Teachers… The Guardians of our Legacy!

Every 5^th of October is globally celebrated as the International Teacher’s day. Its celebrations are intended to honor all the teachers who spend their precious time, their knowledge and skill in shaping the future of their students. However, in the shadows cast by the recent COVID-19 pandemic all the teachers across the globe have outshone their own responsibilities by demonstrating that they not only contribute in shaping the futures of their students but are also guardians of our legacy as a civilization. For without anything but their sincerity and determination to their commitment to education, they have risen above all adversities of the pandemic to prove beyond a shred of doubt that ingenuity coupled with the diversity of thought and action in surviving all kinds of pressures and complexities are indeed key elements in becoming an educated person.

Countless tales of how teachers tried a variety of methods to keep in touch with their students, to reach out to them by all means, inspires us to understand that in the quest of seeking knowledge nothing should come in our way, may it be a world paralyzing disease or its subsequent complications. Like all other professions, teaching also expanded to diversify its dimensions in making an inspirational use of technology. Nevertheless, in Third World countries like Pakistan teachers have had to make twice as much effort in first learning how to employ IT assistance themselves; then immersing with their students into the teaching and learning of their actual subjects. Additionally, in areas with little or no access to technology teachers have gone out of their way to help guide their students with the effect that they inspired their students to take charge of not only their own education but of their younger siblings as well, causing a chain of inspirational stories to learn from.

For instance, as a result of HDF’s counteractive policies to continue with the education of their partner communities despite all challenges, many such students got inspiration to step forth and absorb the dedication of their teachers to help them shoulder their noble burdens. Tooba Farooq and her siblings Abeer Fatima and Ahmed Mustafa are amongst such resilient and inspirational students. Merely a 10^th grader, seeing how her teachers were so dedicatedly utilizing WhatsApp and other social platforms in addition to their physical resources for her education, Tooba Farooq found the spirit of a teacher in taking responsibility for her younger siblings Abeer Fatima and Ahmed Mustafa. Consequently, the tireless dedication of her teachers and not letting anything deter them from their duty to their students ignited a passionate understanding in Tooba of her self-worth and how she can rise above all odds.

Likewise, dear reader, there are countless other stories of how students imbibed the spirit of their teachers to carry on with their efforts in enlightening the world. In effect, it also goes to show how each of us is simultaneously a student and a teacher of each other. Our teachers teach us how we can impart our own knowledge, skills, and understanding of other things, to anyone our lives connect with. They show us that this reciprocal relationship of learning and teaching is indeed in its essence the legacy of humanity. If we truly begin to realize how our words and expressions, our gestures and actions impact others, how similarly we can groom ourselves by their influence upon us, then we would truly be living our lives as a tribute to all the teachers in all the nations as revered guardians of our legacy.