Never underestimate the responsibility you have in shaping the life of a child. I can remember each of my teachers of my primary school years. If I don't remember their names I remember the flavour of the year I spent with them-and I can tell you where I was nurtured, where I was challenged and where I was hurt. The children you teach will look back through their lives on the time they spent with you-your responsibility is to make that time count in the personal growth of the child. You are part of a community where you, yourself will be nurtured.
Teachers learn more from each other than anyone else.
What it means for you is that, in addition to contributing to the framework for new system, through your teacher organisation and your subject association and many other representative structures, you also make a personal contribution. One that only you can make. In the space that is your classroom-with the lives of 30 or so of our children in you hands, the challenge is to be the best teacher you can be. This challenge is greater and more exciting than ever before. The quality, the flavour of the classrooms that you construct must be shaped by the principles of democracy, justice and equity, of critical thinking and of the development of peace, friendship, and human rights.