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When I was 9 years old, I thought that 
a teacher is a titleholder.

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A person who stands in front of the class

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and teaches while the students 
are listening.

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I studied in a low income private 
school for 5 years

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there I saw many of my friends are
disinterested in their studies.

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Some of them would not pay 
attention in the class

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while some of them would 
be absent for days.

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I observed that this used to create a lot 
of pressure and stress on the teachers.

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And it made me question:

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How challenging is it to be the 
only person responsible

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in the room for the learning 
of 40 students?

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It made me question: Why do students need 
to rely on that one teacher?

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When will the students realize that 
there's a teacher in them?

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I wanted to do something about this.

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So, I decided that whenever and however 
possible, I would try to help my teacher.

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So everyday, I would help her with 
taking the class attendance,

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writing the daily agenda on the board.

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And during practice time,

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I would try and help a group of students 
who were struggling with their worksheets.

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And when my teacher would be absent,

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I would get on a call, and ask her things 
that I can help her with.

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Then, as discussed, I'd monitor the class,
give them vocabulary words to learn,

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some math problems to solve, 
and sometimes even homework.

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Over time, more classmates 
helped me with this.

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Slowly, we started taking ownership of 
our own learning in the classroom.

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This continued for some time. 
But I wanted to do something more!

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Many of my friends needed help with 
reading and comprehension.

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Me and my friend Pinky were really 
passionate about reading,

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so we started a reading club.

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In our club, we had students from 
4th, 5th and 6th grade

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and many of them had a low reading level.


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We slowly started giving them books with 
more pictures and less words.

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And once they were able 
to read those books,

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we tried to increase the difficulty level 
by giving them books with more words.

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We also discussed things like 
character, their traits,

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the main events and the 
central idea of the story.

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After some sessions our class teacher 
tested them and they showed an improvement!

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We even saw one of our friends grow 
by 1.5 reading levels in just one month!

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Eventually,

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we also got some opportunities to 
conduct reading circles with elder people.

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After these experiences,

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I felt really proud of the fact that for 
that brief moment, I was the teacher,

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irrespective of my age and 
which class I was in.

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I have a question for all of you:

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Are there things that you 
are passionate about?

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I am sure that it’s a yes, 
because I have many passions.

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Some of my passions include cooking, 
knitting, gardening and sketching.

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I owe all these passions to different 
teachers that I have had in my life.

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Teachers like Mr. Farhan, he is one of the
gardeners in our school

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and he helps me learn cool things 
about permaculture.

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These days I am learning a new form 
of gardening known as "aquaponics."

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Or my Mother, who taught me how to cook

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and be independent in the times 
when she is not around.

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You may have noticed that 
neither of them

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were the titleholders of a teacher.

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But in their own ways, 
they were teachers.

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Think about it. Do you have such 
teachers in your life?

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I'm sure that you do!

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In my community,

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people do different types of things and 
I can learn so many things from them.

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Such as organization from the garbage 
collector, cleanliness from the sweepers,

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mathematics from the carpenters, 
cooking from the housewives

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and how to run a business 
from shopkeepers.

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But do we ever try and think of 
the things that we can learn from them?

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No, we think because of their age, 
gender, and the kind of work they do,

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they can't teach us anything.

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But in fact, they can teach us a lot 
of different things.

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I believe that everyone is a teacher.

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You are a teacher, I am a teacher.

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It don't matter what age we are, what 
gender we are, or what work we do.

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I believe that if we start seeing 
everyone around us as teachers,

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one day we will achieve that 
perfect ratio 1 is to 1.

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Thank you.