we all are taught to respect our teachers.
in the Islamic educational system, especially, teachers are accorded a revered place. for a student is like a follower of a teacher & in that context, the transfer of knowledge becomes a vocation based in trust and teach ability as well as learn ability. these transactions are never lost, if a really good learning outcome comes about as well as a very good teacher-student relation on a human level.
one way that i honor my past professors/mentors is by quoting them, when appropriate when i teach or give presentations. also, when we write something in our fields, we must document the workd of our mentors, so that other students might be able to benefit from their referred works.
recently, i came to know that one of my bio professors had passed away.
and i had simply, randomly, turned to look for his web page at the univ to see what new courses he might be teaching now and if i could access his courses’ articles and ppts to read them with interest.
instead, what i found was that he had suddenly passed away this March, three years after I graduated from the univ where i had taken two courses with him.
it feels really good to be able to see that i get to remember my professors while teaching.
good parents, absolutely come first, but with teachers being taken as pure role models, good advice givers, and able to encourage us, the way parents might not have been able to, makes a really positive bond between the teacher-mentor and the student. maybe one’s thesis advisor, dissertation advisor, a professor with whom one might have done research work, & actually learnt from them - if they find their students to be inclined to learn from them, mentor-teachers/ professors can be a fountain of life’s lessons in other areas of life as well.
that said, i feel that i am blessed with more than one mentor, whose advice have always enabled me to make better decisions. it is essential to see our teachers as role models as well. sometimes, the inspiration that we can have from a person out of our family - but similar in age to our biological parents, makes the world look more assuring.
is it a common experience?
if yes, are you able to follow that teacher’s work now, as well, if s/he is alive or perhaps they are able to be invited to your lectures and a mutual feeling of pride and honor is felt?