World Teachers' Day is celebrated annually Oct. 5 to appreciate educators who work hard to shape the minds of future generations.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) created this day in 1994. The theme for World Teachers' Day 2020 is "Teachers: Leading in Crisis, Reimagining the Future," which focuses on the role educators have been playing during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"In this crisis, teachers have shown, as they have done so often, great leadership and innovation in ensuring that #LearningNeverStops, that no learner is left behind. Around the world, they have worked individually and collectively to find solutions and create new learning environments for their students to allow education to continue. Their role advising on school reopening plans and supporting students with the return to school is just as important," UNESCO said in a statement.

Here are a few quotes recognizing teachers’ contributions, courtesy Brainy Quotes and Goodreads:

  • "Let us remember: one book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world." ― Malala Yousafzai
  • "The great teacher is not the man who supplies the most facts, but the one in whose presence we become different people." ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • "Teaching is a very noble profession that shapes the character, caliber, and future of an individual. If the people remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honor for me." ― A. P. J. Abdul Kalam
  • "The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires." ― William Arthur Ward
  • "When I go to bed at night, I ask God to give me another day; I ask him to keep me strong and make me a good teacher and to keep spreading this right word." ― Richard Simmons
  • "No man can be a good teacher unless he has feelings of warm affection toward his pupils and a genuine desire to impart to them what he believes to be of value." ― Bertrand Russell
  • "It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge." — Albert Einstein
  • "There are two kinds of teachers: the kind that fill you with so much quail shot that you can’t move, and the kind that just gives you a little prod behind and you jump to the skies." ― Robert Frost
school classroom
A teacher shows pupils how to clean their hands in a classroom at a school in the Paris' suburb of La Courneuve. AFP/Martin BUREAU
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