Every touch of a teacher is a new hope for humanity

Today is Teachers' Day. Everyone is sending congratulatory messages to one another through social media and other channels. The day of teachers and education workers is being celebrated. It certainly should be. The work they do is by no means easy. Raising human beings—truly raising them in the real sense—is one of the most challenging tasks. It requires great effort. Moreover, it requires transcendence. First and foremost, the teacher themselves must be very well-educated and must have grasped humanity and what it means to be human. 

A teacher is someone who possesses the competence and maturity to lead society and humanity. The work of a teacher or an education worker should not be limited to the walls of a school. A teacher is an exemplary person to society outside of school as well, with their intellectual background, attitudes, behaviors, and their way of touching life and people. 

As I thought about this, I took a small trip down memory lane. I see Mustafa Kemal. He stands before the blackboard, chalk in hand, giving the first lesson to his students. It is clear he is teaching the new alphabet. He looks with hope and love at the children who will build the future of his country. The brightness on his face, the sparkle in his eyes, and the grace in his style and behavior are remarkable. For a moment, I wonder if I am longing for the past, but then I tell myself that our Head Teacher is the leader of all times with his vision, his light, and his foresight. The understanding he possessed a century ago, the views he put forward, the goal he set, the humanist approach he adopted, and his idea of modernity are too vast to fit into the pages of history and too forward-looking to remain in the past. So, mine is not a longing for the past, but perhaps a small reproach regarding the present time. 

Our Head Teacher had entrusted teachers with the responsibility of raising free-thinking, moral, critical, questioning, adaptable, humane, and enlightened generations. Therefore, he believed that teachers themselves needed to be well-educated first. For this reason, one of his priority projects was the construction of educational institutions that would train staff to teach in various fields. The establishment of the Music Teachers' School in Ankara just one year after the founding of the Republic was a result of this vision. The fact that the few literate people in society were sent to villages to teach villagers how to read and write is also an indicator of how much the Head Teacher prioritized education. The village institutes, established to ensure the active participation of village children in the education process, are also a reflection of this approach. Our Head Teacher was determined. There would be no one left in society who could not read or write. Everyone, from young to old, would be literate. Because he knew that for a society to exist, for a country to develop, and for a state to continue its path in the lane of independence, it is essential for the public to be educated. A conscious society was only possible through the existence of conscious individuals. 

Our Head Teacher attached importance to planning education and instruction in accordance with the needs of the country and society. For this reason, world-renowned education experts were invited, and their opinions were sought. We had to succeed just as they had succeeded. Nothing was impossible, provided that one proceeded with the right planning. This is why John Dewey, who was famous in the field of education and played an important role in America's educational planning, was invited. In 1924, Dewey, who was invited to Turkey, prepared a detailed report on the planning of education and instruction and presented it to Atatürk. In Dewey's report, it was suggested that an understanding of education that touches every aspect of life should be adopted. Dewey proposed an education and instruction program that considers the needs of the country and society, is suitable for the social and cultural character, takes local characteristics into account, and observes the country's goals. The village institutes, which would later be opened with the trilogy of books, bicycles, and mandolins, carried out their educational activities with a curriculum structure that matched these suggestions exactly. The teachers who grew up in these institutes, which provided both theoretical and practical education, were trained not only in intellectual maturity but also in art, sports, and all the practices of daily life. Because they were going to provide educational services in villages and in the regions of the country with the most difficult natural and geographical conditions, they had to be trained to be capable of managing life in all its aspects, so that with this competence, they could both manage their own lives and be examples to the people in the regions where they would serve. Each of them had to be like Feride in the novel *Çalıkuşu*. Each of them had to take scientific knowledge, intellectual competence, and styles and practices related to modern life to the most remote corners of Anatolia. 

And so it happened. At the point reached today, our teachers, following in the footsteps of our Head Teacher all over the country, are serving the development of the country and society, and the progress of humanity. They draw their strength from their love for humanity and their country. They are aware of how sacred the duty they are performing is. They know that every touch of theirs contributes to the progress of humanity. They are aware that a more humane world is only possible with the enthusiasm within them. Therefore, they continue on their path with love, passion, and devotion. 

Happy Teachers' Day to all our teachers, especially our Head Teacher Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.