“His name was Henry Tillott. And he had come out of retirement for a second time to teach us. He let me have the run of the physics laboratory out of hours. He was a really good teacher and showed me actually how easy physics was” Jocellyn Bell Burnell who later went on to discover Pulsars.  What she mentioned about her teacher showed the zeal,  passion, and perfection,  this teacher showed in encouraging her into the exciting world of Physics at early school age. How a teacher can transform a student in formative years is explained by this statement of Robert Oppenheimer, famous theoretical physicist about his high school teacher ‘he loved young people, he hoped to give some touch, some taste, some love of life and in whose awakening he saw his destiny’. Teachers in ancient period were held in high position by societies in many cultures all over the world. Alexander, praised his teacher Aristotle for the knowledge and advice given to him in time, he says “my parents give me birth, my teacher gives me life”.  The way a society thinks about its teachers, is a reflection of the value it attributes to  education in that society. Ancient Jewish tradition considered teacher as indispensable to any community. The Talmudic sages mention that no scholar is permitted to live wherever ten basic services are not provided for. One of those is a teacher for their children. Teacher was considered as much of a necessity to the society as much as a physician, a court of law or a synagogue. In the Islamic tradition too,  teachers played a crucial role in transmitting knowledge to the next generation. Imam Shafi’i has stated that someone who tries to become a Fakih solely through books loses Ahkam. The most general term that describes a teacher in Islamic tradition is ‘Ulama’. Teachers played a crucial role in various other ancient Christian, Sikh, Budhist and Jain cultures too to name a few.

      In ancient Hindu traditions, teacher played a crucial role in shaping up the knowledge and character of the student. The Sanskrit quote ‘Guruh Brahma, Guruh Vishnu, Guruh devo Maheshwaraha’ makes the status of a teacher equivalent to that of god. Concept of Gurukula existed in ancient India where students were given shelter at the teacher’s Ashram and were offering daily services to Guru and Gurupatni in the Ashram, while pursuing knowledge acquisition from the guru. Lord Krishna alongwith his childhood friend Sudama stayed At Sandipani Muni Ashram for knowledge gaining.

    In India, September 5^th each year is celebrated as teacher’s day. It marks the birth anniversary of Sarvepalli  Radhakrishnan, who was an Indian philosopher and second president of Independent India. He was born in Chittoor district in current Andhra Pradesh. He did his M A degree from madras University and went on to serve in several key academic positions of influence in both east and west. Teachers day is a day when each individual should reflect and salute  that single teacher or a set of teachers who shaped their career and character in their life.

Alyss team believes that behind every great scientist and mathematician, there was at least one unknown teacher who motivated his/her ideas during early formative years. In an attempt to empower the teachers and demonstrate its commitment to the teacher community at large on the occasion of teachers day, Alyss is providing its ‘teachers technology kit’ content completely FREE and DOWNLOADALE to all teachers for the September 5^th and 6^th weekend. Class 9^th and 10^th teachers of math and science can avail of this opportunity, register for free at www.e-alyss.com as teacher and enjoy free access to the content.