thank a teacher

Today is World Teachers' Day. In certain communities there is a whole week dedicated to teachers, calling the period between May 5 and 11 Teacher Appreciation Week. As with similar commemorations (like women's day, LGBT day, Roma day, etc.), one might ask why we need to set a date to appreciate them. Why we need a call to thank a teacher.

Personally, I never had inhibitions about saying thank you. Perhaps because (or as a consequence) I always had close relations with my professors, from elementary to university contexts. In primary school, for example, I had an arts teacher, who I simply adored with a child's enthusiasm. She never could get angry, always having a hidden smile on her face, which I just loved. Only once did it happen that we made her upset to the point that she said: "Now I am angry at you". I just smiled at her and said: "But you are not." And she burst out in laughter -- a laughter I still can recall. We celebrated every single Teachers' Day with her. I remember one present particularly: I made a four-page card for her, with some drawings and her favorite poem, which she appreciated a lot.

In high school, then, I found a different inspirator. This time it was not soft kindness that caught me but some kind of mystical dignity (understandably, since I changed from a child of emotions to an adolescent of dreams). My Hungarian teacher proved to be more than a model for me. She was strict and clever, a strong woman. We feared her in the beginning; many even came to hate her, because she was just not an "easy piece". At the same time, some of us got mesmerized by her strength and dignity, and later by her humor and care, which she opened up for us as the years passed. She was a character. At the end of my studies, I was the one that made her and gave her the class present. She was so touched that, for the first time, we saw her cry.

University was a different context, obviously, but I found my motivators there as well. While in earlier ages, it was much more the personality of the teacher that drew me, in higher education professional factors became more important (while the amiability remained a must). I was largely inspired by my Latin teacher, for example, who showed me how exciting etymology and going back to the origins can be. He had a great influence on how I view languages. Then, I had a writing (or rather, critical thinking) teacher, who pushed my limits in perfection and precision to an extent I had never imagined. The fact that I have great writing skills has a lot to do with him. I remember I used to say before our conversational and writing classes: Now I go change the world. He challenged our thinking so much that I felt his classes opened new worlds for me every time. Those were the days when I thought everything was possible.

In my postgraduate years, when you kind of become colleagues with your professors, my focus shifted from professional matters back to personality. Or rather, to the mixture of these two. I started to appreciate those who, while pursuing their research, remained human and open-minded. Ironically, there are not a lot of these teachers, despite the belief that educators are by definition open and people's persons. I love to share my struggles and successes with my more experienced colleagues and especially appreciate when they return my honesty by sharing their own difficulties and dilemmas too.

Without concluding -- as my story goes on -- I want to express that teaching makes room for amazing connections that change lives. I am grateful to all who gave me a push on my path. Instead of thanking a teacher, I thank all my teachers.