Mexican Educators’ Day (May 15th)

Anybody who knows me well knows that, while I enjoy consulting, and doing academic research, my absolute passion is teaching. I began teaching since I was probably 9 or 10. I was the youngest ever member of the volunteer literacy instructors for the Institute for Adult Education in Mexico (Instituto Nacional para la Educación de los Adultos, INEA). I volunteered for INEA from when I was 10 to about 15, teaching adults who could easily be my parents how to read and write.

Teaching is, without a doubt, the one thing I feel I’m most passionate about. I enjoy the “aha!” moment where my students’ faces lit up. I am thrilled when I hear comments like “you made me a better person” or “I had to come home after hanging out with my friends because I was enjoying writing my final paper“.

So many of my students have gone on and done amazing things. I have former students working for the David Suzuki Foundation, for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and for the United Nations Secretariat. Some of my students have done their graduate degrees at Carleton, London School of Economics and Columbia University.

And all of them keep in touch and tell me every so often how much impact I have had in their lives. With my good friend Derek K. Miller’s memorial taking place today, I completely forgot about May 15th, when in Mexico we celebrate “El Dia del Maestro” (the day of the educator). My late Auntie, my Mom, two of my brothers and I have all been professors, and all of my family has at some point taught or tutored. And my good friend Airdrie Hislop Miller is also a teacher, and she loves it.

I want to take a minute to celebrate the educators in my life (colleagues, especially), my former professors in Mexico and those who continue to sacrifice selflessly teaching – simply because teaching is about transforming individuals. And that’s all I can aspire to do, to leave an impact on this world.