#teachersareheroes

[witchzard 2.0] @ics@tau-ceti.space · Aug 04, 2026

Teachers ... Three teachers have left a lasting impression on me. I am talking about school teachers. Yes, I did have other teachers as well, but today I'd like to talk about school teachers. Part 1: Şebnem Palandöken (she/her) She was my teacher in 3rd grade, primary school in a dirt-poor village somewhere in Central Anatolia (for those who are interested: Akpınar Köyü, Ortaköy, Aksaray). This was back in ... well, so long ago that we didn't even have electricity in our village. For whatever reason our class was really small, we were only 18 pupils. Some background: in primary school in those days, each class/grade hat only one teacher and that teacher taught everything. Primary schools in Turkey had (have?) five grades. The other four classes were way larger than ours, maybe 25-30 pupils each. Anyway, this teacher came to our village one day and became our 3rd-grade teacher - in the year I came to the 3rd grade. She was very young, I think we were her first class after her studies. She not only was very young, but she was also very beautiful (yes, yes, I did have a crush on her for a while). But that wasn't why she left a strong impression on me, no, it was something else. One day she said: "We need a library here!" - Wait, what?? What is a "library"? Never heard of it before. You see, until then, the other teachers had just taught us what they had to - i.e., what was in the study-plan/schedule. They gave us the books that the Ministry of Education gave them, they taught us to read, write, some math, some geography, etc - but all of it was based on what the Ministry had required them to do. Nothing else. But this young, idealistic woman wanted us, our class, to have a library: a closet with books in it so anyone of us could borrow a book, take it home and read it at home. For me, that was unheard of. Taking a book home, a book that wasn't a school-book? How? This is possible? Reading a book at home? Reading at home??? WT-??? Yeah, she decided that our class needed a library. She then got a rack from somewhere (I really don't remember where that rack came from) and then she said: "Look, you must have a book at home, no? Here is your homework: go home, find a book at home or buy a book, and bring it to school and we'll put it in our library. Then, whenever you want to read a book, you can borrow one, read it, and return it." I mean, we were all peasants, we didn't have books, we barely had money for anything other than food. So what to do? I remember having had a lot of discussions with my classmates on our way home, but we decided that, maybe, it is a good idea and we should try to convince our parents to get one book each and bring it to school. But my problem was more complicated: I was living with my aunt who didn't have any money at all and the little she earned sometimes was because she sold some produce from our garden on the market in town and we needed that to buy food that we couldn't grow ourselves. So, there was no money to buy a book. My aunt and my cousin, though, didn't want to give up and they searched everywhere. I don't know where they got it from, but a few days later they gave me a small book, maybe 30 pages or so: "The Little Thumbling". I took it to school, and together with all the other 17 pupils, each brining one book, we created our "library". And then I borrowed one. It was called "Uçan Daire", which means "Flying House" (probably a very bad translation of "Flying Saucer"), and it was about a spaceship that landed in the backyard somewhere. A group of children found it, and before the aliens could realize the children were on board and traveling through space. After the aliens discovered the stowaways, they allowed the children to travel with them through the universe before bringing them back. I think one of the children stayed on board and if I am not mistaken, the spaceship would come back every now and then so that the children (siblings?) could meet each other. It was an amazing story - it kindled the fire in me for exploration, for space, for science, for fantasy, for fiction, for ... love! Because, you see, those aliens weren't bad or dangerous. This was the first time in my whole life I had read about alien life. I had never ever considered something like alien life somewhere out in space; in fact, I had never thought about space at all before - stars, galaxies, ... Then I borrowed a second book from our "library": Robin Hood! OMFG!!! This was so beautiful, so wonderful. This guy and his merry men - robbing the rich and giving to the poor. This was a revelation. This was ... magical! Until then, I had always accepted that "Natural Order" that the rich are rich and the poor are poor. I had never thought that this was not a "Natural Order", that things could be different, that the rich actually mostly got rich on the backs of all the others... Yeah, and that's where my story began - I think... Beloved Ms Palandöken: wherever you are, you are loved, and you will always be loved - forever. Thank you for opening my eyes to all those amazing things. #TeachersAreHeroes #Teacher

