40 Fun Facts About Teachers' Day

India celebrates Teachers' Day on 5 September, the birthday of which philosopher who became its second president?

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan asked that his birthday be kept as Teachers' Day when friends and former students wanted to celebrate it in 1962. He had held philosophy chairs at Calcutta and Oxford.

Which United Nations agency mounts the World Teachers' Day campaign each 5 October with Education International?

UNESCO signed the 1966 recommendation on the status of teachers that the day commemorates. The observance itself was only established in 1994.

On Teachers' Day in some Indian schools, who traditionally takes over the teaching of classes to show appreciation?

Senior pupils take charge of lessons for the day, while the usual timetable gives way to celebration, thanks and remembrance.

Which teacher, herself educated at the Perkins School for the Blind, taught the deaf-blind Helen Keller to communicate?

Anne Sullivan was only 20 when she arrived at the Kellers' Alabama home in March 1887. She stayed on as Keller's companion for the rest of her life.

Aristotle was hired by Philip II of Macedon in 343 BC to tutor which of these future rulers, then a teenager?

Alexander the Great studied under Aristotle until the age of 16. His schooling ended when his father went to war and left him in charge of Macedon as regent.

Taiwan marks Teachers' Day on 28 September, a date chosen to commemorate the birth of which ancient Chinese thinker?

Confucius is honoured there as the model master educator. Temples across the island stage a ceremony for him that begins with drum beats at 6am.

Which actor plays Dewey Finn, a struggling guitarist who poses as a substitute teacher, in the comedy School of Rock?

Jack Black shares the screen with real young musicians. Director Richard Linklater scouted the country for talented 13-year-olds to play the class band.

Which New Hampshire teacher was chosen from more than 11,000 applicants for NASA's Teacher in Space Project?

Christa McAuliffe died with six crewmates aboard Challenger in January 1986. Her backup, Barbara Morgan, later became an astronaut and reached the space station in 2007.

In the TV drama Breaking Bad, Walter White starts out as an overqualified high school teacher of which subject?

Chemistry is what Walter White teaches in Albuquerque, where money is so tight that he also works part-time at a car wash.

Which former First Lady persuaded Congress to proclaim a National Teacher Day in 1953 at an Arkansas educator's urging?

Eleanor Roosevelt took up the cause after a letter from Mattie Whyte Woodridge of Helena, Arkansas. Congress did not name another National Teacher Day until 1980.

Which reformer, widely regarded as the first Indian female teacher, opened a girls' school at Bhide Wada in Pune?

Savitribai Phule started the school in 1848 with her husband Jyotirao in the face of strong opposition. By 1851 the couple ran three girls' schools in the city with about 150 students.

Which former President of India, nicknamed the Missile Man, collapsed and died while giving a lecture at IIM Shillong?

APJ Abdul Kalam was 83 when he fell ill mid-lecture in July 2015. After leaving office he had gone back to teaching as a visiting professor at several institutions.

Which physician-turned-educator opened her first Casa dei Bambini, or Children's House, in a poor district of Rome?

Maria Montessori enrolled 50 or 60 children, aged from about two to seven, when the first house opened in San Lorenzo in January 1907. A second followed that April.

Which comedian played English teacher John Keating at the fictional Welton Academy in the film Dead Poets Society?

Robin Williams earned an Oscar nomination for the part. The story is set in 1959 and follows a group of boys who take their teacher's advice to heart.

In the United States, National Teacher Day falls on which day of Teacher Appreciation Week, the first full week of May?

Tuesday was chosen by a vote of the National Education Association's assembly. Until then the NEA had marked Teacher Day on the first Tuesday in March.

In which country do students present flowers, candles and joss sticks to their teachers in a ceremony called wai khru?

Thailand's wai khru took its modern form at Triam Udom Suksa School in 1941. Class representatives carry the offerings to their teachers on traditional pedestalled trays.

Which British actress played Professor Minerva McGonagall, head of Gryffindor House, in seven of the Harry Potter films?

Maggie Smith missed only Deathly Hallows Part 1 across the eight films. Fiona Glascott took over the role for the Fantastic Beasts prequels.

Which student of Socrates founded the Academy, a school of philosophy set in a grove just outside ancient Athens?

Plato's Academy drew Aristotle at around eighteen, and he remained there until the age of thirty-seven. The school gave English its word for a place of learning.

Which Bengali poet laid the foundation stone of Visva-Bharati, his university at Santiniketan, in December 1918?

Rabindranath Tagore chose a name meaning the communion of the world with India. He pictured a seat of learning that kept its rural surroundings.

Guru Purnima, a festival honouring teachers, is also named after which sage credited with composing the Mahabharata?

