the outbreak of corona virus, it has become apparently clear that technology has taken over human labour.
Signs and traces have shown that all the above predictions had started happening but only the world of teachers will be pardoned. People will need teachers, counsellors, educators and facilitators to teach them new development, counsel them on the right behavior and attitude that robots, machine and technology cannot give.
The future, The teacher.
What actually is a future without a teacher?
It is a tomorrow full of juvenile delinquents, a future prepared for cyber criminals, physical and sexual assaults, broken family, lack of communication, lack of social and moral training for young ones and a future full of technologically inclined but morally and intellectually drained individuals.
Johnny, stop playing with your phone and watch where you are going, said Mrs. Johnson as she entered the headmaster’s office to make enquiries about enrolling her 7year old only son (Johnny). The headmaster greeted them with a smile and offered Mrs. Johnson a seat, he looked at Johnny who was carried away with the mobile phone and with ear piece plunged into his two ears, the head master in a bid to call his attention greeted him. “Good day young man”, he ignored totally and behave as though he didn’t hear. The headmaster repeated, this time much louder. He looked up at the headmaster, removed the left side earpiece and stood up. He began to move around the headmaster’s office nodding his head occasionally to the rhythm of the loud music blaring through the earpiece from his phone while touching everything and anything that was in sight. The headmaster ignored him and handed the prospectus to Mrs. Johnson. Johnny turned immediately and snatched it from her. She smiled and said... “Johnny boy… give it back to me please”. He said no bluntly and held on to it. She asked him to give it back to her politely again, he yelled at her and began to tear it. While the principal watched with keen interest.
Mrs. Jonson requested for another copy and the headmaster handed her a second copy. Johnny turned almost immediately, grabbed it from her and tore it to pieces. Mrs. Johnson looked at the headmaster and said “Johnny can be naughty sometimes”, Johnny turned to her, kicked her on the leg and said “I am never naughty”.
The headmaster gave Johnny a stern look, pointed his index finger to a chair, and with a bold loud voice ordered him to sit immediately. Jonny looked at the headmaster surprised, looked back at his mom as though he was telling her to do something to the headmaster. The headmaster commanded Johnny to pick all the papers he had torn and put them in the trash. He said no. His mom got to work, she picked it all and trashed it herself. She turned to the principal and said… he is just a kid. He will outgrow it. And to Jonny she said…. I won’t take you to Shoprite.
The headmaster, as a teacher understands the whole scenario and knew just the right thing to do. He opened the drawer attached to his desk and brought out a photograph of a beautiful couple. In curiosity, the photograph drew Jonny’s attention. The headmaster began… this people you see here Jonny, were happily married couple with a son called Allen, they loved Allen with their whole life, care, protected and provided for Allen everything he ever asked for. No one was permitted to rebuke or chastise Allen, he was always showered with love and pampered with gifts. Everyone was put out of space by Allen’s loving parent, families and friends avoided them because of the way they exhume negative energy anytime someone tries to admonish their only son.
Allen was in JSS1 when he lost his both parent in a ghastly accident. No one wants to take Allen in as he had become recalcitrant.
Well, No one is unteachable to a good teacher. the class teacher took Allen in as his son and began to train him in the right way he should go.
The headmaster returned the photograph, looked at Johnny’s face and said… “I am Allen”. Johnny raised his brows in surprise. Just like my parent left, your mummy will go one day and there will no longer be a visit to Shoprite every weekend, who will tolerate you? Who will accommodate your kicking and nagging? You need us, you need teachers to teach you how to live life even after your mummy has gone. Jonny became still and quietly hugged his mon’s left arm tight as Mrs. Johnson fill out the registration form.
My point is, without teachers, the future will be full of spoilt Johnnys, recalcitrant and intellectually blind individuals.
The wakeup call
The future, they say belongs to those who prepare for it today. Very well said I think. We are getting the red-alert of looming danger that lies ahead, yet we cross our legs and fold our arms.
Our whole society needs to be educated and enlightened, yet even teachers in training are having doubt about their own future and job security. The vehicle of our society is crying for teachers to man the steering and bring back our society to sanity, yet students in faculties of education across all Nigerian universities are still in doubt of the use and potency of their training.
It’s interesting that so much emphasis on celebrity is centered on musicians, actress, athletes and even politician, but the truth is, one of the biggest role model in a young person’s life is that selfless man/woman standing in front of a classroom. teachers! wake up and project into the future. Our younger ones need us, the society needs us, the future needs us.
Teachers are people who kids emulate, who younger ones look up to and who parents entrust in their hands the future of their children.
Teachers are leaders who kids admire and who provided young ones with an example of how to conduct themselves.
Teachers are potters, we mold the future of our young ones.
Life changing development happens in the younger years as children accumulate knowledge at the hands of a good teacher.
Teachers are fuel, we encourage and push younger ones to understand the importance of dedicating themselves to passion and realize what they are capable of doing. If we fold our arms and whistle away as though unconcerned, the future will come to us like a flood and there will be nowhere for us to run.
CONCLUSION
Before I conclude, let me show you sir/ma the tough job of a teacher.
A teacher’s day begins before his students are even awake and his hectic day can carry on long into the evening. He works in front of the world’s toughest audience (children) with patient and understanding. He does one of the most important job in the world for little financial reward. If you can solve equation, if you can write and as long as you are able to read my lengthy article. You know who to thank.
Some of the world’s most influential people point to a special teacher as the inspiration behind their success. For Oprah Winfrey, it was her fourth grade teacher (Mrs. Duncan), who she describes as her first liberator; British Actress Helen Mirren, dedicated her Bafta award to her old English teacher while Microsoft Founder and philanthropist, Bill Gates, remembers his math and English teachers with special reverence. “there’s no way there’d be a Microsoft without them doing what they did”, he says.
In conclusion, teachers are not just one of the professionals that keep the world’s ball rolling, They are the reason why our society is where it is today, and our present quota will say greatly where the society will be tomorrow.
Teachers are the hope, the change agent, the miracle. They are the future.
If they don’t bring the change, things will stay the way it is. We shouldn’t be afraid to die when we are not scared to live.
The future is in their hands…… they are the future.