About Teachers Day
A teacher is a friend, philosopher, and guide who holds our hand, opens our mind, and touches our heart. The contribution of a teacher cannot be ignored at all. In many countries across the world, teacher's day is a special day where teachers of schools, colleges, and universities are honored specially. The date varies from country to country. The universally accepted World Teacher's Day is 5th October. In India, the Teacher's Day is celebrated on 5th September and this tradition started from 1962. This is the when Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was born. He was a philosopher, scholar, teacher, and politician and his dedicated work towards education made his birthday an important day in the history of India. We remember the great work of this exemplary person on this day.
Actually, this man, Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was a friendly teacher and he was popular among his students for the example he always set in front of them. So, one day his students and friends requested him to allow them to celebrate his birthday in a lavish way. In return he said that it would be his pride and honor if they celebrate his birthday in respect of all teachers. And since then this day 5th September is celebrated as Teacher's Day.
Now, talking about the rest of the world, World Teacher's Day is celebrated on 5th October and it started form 1994. It was UNESCO who started this tradition. The focus set by UNESCO was to celebrate the engrossment and accomplishment of teachers and also the primacies that they put on the field of education. Now why 5th October is taken up as the Teacher's Day? On this day in the year 1966, a special intergovernmental conference adopted the UNESCO endorsement regarding the statuses of teachers.
Why do We Celebrate?
Teaching is the most influential job in the world. Teachers are known to shape the mind of youth and without knowledge no one can exist in this world. Teacher imparts good value in children and turn them into responsible citizens. So, almost every country celebrates Teacher's Day.
In India, we celebrate this day on the birthday of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan. He was a man of many good qualities and a favorite teacher among students. It was his request that his birthday should be celebrated as an honorable day for all the teachers in the country, in case someone is wishing to celebrate his birthday at all. So, in a nutshell, we celebrate Teacher's Day because teachers have been the architect of the society and without them no society can walk in the path of progression.
In his book titled, "Political Thinkers of Modern India", he signified the importance of teachers and education in a country like Democratic India which was still in its early years of development. According to him, there is a huge role of teachers in nation building and for that sake teachers should be respected more. Apart from being a thinker and teacher he was also a philosopher. He once wrote a book on Bhaagwad Gita and there he defined a teacher as, “The one who emphasizes on presentation to converge different currents of thoughts to the same end”.
By the time he entered politics, most of the leaders of that time like Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi, or Dr. Rajendra Prasad were his fans for this thinking in nation building. His skills were proven in the arena of politics also. He had the political insight to recognize the impediments well in advance and also carried the required courage to scold party leaders for their procrastination and delinquency. Way back in 1947, he warned the former Congress people about the alarming consequences of nepotism and corruption. We are dealing with it now!
Such a man of course requires a standing ovation. So, to promote the values and principles of a true teacher, this day is celebrated.