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i. celeste aurora

[witchzard 2.0] @ics@tau-ceti.space · Aug 04, 2026

Replying to @ics@tau-ceti.space

Part 2: Musa Şele (he/him) Then came 4th grade. Ms Palandöken was gone, Mr Şele came. Mr Şele stayed with me through the primary school then, 4th and 5th grade. His signature is on my primary school diploma, next to the principal's signature (the principal's daughter, Şenay, and I had a huge crush on each other and there were plans for the two of us going to high school together, but alas, my father had decided to bring me to Germany... 😞 - but that's probably another story) Mr Şele, I learned decades later, was in fact sent to our village as punishment - and after our school, he was sent to south east Turkey, for even tougher punishment 😢 I don't remember much about him, except that he was a really good teacher in all the topics that mattered, but there was one thing that forever changed how I think. Starting 4th grade, we also had to have "Religion" as topic. And it was, obviously, Islam. And since there was only one teacher per class/grade, he had to teach us religion as well. I don't remember most other religion classes we had, but I remember the first one. One day, it was quite sunny, he said: "Ok, today we'll do religion. Let's all leave the classroom and get out of school. Follow me!" Flabbergasted as we were (leaving the school was forbidden and punishable with corporal punishment ), we didn't dare to say "no". So we followed him. Left school. Left the village. Went somewhere close to a creek nearby. Then he said: "Lay down. All of you. On your backs. Look at the sky. Stop thinking." Ohhhh-keey, what's going on? We did what we were told. And then something happened. Something beautiful. I SAW the sky. I SAW how beautiful it was. How much beauty there was. Then he said: "Sit up. Look around. At the trees, at the grass, at the rocks, the creek, the animals, the flowers. Look. Stop thinking, just look." We did that, too. "Look closer. At the leaves, at the grass, at the tree, at the rocks. Closer." We did that, too. "This is all The Creation. This is what you should love. All this beauty. This is Their* creation. This is so beautiful because They love Their creation. They love all of us, everybody, everything, everywhere. This is all there is: love for everything, everywhere. This is Them, The creator. And you are part of Them. Your only 'duty' is to love. There are no more rules. Love for everything in this world, in the universe. Because that's who They are: The Love and The Lover. Don't ever let anyone tell you anything else. Their creation is because of love, Their love to Their creation is eternal and infinite - as should your love for everything and everywhere: eternal and infinite." ... ... "Ok, we're done. That was the Religion Class. Any questions?" ........ I learned faith from Mr Şele, and I learned that any religion not based on love is a lie - is an ideology - created to control people. Admired Mr Şele: if you are reading this, know that you are admired and loved - forever and ever. (*: Turkish being non-gendered and Mr Şele being who he was, I don't think he meant "he/him", but rather really "they/them") #TeachersAreHeroes #Teacher

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i. celeste aurora

[witchzard 2.0] @ics@tau-ceti.space · Aug 04, 2026

Replying to @ics@tau-ceti.space

Part 3/3: Wolfgang Holzner (he/him) This is now after I moved to Germany. I had to "redo" 5th grade in Germany. Not because I was bad, but because the 5th grade was classified as "Turkish Prep-Class", i.e., it was a prep-class for Turkish pupils so that they can, for one year, learn German and lessons at the same time. It was good, tbh. Especially since in Berlin primary school had six grades, it was even more fair because the final grade (6th) is used to decide which type of highschool you'll go afterwards and if I had started directly with the 6th grade with my non-existent German, I might have not been so good. Anyway, after finishing sixth grade (another long story, another time), I entered high school, at 7th grade. My luck that I, again, had a teacher who had just finished his teacher's graduation, i.e., we were his first real class. He was an idealistic child of the 1968-generation. And he left a strong impression on me. There are so many stories I could tell, but there are two for which I am still thankful to him. The first is about music: I was an odd kid (surprise, surprise), I didn't like contemporary music at all, so I was interested in Classical Music but also non-mainstream. One day he stops me after class and says: "You now, I noticed that you don't like pop music or any contemporary popular music for that matter. Would you like to hear something interesting, something out of the ordinary?" Yes, I would. Then we went to the music class. He put on a record. It started playing. OMFG!!! 😳 I had never heard something so beautiful 🤩 - it was Emerson, Lake & Palmer - playing "Fanfare For The Common Man" (yes, yes, I am listening to it right now). Wow!! This opened my eyes (or rather: ears) to a completely new type of music. I became a huge fan of Emerson, Lake & Palmer (and similar artists). The second topic was more serious, something so dear to his heart that even today he fights for it. One day, again after class (I think it must have been history class), he stops me at the door before I could leave. "Hey Imdat, do you have a minute?" Yes, I do. I mean, after "Emerson, Lake & Palmer", I of course do. Then he looks into my eyes and says: "If you plan to stay here in Germany, there are a few things you should know about us Germans and our past." - says and hands me a (history) book about Germany between 1933-1945. It was about what the Nazis did to the jews, homosexuals, and any other minority they deemed "lowlife". I read it in the evening. I cried. I read it. I cried. It contained photos of concentration camps after they were freed. I cried. I cried. I couldn't stop crying. I didn't know. I had never heard of it before. There was a chapter about "Hitler" in one Turkish history book I read when I was still in Turkey, but it was like two paragraphs (it was too early for me, because that topic was to be taught in 7th grade in Turkey). From then on he'd give me reports, stories and historical records of what humans are capable of. Like slavery. Like Holocaust. Like ... I believe he had the most impact on me becoming critical of humanity but because of Ms Palandöken and Mr Şele, I never lost my faith in humanity. Mr Holzner was an amazing person. I met him again in 2021. It was August 2021. I was thinking of him after so many decades and looked him up on the Internet I found a contact and sent an email. He was supposed to be living close to Mainz now (about 300km from Munich). And then he responded - telling me that he is right now in Munich and he'd be super happy to meet me! Oh mighty universe, how much I love you... 🥹 I spent about 3-4 hours with him and his lovely wife (she was also teacher at my school in those days - but another story, another time). When I came back home, I started crying - like never before. I dunno what happened. But I couldn't stop crying. I believe that this meeting with him in August 2021 contributed to my egg cracking in Dec that year - I don't know why, but I am sure it did. You, too, Mr Holzner: wherever you are, you are loved and admired - eternal and infinite. Yeah, three stories about three teachers. There were many more teachers who influenced me but these three left such huge lasting impressions that I still remember their names and their shapes. You see, teachers can be horrible and scar you for life - or they can help you to strive to be a decent and kind human being. In any case, some of the leave lasting impact on you. With me, these three helped me to become a better person - I don't know whether I am a good person, but I know for sure that I am not a bad person - and that's partly thanks to my teachers. 3/3 #TeachersAreHeroes #Teacher

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