Education changes lives, but we don’t have to tell you that because you said it best. We talked to Global Citizens about the teachers, books, and moments in their educations that left the deepest impressions and moved them to take action. These are some of your stories!
Wei Soo, co-founder of Global Citizen
I read “The Chosen” in high school, and it has had a profound impact on the lens through which I see the world.
The major plot line centers around Reb Saunders, an ultra orthodox rabbi, and his brilliant son Danny — a young man with a brilliant mind. Reb Saunders raises Danny up in silence — they do not speak, except for when they are studying religious texts together.
Reb first recognizes his son is a genius when Danny, still a child, devours a book and then repeats it verbatim to his father. But his father is heartsick, for the book told of suffering, “and Danny enjoyed the story, he enjoyed the last terrible page.”
Young Danny reminds Reb of his own brother who became a great mathematician but, in the process, cultivated “a cold mind...almost cruel, untouched by his soul. It was proud, haughty, impatient...it could not understand pain, it was indifferent to and impatient with suffering.”
Reb fears that Danny will grow up to be like his uncle unless (spoiler alert!) the boy learns to feel as well as think. In the novel's climactic passage, Reb cries out:
“A mind like this I need for a child? A heart I need for a child, a soul I need for a child, compassion I want from my child, righteousness, mercy, strength to suffer and carry pain, that I want from my child, not a mind without a soul.”
I have reflected on this book and this passage many times since high school, and am reminded that the world suffers from a glut of “intelligence” and a deficit of “wisdom.” And as Global Citizens, we should strive to be people of compassion, righteousness, mercy and strength.
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Garima Bakshi
Someshwar Sati — Somesh Sir, as we called him — taught me English literature in my first and third years of college. He was just like any other professor at my university — well-versed in his subject, friendly with the students, and always willing to give us advice. Only he wasn’t exactly like every other teacher. He was visually impaired, almost to the point of complete blindness.
I only became aware of his impairment after attending his classes for a month, and I was stunned. At best he could see the vague outlines of his students, when the room was well-lit, but there was nothing in the delivery of his lectures that made that obvious. I interacted with him a lot afterwards, and his dedication to teach a classroom full of angsty teenagers despite his disability inspired me to no end.
I learnt a great deal about perseverance and dedication from him.
Meghan Werft
I read “Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity” by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn for an international relations class, and it was one of the most eye-opening books about gender equality advocacy I’d ever come across. The title refers to the Chinese proverb that women hold up half the sky, which to me meant that women are equal on this planet and deserving of equal access to all human rights. The book shares, at times, sickening stories of girls and women who have escaped child marriage, rape, and sex-trafficking.
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What made “Half the Sky” different from just reading the news or personal profiles of the women in Kristof and WuDunn’s book was that the book always connects the reader back to a cause. Literally, there is an endless list of ways to help in the index. This book was a major catalyst to my firm-standing belief in another saying, “Educate a boy and you educate one person. Educate a girl and you educate a nation.”
Read more: Why Do Girls Need an Education?
Brandon Blackburn-Dwyer
Mr. Elder taught an elective class on the US Civil War. This class for 4th and 5th graders utilized Ken Burns’ fantastic Civil War documentary series. Mr. Elder would play the series, stop to explain complex points, expand on concepts, and lead discussions.
The class changed my perspective on US history, on how education is delivered, and shaped my view and love of multimedia formats.
The US Civil War contains endless lessons on humanity as well as peace and justice. To this day, I can still recall facts and lessons from that elementary school classroom. Further, Mr. Elder’s engaged style and creativity was an inspiration for me when I became a teacher.
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Daniele Selby
Nanette Ruhter was my freshman English teacher and became my “mom at school.” But more influentially, she pushed me to join the board of the student-led organization she supervised: Wish for Kids, which focuses on providing education for the children in Barangay Maravilla in Cebu, Philippines. And in doing so she changed how I saw the world.
For the next three years, I ran around my school in Singapore obsessively fundraising, trying to provide as many scholarships as possible, playing Tetris to fit books, shoes, and bars of soap into giant boxes. But it wasn't until I was able to visit the village my senior year that I finally realized the impact we'd had — when I walked into a room full of first graders wearing the same uniform I wore. Filipino law required children to wear uniforms in order to attend public school and so we had collected old uniforms from our students and sent them over.
