World Teachers Day is October 5th, 2010
There are few things that fill my heart with more joy than teaching. Very, very few. I am the seventh in a family of seven (Mom, Dad and five brothers) who has spent time educating people. Two of my brothers, my Mom and I all are university-level educators. I truly believe I was born to teach. So did my parents. And they had so much faith in their little boy that they encouraged me to volunteer as a literacy instructor for adults (I was 13 at the time).
I volunteered for 3 years with the National Institute for Adult Education in Mexico (Instituto Nacional de Educación para los Adultos) and teaching grew on me. I spent a few hours every week walking around the poorest neighbourhoods in our city, knocking on every door and asking if anyone would be interested in learning Grades 1 through 6, mostly reading, writing and arithmetic. I felt proud of my graduated students (all of whom were at least my parents’ age). And I think that those long hours teaching adults how to do basic math and read really imprinted in me the belief and want to become an educator.
I didn’t really do a PhD to have the qualifications to teach at a university (though I’m very proud of being a foreign national, graduated from a Canadian university, who teaches in a Canadian university too). I do recognize, though, how much having had great professors and mentors (from my Chemical Processes instructor to my doctoral dissertation advisor) influenced my career choices.
Even though in Mexico we celebrate Teacher’s Day on May 15th, I want you to join me on October 5th and congratulate the educators in your life on World Teacher’s Day. Because, let me tell you, we don’t teach for the money. We teach because we love it. And because, in transmitting our knowledge in hopes to shape the future generations, we also hope to make a good contribution to society.
Happy Teacher’s Day! And hat-tip to my friend Kulpreet Singh who alerted me to WTD’10.
Related posts:
- On why I teach: Celebrating World Teacher’s Day 2011
- Blog Action Day 2010 on October 15th: Focus on water
- World Water Day 2010 – Clean Water for a Healthy World
- My 2010: Teaching
- World’s Teachers Day 2009 (Oct 5th)
Quiero practicar mi español y, al mismo ves, quiero decir gracias por el tiempo que dedicas a educación. People like you make a difference and I appreciate your passion. On a side note, thanks for the tip about wifi at the quay. I’m an Islander and spend too much time on the ferries myself. Looking forward to your presentation tomorrow at the social media camp!