Vyasa is said to have been born on this full-moon day, so it is also called Vyasa Purnima. Nepal treats the festival as its own Teachers' Day.

Turkey's Teachers' Day, 24 November, marks the day which leader accepted the title of head teacher of its schools?

Kemal Atatürk was handed the title by his cabinet in 1928, only weeks after a law adopting a new Turkish alphabet came into effect.

South Korea moved Teachers' Day to 15 May to match the birthday of which monarch, creator of the Hangul alphabet?

Sejong the Great was picked for a day that began with Red Cross youth members visiting their sick former teachers. Carnations are the customary gift.

Which actor played Mark Thackeray, a teacher who wins over a tough East End of London class, in To Sir, with Love?

Sidney Poitier took a small fee in return for 10% of the gross. The film adapts E. R. Braithwaite's autobiographical novel about his own time in a London classroom.

Which film stars Edward James Olmos as Jaime Escalante, a real maths teacher at a struggling Los Angeles high school?

Stand and Deliver is based on 1982, when 18 of Escalante's students at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles passed Advanced Placement Calculus.

Which German educator coined the word kindergarten for the play and activity institute he founded at Bad Blankenburg?

Friedrich Fröbel came up with the name in 1840, three years after opening the institute for young children. The word soon entered English as well.

In the Mahabharata, which teacher of the Pandava and Kaurava princes demands the archer Ekalavya's thumb as his fee?

Dronacharya's demand costs Ekalavya his skill with the bow and keeps the prince Arjuna unmatched. India's national honour for outstanding sports coaches carries the teacher's name.

Which Buddhist monastery in present-day Bihar hosted the Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang and housed a renowned library?

Nalanda's library was a key supply of the Sanskrit texts that pilgrims carried to East Asia. Its scholars included Dharmakirti, Chandrakirti and Xuanzang's own teacher, Shilabhadra.

Which Bollywood star plays Anand Kumar, the Patna mathematician who runs a free academy for poor students, in Super 30?

Hrithik Roshan's character selects exactly thirty bright students from impoverished families, the number that gives the real coaching programme its name.

In which Hindi film does Aamir Khan play Nikumbh, an art teacher who suspects a struggling eight-year-old is dyslexic?

Taare Zameen Par was also Aamir Khan's debut as a director. It is known in English as Like Stars on Earth.

Which English rock singer qualified as a teacher in 1973 and taught at a first school in Cramlington for two years?

Sting had already worked as a bus conductor, a building labourer and a tax officer before he trained to teach. His classroom was at St Paul's First School.

Which future US president taught Mexican-American children at a segregated school in Cotulla, Texas, in the late 1920s?

Lyndon B. Johnson paused his own college studies for nine months to take the job at Welhausen School. The pay helped him save enough to finish his degree in 1930.

Which horror novelist was hired in 1971 to teach English at Hampden Academy in Maine, before his books made him famous?

Stephen King was still on the staff when he wrote his debut, Carrie, which came out in 1974. He was also selling short stories to men's magazines at the time.

In The Magic School Bus, which teacher takes her class on field trips to outer space and inside a human body?

Ms. Frizzle teaches at Walkerville Elementary and was voiced by Lily Tomlin in the animated series. Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen created the original books.

How much does the annual Global Teacher Prize, often called the Nobel Prize for teaching, pay its winner?

$1 million goes to a single teacher. India's Ranjitsinh Disale, the 2020 winner, announced that he would share half of it with his nine fellow finalists.

Which word for the art and method of teaching comes from the Greek for leading or attending a child?

Pedagogy goes back to the Greek paidagogos, joining the words for child and for leading. In ancient Greece that word named the slave who walked a household's children to their lessons.

The Czech Republic marks Teachers' Day on 28 March, the birthday of which educator who wrote Orbis Pictus?

John Amos Comenius is considered the father of modern education. Czech students nominate their most inspiring teachers for the Golden Amos award, whose winner is crowned around Teachers' Day.

Argentina marks Teachers' Day on 11 September, the death date of which educator who became president in 1868?

Domingo Sarmiento put school building and the training of new teachers at the centre of his presidency. A subsidies law of 1871 guaranteed funds for new schools and books.

Which country's Teachers' Day, 15 October, marks an 1827 decree by Emperor Pedro I regulating elementary schools?

Brazil made the date its official Teachers' Day only in 1963, after the celebration had gained popularity across the country.

Which country's Teachers' Day, 14 October, marks the 1773 founding of its Commission of National Education?

Poland's commission is considered the first education ministry in European history. Children usually give their teachers flowers and sweets on the anniversary.

India's National Education Day marks the birthday of which leader, the first education minister after independence?

Maulana Azad held the post from 15 August 1947 until February 1958. His birthday, 11 November, is also used to take stock of how the country's education system is performing.