Learnings from 9 great teachers

"I am indebted to my father for living, but to my teacher for living well", so said Alexander the Great. Teachers shape and train the minds of the angelic cherubs and finally help them blossom in the forms of perfectly accomplished human beings. So they are the beacon light of a nation, builder of a nation, the future of the nation. The incredible and amazing stories of these nine masters stand to be the timeless muse for posterity.

Mark Twain

The USA's most famous writer and humourist Mark Twain is famous for his beautiful classic novels in the world. But for him life was not a bed of roses. He started his life journey with the ordinary job of a printer. He had had only minimal formal education in his life. He used to spend his entire evening studying books in the local library after the day's job. His life is an epitome of truth that only formal education and high percentage of marks are not everything required for the making of a promising career.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was the co-founder of Apple Inc. Did you know he never finished his college education? But he was blessed with superb and exceptionally sharp technical mind. Can you believe he had had only six months of college education in his entire life and this virtual disqualification did not prove to be the stumbling block in the introduction of a few sophisticated devices like iPod, iPhone and iPad? This was the miracle of his unfathomable will power to rise to the apex of successes in spite of insurmountable problems.

Henry Ford

He was not only the noted US industrialist and entrepreneur of his time but also an extraordinary visionary person who single-handedly created the automobile industry of the United States of America. He had also not a very high formal education. He had left his home at the age of 17 and worked as an apprentice in Detroit. Finally, he succeeded making the city of Detroit- the Motor City.

Winston Churchill

He is remembered as one of the miraculous political figures of the twentieth century in the United Kingdom. For his wit, he is also called as the quote machine. He was born in an affluent family where he was provided with all the facilities for the formal education. But you will be surprised to know that he was very poor in his studies.

He had no interest in formal education. He used to be punished due to his dismal record in his school. He had to suffer in military services also due to his poor academic performance. But finally he rose to be the prime minister of the UK.

Dr APJ Abdul Kalam

Famous as Missile man and the former President of India, Dr. Kalam spent his childhood in abject poverty. He used to sell newspapers in his home town Rameshwaram to supplement the expenses of his education.

Specialised in aeronautical engineering, he wanted to be a fighter pilot which he said was his 'dearest dream'. But he could not realize it as he came at the ninth position against the availability of eight slots in the Indian Air Force.

This failure of life did not deter him from becoming one of the famous scientists and great human beings of the country.

Maxim Gorky

The famous Russian and Soviet writer of the 19th century had a very troubled childhood when he lost his father at the age of only 4 and his mother when he was only 11-year old. He had been brought up by his maternal grandparents. He left his home at the age of 12 and started doing a variety of works for his livelihood. Working as an errand boy, a dishwasher on a streamer, among others, he was completely a self-educated person who failed to enter the University of Kazan. Hard circumstances taught him to write the pangs of the pain and hardships he had so intensely undergone in his life. He began writing under pseudonym Gorky (literally means bitter). His stories and articles appeared in newspapers of Volga region.

Essay and Stories, a two-volume collection of his writings, was his maiden book published in 1898. Widely known for his masterpiece 'The Mother', Maxim Gorky patiently braved the vortex of tough circumstances to finally rise to be a successful writer and political activist.

Abraham Lincoln

He is the most unique example of a historical personality who patiently suffered a plethora of predicaments and tragedies in his life before being appointed as the 16th president of the United States. His father lost almost everything when Abraham was born.

When he was only 9 years old, his mother passed away and his sister Sarah took care of him. Abraham Lincoln had a very little formal schooling which was not more than twelve months. But he was a great bibliophile and loved to read and learn.

Known as a gifted story teller, Abraham used to do a string of jobs like shopkeeper, surveyor, and postmaster in his adolescence stage. He rose to become the US President the credit of which went to his forbearance and self-taught lessons which he learnt from his life beset with difficulties and misfortunes.

Albert Einstein

The great scientist, Nobel Prize laureate and internationally reputed physicist Albert Einstein was truly a genius who has more than 300 scientific papers published to his name. He propounded the 'Theory of Relativity' which made him one of the legendary figures in the realm of physics. Would you easily believe the man behind such a spectacular achievement was actually a high school dropout? He wanted to go for university education but failed the entrance examination. Finally, he entered into a college and got a degree but this fact that the greatest intellectual super mind of the twentieth century was a high school dropout is too hard to digest.

Thomas Alva Edison

He was the great US inventor and thinker of the 20th century. His path-breaking inventions earned him the unprecedented popularity. Do you know he had got only three months' formal schooling? He had been sent back home by the teacher of his school with the written note that the boy was not fit for the formal education. Do you know that the child Edison had a hearing problem at an early age? Yet he rose to become the greatest scientist of his time only due to his hard labour and unshakeable self-confidence.

(The author is Principal,Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya at Mamit, Mizoram)