But it really sunk in the day before we left. We held classes and organized games for the children on a Saturday and I was convinced they wouldn't come ... what kid wants to go to school on the weekend? But I was wrong. They all showed up and were excited to be there. They actually loved going to school.
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I left with mixed feelings. After one week with these kids, I knew their names, I knew who the shy ones were and who would raise their hands first in class. I knew they had books in their library, a water fountain, and uniforms.
I was proud of the work we had done and happy to see that it was making a difference, but this was just one town. The next town over would have children whose names I didn't know, whose library might not have books — who might not have a library at all. And it felt like I hadn't done enough. My goals had been so focused on this one village that I hadn't thought about the challenges children are faced with elsewhere.
Mrs. Ruhter, the children I met, and that experience are the reasons I want to fight for equal access to education for children around the world.
Keila Meginnis
“Infidel” by the controversial, but admired, activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali seriously changed my life. Originally from Somalia she’s now a vocal advocate against female genital mutilation, and “Infidel” is her inspirational autobiography.
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What struck me about “Infidel” was Ali’s amazing story — from poverty and oppression to being granted asylum in the Netherlands. It taught me about privilege and to not take things for granted. It also put things in perspective for me and made me want to be a better person who fights hard for what I believe in.
Taylor Light
Summer reading is often a great pain for high school students during an otherwise fun and liberating summer break. However, going into my sophomore year of high school, Christian Beam, my teacher for global politics and world history, assigned Ishmael Beah’s “A Long Way Gone.” It’s the powerful and unsettling memoir of a young Sierra Leonean’s journey through death, pain, and manipulation during the country’s 11-year civil war. This book bucked the trend of previous summer reading lists filled with Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte.
Beah’s true-to-detail story was a real wake-up call that helped me pop the bubble of teenage unconsciousness and adolescent self-centric thinking. In many ways, I’d attribute the initial seeds of my interest and curiosity in development and global affairs to Beah’s tale of perseverance, injustice, and the unrelenting, uncompromising consequences of protracted crises.
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Madeline Schwartz
In 2014, my teachers, Nick Martino and Lindsay Clark, led a group of four students on a trip to make a mini-documentary about Tohoku, Japan, three years after the tsunami and earthquake hit. I had the opportunity to work as the director of photography and editing for the project.
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When we arrived, we had no idea what we would encounter. But with the help of our fantastic organizer and translator, we were able to visit and interview many members of the community of Rikuzentakata, a town decimated by the disaster. We spoke to a man who had been living in temporary housing. We spoke to the mayor and the coordinator of an effort to sort through the debris for the remains of the dead. Perhaps most powerfully, we spent a day with teens our age, and were given a glimpse into their daily lives and their experiences. As we collected footage and listened to stories, we realized that the story we needed to tell had to be one of recovery and rebuilding.
Creating this film deepened my understanding of how disasters can affect communities, and intensified my commitment to contributing to and supporting the greater world community. This trip would not have happened had Martino and Lindsay not dreamt it up. They are two of the most dedicated and inspired educators I have ever encountered. Because they believed that four 9th- and 10th-grade students could create something of value, we learned first-hand to empathize and genuinely connect with people in a way that we could never have learned to from afar. For this I will always be grateful.
Read more: 4 Children Explain How Education Has Changed Their Lives
Krista Watson
My high school teacher Mr. Brian Sinchak broadened my worldview by showing me the world (literally). He led students on several international mission trips, two of which I was lucky to participated in. I am grateful for the time we spent in Kenya and India because it taught me not all learning can be done in a classroom. Being there, I saw firsthand what it meant to be a Global Citizen — being a member of the human race, working to fight against extreme poverty.
Mr. Sinchak inspires his students to be great through his passion and dedication to the profession. He always said, "If you have the ability to be great, good is simply not enough."
