Bridging the Education Gap | #MyFridayStory No. 101

I’ve always wanted to be a teacher.

I’ve had some wonderful teachers and educators. I have admired their significance throughout my years at school. That admiration has followed me as I gained a higher education. My admiration continues today.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been learning. Not only passively learning, but learning on purpose. My mother would read to me as a child. We would lie on the bed and I would cuddle up close to read along with her. Listening to her reading while also reading the words as she read, helped me to grasp English as a language. Not only sentence structure, tone, style and grammar, but more importantly, I learned how to understand what is read.

Growing up as children, we had volumes of hardcover books on a large book rack in our lounge. We were exposed to classic novels, two sets of different encyclopedias (think Wikipedia in book form), children’s storybooks, and a wide range of non-fiction books. There were books on every conceivable topic. We had books on physics and new discoveries in science and the universe, to books on chemistry, biology, the human body, animals and wildlife. Various versions of The Bible and a set of Biblical encyclopedias completed the collection.

Having a love for reading at a young age, I devoured anything I could get my hands on to read. Our house also always had comics from overseas – such as Archie & Friends comics, and annual compilations like Beano, The Beezer and The Dandy with characters such as Desperate Dan and Dennis The Menace, and many copies of Oor Wullie and The Broons, given to us by our Scottish neighbours.

Reading helped shape my understanding of the world by exposing me to different points of view, and the various aspects of life. Without having a love for reading, gaining knowledge on any topic would be difficult.

I recently got the chance to fill my dream of being an academic teacher at a local business school. I give two classes a week – one to day-time students and one to a group attending in the evening. The two groups are diverse. The daytime class is filled with young adults that have recently graduated from high school, and the night classes are attended by folks with full time jobs. Both groups attend to advance their knowledge.

What I have come to realise is that learning, any learning, is invaluable in setting you up to succeed. I was fortunate to have nurtured a love for reading at a young age. The desire to learn, and continue learning comes from being open to learning in the first place. Having a natural curiosity to uncover new discoveries and to seek out answers to problems, comes from a desire to learn.

Bridging the gap between those that have had access to a good education and those that have not, is imperative to the future wellbeing of our country.

It has to start with teaching our children to read.

There is an abundance of knowledge that can be accessed today via the internet that was not possible when I was young. The entire world's bookrack is available at your fingertips, virtually for free, on a device the size of your hand.

But if you cannot read, all this knowledge is out of your reach.

The opportunity to be in a room of students that are hungry-to-learn is every bit as much fun and rewarding as I thought it would be. They are all brimming with hope for a better future for themselves, their careers and their families. They have taken the first step by advancing their skills and knowledge. In this competitive world, a skill you have over someone else, any skill, is an advantage.

Teaching every child, “To learn to love to learn,” we can ensure a future that looks brighter.

Have an awesome weekend! ??

* Please feel free to drop me a mail [email protected] I’d like that, and if you would like to receive #MyFridayStory each week, please join here

If you liked this topic, here are previous #MyFridayStory that you might also enjoy.

• Teachers and Educators - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/teachers-educators-myfridaystory-frans-nel/
• A Book Rack of Lessons - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/book-rack-lessons-myfridaystory-frans-nel/
• The Future of Reading - https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/future-reading-myfridaystory-frans-nel/