HAIGAZIAN UNIVERSITY
Mira Yardemian
Public Relations Director
Rue Mexique – Kantari
P.O. Box 11-1748
Riad El-Solh 1107 2090
Beirut – Lebanon

Retired Teachers’ Day Celebrated at Haigazian University

“We thought we had been forgotten, and those long years of service were
gone without appreciation and recognition”; “I never felt as proud as today
for being a teacher and educator”; “if I were to come to life once again, I
would definitely choose to be a teacher again and again”.

Those were some of the statements of teachers expressed during a
celebration of Teachers’ Day at Haigazian University.

On Saturday the 4th of March, 2006, Haigazian University celebrated
Teachers’ Day by hosting and recognizing the retired Armenian teachers of
the community. Around thirty teachers had accepted the university’s open
invitation.

The program started with a word of welcome by Mira Yardemian, the
university’s Public Relations Director, who acknowledged the special role
of teachers in society in educating and preparing the future generations.
She called on everyone to actively support teachers and consider their role
as sacred service.

President Paul Haidostian expressed his words of gratitude to the audience
and considered teaching as a real vocation, thus surpassing the material
status of a mere job. Haidostian stressed that it’s not enough to only
consider that retired teachers should psychologically feel fulfilled, but
instead, communities should appreciate, acknowledge and honor their long
years of service.

Ms. Arpie Hamparian, a teacher at the Armenian Evangelical Central High
School, introduced the three members of the panel that focused on “The
Teacher as an Educator”. She noted that the teacher’s mission grows and
expands throughout a whole lifetime.

In their turn, each speaker respectively presented his/her topic. Mr. Bebo
Simonian, a writer and retired teacher and school principal, tackled the
issue of “The teacher as a responsible educator in the classroom”. He noted
that a teacher’s mission as an educator coincides with the school’s
educational mission. Simonian added that formal education occupies a most
important place in shaping the individual’s social, spiritual and human
attributes.

Mrs. Shaghig Meguerditchian, a French literature teacher, presented the
topic of ” Transmission of Knowledge and Education”. She noted that the
concept of education goes much beyond the concept of the simple
transmission of information. She presented a long list of values that
determine a fully-educated person.

Mr. Armen Urneshlian, an Armenian Literature teacher, presented the topic
“The Teacher and Current Educational Problems”. He questioned the degree to
which current teachers succeed in fulfilling their duties as educators and
moreover, as represent the role of second parents to the children. What
should teachers’ duties include, and what is acceptable by the students as
well as their parents? How has the role of the educator changed from days
past? All these questions Urneshlian discussed by sharing with the
audience the outcomes of a questionnaire filled by high school students of
a number of Armenian schools in Beirut.

The program of the day also included poetry and music by Haigazian
University students Tamar Nalbandian and Aline Rusialian followed by an
enthusiastic sharing time by the teachers themselves presenting each
person’s background, years and fields of experience, in addition to some
anecdotes.

The event ended with a luncheon, during which teachers received bouquets of
flowers in addition to souvenir gifts from the university.