Sharmishta Sivaramakrishnan
At the age of 7, I picked up the “Diary of A Young Girl” by Anne Frank in the library at my small private school in Essex, UK. Through reading about Anne's struggles as a Jewish teenager hiding with her family in an attic during the Holocaust and her daily tribulations trapped in the secret Annexe, I learned about the power of human resilience, the depth of the human voice, and most importantly, the extent of human tragedy in the form of the Holocaust. Anne's spirited and witty musings shed light on the impact of global warfare’s painful externalities on people's lives — an experience far removed from mine. I started to question the nature of "genocide" as a global issue of the past, present, and future. Her book left me more knowledgeable but also committed to making change on an international level. At the heart of my passion for development lies my fascination with its power to be driven by humans like, and for, Anne Frank.
Many years later, I visited Cambodia. While I had traveled to developing countries before, in Cambodia I found echoes of the story Anne told. Cambodia's post-conflict environment was a wakeup call for me. I quickly realized that almost every person I encountered had been affected by the Khmer Rouge led genocide of the 1970s. After meeting Cambodian children whose lives had been impacted by the genocide, I returned to school in Singapore, resolved to contribute in any way I could. My trip prompted me to join Caring for Cambodia (CFC), an NGO working to improve the future of education in the country.
Read more: Caring For Cambodia Saves Girls from Brothels and Is Changing the Nation Through Education
Through CFC, I have discovered that while humans can be the cause of massive devastation, they can be the cause of large-scale change too. Now, as the UN Youth Representative for Caring for Cambodia, I am privileged to share in CFC's revolutionary work. Moreover, I am proud to be a part of the human-driven change-making narrative of global development. After all, it was Anne Frank who once said, "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
Sarah Dougherty
Ms. Keri Heidecker isn't just a teacher — she's a "cool teacher." She is the ultimate advocate for finding your voice and sharing it with the world. She helped make me a better writer and find a way to combine all of my interests for the greater good. This was important for me because the world became an open book that I felt confident and empowered to explore.
Ms. Heidecker inspires her students because she's a living example of finding your passions and bringing them to the table.
Mary-Margaret Cimino
My third-grade teacher Mrs. Cimino, who is also my mother, assigned the novel “Poppy” by Avi to her public school class in late October. As another northern New York autumn approached and the days got shorter while darkness got longer, the book (and my mom’s timely choice) began to make sense.
Poppy is a mouse who, early in the story, loses his best friend to a great horned owl named Mr. Ocax, a tyrannical ruler. Through his adventures and the situations he gets himself into, Poppy gains enough courage to question stereotypes and make his own decisions. He meets Ereth, a porcupine, who contrary to what he’s been told is friendly and does not eat mice. Ereth protects Poppy from Mr. Ocax and reveals Mr. Ocax has no title of king.
My mom read the book aloud, doing different voices for all the characters, and held a circle-rug full of 8 and 9 year-olds fixated on her every word. The dark nights of the Dimwood region where Poppy lived reflected the coming nights of our own dark autumn, and we could almost feel Mr. Ocax’s owl eyes peering at us from outside the classroom windows, through the woods.
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I swear in those moments, an entire class full of white, lower-class children watched a mouse, a porcupine, and other vastly different woods characters relate to each other as living-beings, not species. We learned how important life is and how quickly you can lose someone you love — in an instant. We learned to challenge social injustice and to rely on logic and belief in oneself. And maybe most importantly, I learned just how amazing my mom could be.
All children have the right to quality education because education changes lives. It empowers children to challenge unfair social norms, to fulfill their dreams, and to become successful adults. Education can even save lives by teaching children the important skills they need to thrive.
Unfortunately, around 59 million primary school-aged children don’t have stories like the ones featured here because they are being denied an education. Approximately 65 million teenagers don’t have access to secondary schooling while 75 million children’s education has been disrupted by conflict and natural disasters.
Around the world, girls in particular are missing out on education. However, girls who go to and stay in school are less likely to become child brides and victims of violence; they’re more likely to advocate for their own rights and dreams. Children who receive an education are empowered to take charge of their futures and contribute to the end of extreme poverty.
It is on us as Global Citizens to make sure that every child is be able to say “this is how education changed my life” and have their own story to tell.