By Faoziyyat Akintobi, SS2
Ask yourselves this question: Who builds the foundation for our future? Any answers? Well, let me give you something to think about. Who is the one person you have in your life who is ‘willing’ to help you succeed in life?
“Our parents,” some may say. Well, it is not incorrect.
What is it they do that helps us to succeed? Buy us clothes? Get us whatever it is we want? WRONG!!!
They send us to school!!! They send us to a place where others fail to attend. They use their time and effort to make the money for us to go to school. And yet, what do we do when we get to school? Study hard and make our parents’ work not go in vain?
Unfortunately, many students fail at that. What we do is throw away our books like they are of no use. Though, this is not done by all. They know themselves. And it is because of them that I have taken time to enlighten you on why we should respect our teachers.
Many students go around school acting like ‘rich kids,’ for what cause? To prove you are better than others? Is it to classify yourselves as being worth higher than others? What kind of thoughts are those?
And what has me even more confused is the fact that these thoughts are actually a reality. We must stop to wonder if there are other people affected by these acts carried out by us. And who are these people, you ask?
The teachers: The ones who ‘almost’ always tolerate us and do so much to right our wrongs.
Imagine a new student had just resumed; how would the teachers treat them? Like outcasts? NO! In most cases they try to get familiar with the new students to help them feel more comfortable in a new environment.
At first, it forms a somewhat teacher-student kind of friendship. This mutual relationship can easily turn to something ‘completely’ different. Some students take the liberty to become too familiar with the teacher, to the point where they no longer see the teacher as a ‘teacher’ but as ‘someone else’. This ‘someone else’ will be treated differently in an unacceptable behaviour by the same student.
And to add insult to the injury, some teachers are very likely to overlook some rude behaviours from the students, even while still trying to right their wrong.
Stop taking your teachers for granted. You can’t imagine what the world would be like without them.
Faoziyyat is of I-Scholars International Academy, Abuja.
