Teachers have important jobs. From the time that we’re old enough to talk, they help to challenge our minds and mold us into functioning adults. They’re essentially our parents away from home.
For most of us, it’s not an overstatement to say we learn almost everything we know from our teachers – and that’s not limited to reading, writing, and arithmetic. Educators impart a lot of life wisdom too, and those early lessons are often the most important. Here are some reminders of the most important things we learned from our teachers, and why we should celebrate them everyday.
1. Share
This is one of the first lessons we learn as kids, and it only becomes more relevant the older we get. The classroom was a more peaceful space when everyone shared, and so is the grown-up world.
2. Use the Buddy System
Just as necessary in adult life as it was on field trips. Even grown ups face challenges like getting distracted, lost, and scared – it’s crucial to know you always have a go-to buddy to check in with and hold your hand.
3. Listen
Unfortunately, we can sometimes have just as much trouble with this lesson in our adult lives as we did when we were children. Listening is the only way to learn, and whether we’re tuning out because we think we know better or we’re just eager to move forward, it’s usually in our best interest to hear the full story/instructions/plan first.
4. Clean Up
Somehow the longer those dishes stay in the sink, the harder it is to wash, dry, and put them away (and the more annoyed your roommate/S.O. will be). Cleaning up after playtime and meals was ingrained at a young age, and taught us to be respectful of our space as well as those around us.
5. Read
Remember how important reading used to be? We had designated reading time, book reports, maybe a little story-time before sleep if we were lucky – now most of our reading is 140 characters or less, and done in the bathroom. However we can’t blame the digital age for all our leisure reading apathy. Taking a little quiet time with a book can still help you relax, reflect, and learn like it did in Kindergarten.
6. Treat Others the Way you Want to be Treated
At its core, this is really a lesson about consequences. You teach people how to treat you with your actions and behaviors, whether it’s through sharing your toys or choosing not to gossip behind someone’s back.
7. Use your imagination
The encouragement of imagination encounters a steep drop-off after elementary school, when test scores and transcripts become the primary focus of all learning. However, it doesn’t mean using that muscle is any less important to us as adults. Imagination is what makes work fun.
8. Naps are great
We might get conditioned out of our refreshing midday snoozes, but we never truly grow out of them.
9. It’s Ok to Make Mistakes
We all make mistakes, and chances are we’re going to keep making them every time we try something new. As long as we act with the best intentions and learn something from these experiences, they’re not anything to be ashamed of.
