New Coastie – Teachers to remember

Teachers have shaped the person I am today. Of course, my parents and grandparents played a huge role in developing the moral grounding and the basic pillars of living a life. Riding a bicycle and my total disdain for lateness comes from my grandfather. My proclivity to listen and empathise comes from my grandmother. Patience and perseverance come from my mother. Navigating anger and my political acumen comes from my father. They were all my teachers but being my ancestors, it was their responsibility to teach and shape me so that I can steer through life.

School teachers, tutors, professors, and lecturers are the strangers who choose it as their careers to shape and educate young minds. These people used their chisel and hammer to sculpt the human being that I am today from the basic mould that was created by my ancestors. My ancestors created the safe and reliable Toyota Corolla, but my teachers souped it up with the V8 engine, forced induction, and performance throttle.

It was Sir Itrat (a ferocious nose picker) who made me realise that chemistry was a philosophy of the basic building blocks of our existence. Miss Diana taught mathematics as a toolkit for navigating life through logic and common sense. My favourite, Sir Hasan Akbar, unlocked classical literature in both Urdu and English as a vehicle to understand our collective past through fiction and poetry. Even though Sir Hasan was a teacher of literature, he unlocked the critical part of my brain which kickstarted the rebellion against the religious theocracy and foundation myths of the nation state of Pakistan.

It was the critical thinking instilled by Sir Hasan that made me make the decision to quit my well-paying marketing role of eight years and take up postgraduate degrees in Indigenous Studies. That decision opened me up to other teachers – not all of them taught me in the classroom, but through their collective works. Giants like Ranginui Walker, Moana Jackson, Tracey McIntosh, KK Aziz, Nadeem Farooq Paracha, Ayesha Jalal, Ilan Pappe, Ani Mikaere, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Margaret Mutu, Vincent O’Malley, William Dalrymple, Rashid Khalidi, Linda Waimarie Nikora, and others now shape my thinking about New Zealand and the wider world that I come from. That is the legacy of Sir Hassan who continuously shapes who I am and how I think since 11th and 12th grade.

Now you might not agree with the people I have mentioned above and the path I have taken, but the fact that I realise that there might be disagreement is directly linked to the teaching of Sir Hasan. The point I am trying to make here is that teachers are the most important contributors to formulating a young mind who grows up to be a building block of our society. Why then do we treat teachers as stepping stones for our children to just get a better job? Why do we reward them less than marketing executives and real estate agents? I love both, but you get my drift. With some exceptions, without teachers we are all just basic Toyota Corolla minds. Teachers, such as Sir Hasan, create the souped-up minds that drive the progress of our society. Who was your Sir Hasan?