"ARE YOU ARE A TEACHER?"
Shadrach Boussa
Frontend Web Designer, Inspirational Speaker/Teacher, Writer, Certified Broadcaster, .Stress Management Coach
The year was 2004. I was on set on the then popular must-watch TV talk show, ‘Youth Circle”, on Rivers State Television (RSTV), Port Harcourt. And the topic was, “Is Teachers Reward in Heaven?”
While every other discussant on set acknowledged that teachers should be rewarded well; but if they were unable to receive their ‘reward’ here on earth, they should wait to receive it in ‘heaven’. But I passionately advocated and insisted that teachers should not only be paid handsomely, but be treated with dignity, honour, and respect– their ‘reward’ must first be enjoyed ‘now’!
This (I could remember vividly) was what prompted one of my co-discussants, by name Alex, to jokingly ask me the question: “Shadrach, the way you’re passionate about the teachers receiving their reward now, ARE YOU A TEACHER?” And my response then was, “For now I’m not a teacher; but I may be one in the future.”
Honestly, as at the time I made that statement, I was an engineering undergraduate, having my eyes FIXED on the prestigious oil companies– ‘flowing with milk and honey’. But guess what? Just three months after I graduated from the university, the first job I took up was TEACHING (at a tutorial centre)! This reminds me the Biblical words that “LIFE and death are in the POWER of the TONGUE…”; and “…the WORDS that I speak…are SPIRIT, and they are LIFE.”
领英推荐
Yes, today, I’m PROUD to be a TEACHER! Because, God has used me to not only teach, but I’ve Prepared and Mentored tens of students in WAEC, JAMB/UTME, and secondary school students, most of whom are now graduates!
So, as we commemorate the 2021 World Teachers’ Day with the theme: “Teachers at the Heart of Education Recovery”; let’s celebrate TEACHERS by according them the RECOGNITION, HONOUR and REWARD (HANDSOME TAKE HOME PAY) they deserve!
Yes, indeed, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, expressed it best when he said: “A Good TEACHER is like a Candle —it CONSUMES itself to LIGHT the way for others [Pupils, Students –your Children].”
Happy World Teachers’ Day!