Happy Teachers’ Day to:
My wife, who every day, brings all her primary school teacher experience to bear for our kids’ education, especially in Chinese language;
My parents, with over 60 years of teaching experience between them, part of which convinced them to spend weeks persuading me not to take a teaching scholarship 25 years ago;
My teachers, most of whom might no longer be teaching, but whose lessons still resonate after all these decades;
My teacher friends and peers, especially those still in the service, because look at all the lives you’ve touched! Could you have imagined that 20+ years ago when we started?;
My ex-colleagues, wherever you are now, for having supported me as a beginning teacher who unfortunately never quite stayed long enough to outgrow that term;
My current colleagues, who create curriculum and programmes and still step into classrooms to teach our odd little non-academic subject;
My kids’ teachers, who my wife and I try to bother as little as possible, because we know the kids love you and that’s really nearly all that matters;
All the teachers we work with, for giving us a chance to bring our lessons to your students;
And finally, to my 25-year-ago self, who — as teenagers are wont to do in the face of sound parental advice — thought a teaching scholarship to go study in the US couldn’t have been *that* bad an idea. I’m glad for the choices we made, and I’m grateful for the people who got us here.
Happy Teachers’ Day.