A Teacher is Not a Hero Unless. . .

I went over my newsfeed, and I saw countless Teacher’s Day posts. I saw cakes, presents, and surprises made or given by students. Moreover, such a day is about venerating the teacher as someone “important”, but how so? Forgive me, for I am not always in a festive mood. There are two things that I would look into. First, I dare question the teacher’s high felt gratitude and sense of dignity because he or she belongs to the "noble profession". Second, what is this phenomenon of students giving trivial gifts to their teachers? Just because it is a day of celebrating the crucial profession in society, should such things happen? Did both really celebrate what being a teacher truly means?

I have taught for 7 years, and I have seen the crisis in our education system from within. We have school systems infiltrated by business interests and a proliferation of a decadent culture. I saw my participation in the education lobby as a fistfight against all evils. Although I may have done a lot of mistakes, rest assured, I tried to correct them along the way in the shortest time possible. However, I wrestled so much in the fact that I was an employee and not as a teacher which was the total irony of my career life so far. When I was living up to be the authentic one, I have the world’s foot on my neck.

Let me establish first in answering the two inquiries I have mentioned earlier. Why do most people think that they are teachers? Of course, I am not questioning their employment status, but why do they feel they own the title? They think that their hard work in trying to get lessons and classes done makes them feel that they deserve something. Undeniably, they truly deserve just compensation for their efforts, but why take hold of the title "The Teacher”? Just because you teach them a skill or two does that mean you deserve the title? Again, a job description is not the essence.  Plus, there are events calling them heroes and making them feel that they have done something extraordinary. I laugh at the vague appropriation of the term hero. If they are aware of the whole neoliberal industrial setup, maybe they are heroes in the big businessmen’s eyes. The teachers assured the quality of the students that upon completion, the graduates will become human resources prone to exploitation. (Some teachers are even well appreciated by the students because they are so generous with grades.) We are sending our kids to the machine for use and abuse. Although there is income, not everything is about money. Although our kids may live a life after school (sometimes not),  there is a better one that can be made. I do not really know how grounded they are in reality. With so much unemployment and inequality, teachers often are the ones who pump the poison of hope of a better life through accepting reality as it is while promoting hard work. And if these professionals are limited at this scope, they are not teaching but pushing children to fit in the machine. These teachers failed to open perspective, and I dare question their title as one. With all the gifts given to them, for sure they felt happy. However, if they have a healthy skeptical attitude and critical thinking, they would not even jive with the artificiality of the moment. A teacher is not only a dispenser of skill but a liberator, but if he or she fails to offer seeds of liberation, then better throw that cake away. Great teachers offer liberating perspectives. They do not offer trivial inspirational quotes, but words that can change the world. Blind submission to powers is what they detest. These teachers are leaders, and even in the mainstream perspective – rebels. They are rebels because of the novelty of their thoughts with their tireless efforts to spread them. But if one is stuck with teaching blind compliance without going to the critical, creative, confident, and collaborative, one is just an employee. Yes, even though you may cite the four c’s, but if the pedagogy cannot really change a perspective leading to the hopes of action, then you are just simply programming automatons. So, I dare ask: “do you deserve the cake? Why feel so privileged and thankful? Is it a job or a mission? Do you have dreams to change the world or just simply work?” If your boss is your principal or the admin then you are a worker. But if you serve ideals, then you are “The Teacher”. So do not call yourself one, neither feel like one if at the end of the day you are just serving an industry.

I wonder why students give their teachers gifts (the typical cake, sweets, and pretentious love letters). And I, over all the years, have successfully prevented them from giving me one. My students know what I demand, and that is their critical thinking with their desire for change. These are not bought in a bakeshop or in a mall. They have to show it on a daily basis and the way we have conversations. That is why my desk is empty of gifts, and I am not awkwardly met in hallways with freakish balloons. Showing gratitude to me means you show me your thoughts and actions. You can see the usual veneration (gift giving) similar to pleasing a patron. Students think that the teacher will be happy when they offer a bounty. This is sad because both think and expect such to happen. A trivial teacher gets a cake from trivial students. Authentic students show their teachers their ideas, thoughts, perspectives, world-changing projects, visions of a great future, and efforts to move society towards progress. A true teacher is happy when he or she sees students on the streets fighting against companies denying climate change; when he or she sees the kids doing charity and helping the poor; when he or she sees the youth question corrupt policies, organize movements, and run for offices that will benefit all in good terms,and seeing students lead negotiations with big enterprises about the humane value of labor. Those are the true gifts. Students giving food and flowers look like trivial offerings to statues. Statues that are lifeless. So, the real deal is a merger of awesome thoughts and willingness to act. Not flowers, not letters, not cakes, but the fulfillment of the true cause of the teacher - embodiment of ideals and skills for the betterment of humanity.

Celebrating the teachers' profession must be a remembrance of causes that humanity should be fighting for and not some trivial patronage parties. If the teacher is truly one, he or she will cry in happiness when he or she will see a future of individuals who are not just workers for a system, but shapers of human society and civilization. Do not call yourself a hero unless you have visions and actions. Do not call yourself a teacher if you are just an employee. Knowledge, wisdom, and enlightenment know no institution.

(I am already aware that stones will be thrown at me for being grumpy because I never experienced receiving gifts. Actually, I find no joy having cake on my desk. I find no joy in students giving me a surprise not unless their wits have evolved.)