Does anyone realize the importance of teaching?

A couple of things I have truly learned during my limited experience in the school world: first of all, teachers have an image problem. They badly need some good PR, and soon. Second, apparently nobody seems to acknowledge, governments in primis but also the general public all over the civilized world, the immense, crucial, vital importance of teaching. I am a scientist by background and I am trained in finding explanations, but I still fail to grasp how the vital and irreplaceable role of the teachers and the school can be so badly misunderstood. Teaching is clearly the most important job in any civilized country, because they directly forge and shape civilized citizens, who are ultimately the components of the society. Without them there would be no civilized society whatsoever. Therefore, teachers should be actually seen for what they are: society-makers and everyone should give at least at thought to it, because they are in charge to physically populate the society where you all will be living as an old (or ageing) being.   


Moreover, the past decades have seen a constant shift of responsibility from the individual, and particularly from pupils, to the collectivity. Whether this is the right way forward or not, the shift has left the teachers dealing with all the lack of education left by the parents willingly or not, to deal with it. Therefore, all the worst from previous generations, in term of social skills and civic education, is accumulated in the hands of a handful of teachers, who generally do not have the tools or even the rights to manage the problem. 
Governments and the public should be always kept informed and aware of what teachers really do and how teaching is much more of a mission than a normal paid activity: particularly in challenging public schools. 


This brings us directly to the necessity of some good PR. Is it now the right time for teachers to get a common and resounding voice in the establishment? A voice which can put forward some of the aforementioned concepts? Teaching is way too important to be silently relegated to a second-class occupation, both in terms of salary and popularity. Teachers need a better presence in the media and a strong and constant pressure on the system, able to uplift the whole category to deserved heights. Good teachers are our only way to the future, and we owe them what we are, but even more importantly, we owe them what we will be. 
Let’s all acknowledge that.

The universe does not care

And again, I found myself debating religious issues with a religious person. Why should I? The whole universe (and it is a fairly big place) does not care. Many governments do not care as well, therefore why should I? Religions are (slowly) fading away in any case, relegated to more and more defensive positions by the usual couple of elements: freedom and culture. Humankind does not need to believe in additional lives to love and respect the only one we get and it is very clearly demonstrated by the million of happy humanists living very much concrete, first owner, lives. Interestingly enough, it does appear that atheists on average are happier and more empathic towards other beings and even more sensitive to social issues. Obviously such a statistic tends to be slightly biased because a substantial percentage of humanists is better educated and probably better off overall. Nevertheless, we (humanists) do not need a vengeful god watching us in this life, neither to get a better and rewarded round after, nor to behave "morally". 


However, what really put me off is the infinite, enormous, gigantic amount of hubris that any person of faith must have, in order to believe in anything at all, and therefore to elevate to forbidden heights, the miserable, useless and ignorant sense of self-importance, up to a point where it becomes comedy.
How ignorant about the universe must you be, to be able to fill yourself with such a deceiving immensity about yourself and your species? Who do you think you are? Really, please. The masterpiece of an elusive god who rolled the ball for 14 billion years just to see you, YOU, going around wondering about what to do in this life and how to get the afterlife? Really? How delusional can you be? How infantile, puerile, presumptuous and disrespectful of the real immensity of space and time. You microscopic entity, who needs to find a delusional self-hypnotic conviction of a second life because you cannot love your first: how dull are you? But you ask for intellectual respect. Do you? Does it go with a self-induced numbness based upon an unlimited presumption? Does it?  


There is no point in putting the space-time continuum, the eternity and the infinity, the majesty of the physical laws stretched inside a nova or in a black hole, the amazing crude fact that our atoms were forged in stars that have been born and dead before our own sun was emitting its first ray of light. 
If you are religious you must ignore the whole lot, simply because every single thing in the universe, from a law to an atom, from a star to a galaxy, everything reminds you about your smallness, your almost non-existence. Everything tells you that you are not special, at any level, whatsoever. Where the only real greatness is around us, everywhere, and we should just marvel in awe about it. Because it took 14 billion years for us to see what we see, to understand what we understand, and to become what we are.
Peace.

The hubris of humankind

Sometimes human beings think to be very special creations in this universe. The collective form of such excess of hubris is called religion.
MP