Can a Teacher Change the Course of a Student’s Life?

Teachers rank second only to parents in raising children, and at times they may even exert a stronger influence than parents themselves. The first five years of a child’s life form the foundation on which personality and ways of thinking, learning, and interacting are built. During this stage, the brain develops very rapidly, patterns of attachment and trust are formed, and parents become role models and sources of inspiration.

This has been scientifically established by psychological and sociological studies. Yet this does not mean that a child’s personality remains static and fixed; rather, it can be continually reshaped and changed through interaction with peers and the influence of teachers.

This raises the question: To what extent do teachers affect learners? Can that influence go as far as changing their convictions and altering the educational paths on which their future career choices are often based? To avoid making unsupported claims, we need evidence for this assertion.

From an epistemological perspective, the sources of knowledge are reason, sensory perception, experience, and intuition—and, for some, revelation in matters of theology. I shall therefore select one of these sources, namely experience, and use examples as a means of argument, recounting in turn several real-life experiences from my immediate surroundings.

First: From an Outstanding Natural Sciences Student to Someone Who Hated the Subject

This story follows a student who regularly received a perfect score of 20/20 in natural sciences during lower secondary school. Unfortunately, he later found himself taught by a teacher who, on one occasion, humiliated him in front of his classmates over a trivial matter.

The student withdrew from the subject and no longer paid it any attention, to the point that he did not even obtain a passing grade in it on the baccalaureate examination, despite graduating with a “Good” distinction in the Mathematical Sciences track. Nor did the matter end there: he completely abandoned the idea of pursuing medicine, because medicine, as is well known, relies heavily on the natural sciences.

Second: From a Student Who Loved Economics to One Forced to Choose Management

If all roads lead to Rome—or to Mecca, as some Muslims like to adapt the saying—as the common proverb goes, some university professors believe that there is one and only one road to Rome. They refuse to accept an answer even when it is correct, simply because it differs from their own method and preferred style of answering examination questions.

Consequently, any student who fails to follow their instructions receives a disqualifying grade below 5/20. These instructions are not primarily intended to promote learning, but rather to punish those who miss classes. This may be relatively understandable—assuming good intentions—as an attempt to deter absenteeism and compel students to attend.

However, it excludes a broad category of students whose circumstances do not allow regular attendance: students from remote areas whose grants may not cover their personal expenses, or who receive no grant at all; married female students who wish to illuminate their homes with knowledge rather than live in the darkness of ignorance; and employees who seek to develop themselves academically and professionally, particularly amid growing emphasis on continuing education rather than relying solely on initial training, and the resulting improvements in the quality of work and education.

Because the central figure in this story was unable to attend regularly, he passed every subject except the course taught by a particular professor belonging to the category described above. The problem did not stop there. This professor became a bogeyman who frightened students, forcing many of them to choose a different, parallel specialization—even when they did not like it—simply to avoid encountering him again in their final year after having already suffered under him in their first year.

Third: Fleeing a Professor, Students Reluctantly Choose Linguistics Instead of Literature

At university, one sometimes encounters professors who are keen to ensure that students attend classes and complete homework, and they deserve credit for that. What may be criticized, however, is excessive strictness and failure to comply with the pedagogical regulations established by the department. Instead of making the examination the principal criterion for assessing learning, such a professor adds other criteria with the same weight as the final examination, such as attendance and completion of homework.

This creates an obstacle for what may be a large group of working students, employed students, student mothers, and people with legitimate excuses such as illness. The first result is that they fail to obtain grades high enough to sit competitive examinations, continue to a master’s degree, or sometimes even pass the course. The second is that many of them avoid the specialization taught by that professor in the specialization year and choose the alternative specialization, even though they never wanted it in the first place.

We have personally known students who completed every semester but remained unable to graduate because of a single course taught by one particular professor. Some spent more than five years completing their bachelor’s degree, while others chose to leave without graduating after losing hope of ever passing that professor’s course.

These examples are no more than isolated cases and can in no way be generalized or treated as a basis for induction. They are merely a few drops that disappear in the beautiful ocean of teachers’ merit and virtue, just as salt disappears in food and sugar dissolves in water. Scholars and teachers are the heirs of the prophets; they shape generations, educate the young, and serve as admirable role models and worthy examples.

Examples of their influence on students are beyond counting. A simple example close to us is that teachers are the ones who taught us writing, counting, analysis, synthesis, discussion, and reasoning. They taught us to speak the truth and defend it, even against ourselves, in accordance with the words of God Almighty: “O you who believe, stand firm for justice as witnesses for God, even against yourselves, your parents, or your close relatives” [Qur’an, An-Nisa 4:135]. Among inspiring real-life examples beyond our immediate environment are the testimonies of several Nobel Prize laureates who credited teachers with opening new horizons for them.

Martin Chalfie, a biologist and 2008 Nobel laureate, spoke of a teacher who encouraged him and showed an interest in him at an early stage. Fraser Stoddart, the 2016 Nobel laureate in Chemistry, referred to a teacher from his early years who changed the course of his life.

In his book Visible Learning, John Hattie brought together the findings of thousands of studies and concluded that teacher quality and the teacher–student relationship profoundly affect students’ motivation and self-confidence. The purpose of presenting these examples, therefore, is to alert those who may be unaware and to correct those who may be mistaken, so that all teachers may strive toward the near-perfection expected of them.

A teacher may not remember every word spoken in the classroom, but a student sometimes remembers one sentence for the rest of their life. That sentence may be: “You are capable, and I believe in you.” It may inspire the student to persist, choose a field of study, or build a successful career. But it may also be a humiliating remark that destroys confidence and closes a door that might otherwise have remained open.

For this reason, teaching is not only the transmission of information. It is also a moral and human responsibility. Teachers hold considerable authority, and that authority must be exercised with fairness, wisdom, and compassion.