“A teacher is never an ordinary person. Construction and Destruction can be produced in his lap” – Chanakya
It is easy to think that as a teacher, you have been given the runt’s work. It is easy to go to class every day and think that you job is routine and humdrum – to keep the kids busy till their parents finish from work and come pick them up. It is easy to compare your pay with the amount of energy that goes out of you and think you’re not being appreciated. It is easy not to appreciate your own labor because you think the children you teach are not getting changed by the knowledge you input into them.
But then, teaching is such a noble profession. Your basic duty is to provide knowledge and guidance to people younger than you are; not just academic, but also moral and career guidance. Some teacher even go ahead to provide their students with other forms of extra-curricular guidance that affect diverse areas of their lives.
It seems so easy to define the work of a teacher in such simple terms but we all know that a teacher is one of the greatest people on earth. A teacher, in truth, is called to mold the future of a generation. One can avoid so many phases in life but one cannot avoid being under the tutelage of a teacher.
Children enrolled in school are most vulnerable. Their minds are like the dry sponge; ready to absorb whatever is thrown at them. Hence, the teacher occupies such a lofty and sensitive position when they are entrusted with these tender hearts to mold them into what they deem fit. We often find that children return home and say phrases they hear from their teachers. This is how serious it is.
We may not know, but teaching is the most noble of professions, because, in your teaching hands, you carry the future of nations – you may choose to destroy it or you may choose to mold it beautifully. No other profession has such a power.
Hence, this is a call to all teachers: The price for your sacrifice is not the salary you receive every month (although we agree that that is important as well). The price of your sacrifice, however, is in the number of lives you change even when it does not seem as though they are being changed, even when no one says thank you or even when people treat you shabbily.
You have been called to a noble profession! Treat it as such!