Teacher's Day

What can I say. Most of my teachers are dead and gone. There are one or two still around. My primary school English teacher is still alive and kicking. He still remembers my full name! We meet at the park sometimes. I wander'd lonely as a cloud ... or something like that. He introduced us to 'Daffodils' by William Wordsworth, I think. It was so long ago. My secondary school English and Maths teacher was a very strict man. For English class, he made us read one story book a day and use some of the new words from that book in our weekly essays. I was usually picked to read the winning essay. When he taught Maths, everyone remembers getting caned. This was because he always gave weekly tests and every question you get wrong will earn you two swish from the cane on your palm or on the back of your thigh. We wore shorts in those days. But strangely, nobody from his class failed in the final exams! What a teacher. After leaving school I only managed to see him once before he passed away.

There were also those teachers who are best forgotten. They were there just for the pay and couldn't care less if the students learnt anything.

I came across some lovely poems about teachers and decided to post them here in honour of Teacher's Day, and also for my wife who happens to be a teacher also.

Unity

I dreamed I stood in a studio
And watched two sculptors there,
The clay they used was a young child’s mind
And they fashioned it with care.

One was a teacher:
the tools she used were books and music and art;
One was a parent
With a guiding hand and gentle loving heart.

And when at last their work was done,
They were proud of what they had wrought.
For the things they had worked into the child
Could never be sold or bought!

And each agreed she would have failed
if she had worked alone.
For behind the parent stood the school,
and behind the teacher stood the home!
- Ray A. Lingenfelter

Children Learn What They Live

If children live with hostility,
they learn to fight.
If children live with ridicule,
they learn to be shy.
If children live with tolerance,
they learn to be patient.
If children live with encouragement,
they learn confidence.
If children live with praise,
they learn to appreciate.
If children live with fairness,
they learn justice.
If children live with security,
they learn faith.
If children live with approval,
they learn to like themselves.
If children live with acceptance, and friendship,
they learn to find love in the world.
- Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph. D.