World Teachers’ Day (WTD) is celebrated every year on 5th October since 1994 – when it was created. It aims to mobilise support for teachers, and to ensure that the needs of future generations will continue to be met by teachers. Be part of the celebration.
Educational Scientist and Teacher Pedro De Bruyckere is. Please read his reflection
I was asked to write something for World Teacher Day, I did in Dutch, this is my attempt to translate my piece in English.
Teachers are no superheroes
They won’t save the world.
But they will save their children in case of emergency.
They are authors who write new works every single day.
They are directors of their own plays.
They are actors who will interact with their audience every time the class begins.
They need to be child prodigies in administration, keeping track of their own and their pupils evolution.
But they will support their pupils.
They are no Google, they don’t know everything.
But they sure look better than a search engine,
and their suggestions will beat any search engine anytime.
They make you think.
They are no tablet, but were born in 3D.
They inspire to aspire.
They are forever young, because being young is contagious.
They make a difference, as Taylor Mali shouted.
They’re needed, more than ever as the OECD argues.
They make our children learn, smile and they console.
They are the ones who help discover the miracle of a first sentence being read.
They are the one who pick up the children in their world to open up the universe.
They won’t save the world.
They help to build the world, day by day.
Pedro De Bruyckere (1974) is an educational scientist at Arteveldehogeschool, Ghent (www.arteveldehs.be) since 2001. He co-wrote 2 books with Bert Smits in which they debunk popular myths on GenY and GenZ, education and pop culture. Pedro is an often asked public speaker, one of his strongest points is that he is funny in explaining serious stuff.” A third book was co-written with Casper Hulshof on myths in education and a fourth book was co-written with Linda Duits on girls culture.
His books include “Is het nu generatie X, Y of Einstein?” (2009), “De Jeugd Is Tegenwoordig” (2011), and “‘Jongens zijn slimmer dan meisjes”’ (2013). “‘Meisjes kijken” (2013) is a book is on educational myths and will be released in an adapted version internationally.
This piece was republished by EmpathyEducates with the kind permission of the Author. We thank Pedro De Bruyckere for a thoughtful treatise and for being an educational scientist, a Teacher, and no superhero.
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