inspiring short story about education

The Best Short Stories about School and Schooldays

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

What are the best short stories which are set in school, or which focus on school and one’s schooldays? There are plenty of stories which are ‘set in schools’ in the sense of being set reading for schoolchildren, but it’s harder to find some canonical and classic short stories which are about schooldays.

The following stories are all about school in one way or another. In one story, a couple of schoolboys play truant and bunk off school; in another, two schoolchildren of the future learn about old-fashioned schooling; and in yet another, we find ourselves observing schoolchildren on another planet, Venus.

What unites all of these short fictions is a focus on the experience of schooldays and how those formative years affect us; they are also about how schoolchildren tend to behave with one another.

James Joyce, ‘An Encounter’.

This rebuke during the sober hours of school paled much of the glory of the Wild West for me and the confused puffy face of Leo Dillon awakened one of my consciences. But when the restraining influence of the school was at a distance I began to hunger again for wild sensations, for the escape which those chronicles of disorder alone seemed to offer me …

This story, from Joyce’s 1914 collection Dubliners , is narrated by a man who is recalling an episode from his childhood, and specifically his schooldays in Dublin. The boy recounts how one of his schoolfriends, Leo Dillon, introduced him and a number of other boys to the adventure and excitement of the Wild West, before the two of them played truant from school one day.

They encounter a strange old man who seems to take an unusual interest in the boys’ love lives. This is a story best aimed at slightly older readers, given the unsavoury aspect of the strange old man …

Isaac Asimov, ‘The Fun They Had’.

This is a short story by the Russian-born American writer Isaac Asimov (1920-92). Like Asimov’s novel The Naked Sun , this story is one that has taken on new significance in the wake of 2020 and the shift to remote learning and working, and the themes of this 1951 story are as relevant to our own time as they were over seventy years ago when Asimov wrote it.

In the story, which is set in the year 2157, two children find an old paper book and reflect on how quaint it is, when compared with television screens on which they read in their own time. Stories about school, especially very short stories that are just a few pages long, lend themselves to study at school, and Asimov’s tale is light enough and brief enough to fit the bill, while also carrying some intriguing commentary on education and technology, among other things.

Ray Bradbury, ‘All Summer in a Day’.

This is a 1954 short story by the American science-fiction author Ray Bradbury (1920-2012). The story is set on Venus, where the sun only comes out once every seven years for a couple of hours; the rest of the time, the sun is hidden behind clouds and rains fall constantly.

‘All Summer in a Day’ is about a group of schoolchildren who have grown up on Venus, the sons and daughters of ‘rocket men and women’ who came to the planet from Earth, as the children prepare to experience the first ‘summer’ on Venus that they can remember. But one of the children, a young girl, remembers experiencing rain when she lived back on Earth. The other children grow jealous of her experience, and decide to act – with devastating results.

Donald Barthelme, ‘The School’.

‘The School’ is probably the best-known short story by the American writer Donald Barthelme (1931-89), whose work is sometimes labelled as ‘postmodernist’ (a label he was not entirely comfortable with, but which he accepted) and, occasionally, ‘metafiction’ (a label he was less happy with).

Published in the New Yorker in 1974, ‘The School’ is a short story about death, in which a series of animals and, eventually, children die at a school. One of the teachers at the school narrates these events, and the story ends with a discussion between the teacher and his pupils about the meaning of life when all life is filled with, and must end in, death.

Sandra Cisneros, ‘Eleven’.

Let’s conclude this pick of the best school-set stories with a very short piece of contemporary fiction. ‘Eleven’ is a short story by the American writer Sandra Cisneros (born 1954), who is known for her novel The House on Mango Street among other works.

In this story, a girl’s eleventh birthday is ruined when her teacher forces her to take responsibility for somebody else’s sweater. The narrator bursts into tears in front of her classmates and laments the fact that she isn’t older. Of all the stories included on this list, ‘Eleven’ is the one which delves most deeply into the psyche of a young schoolchild and her experience in school.

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my date to prom ❤️ #ERHSPromposal2018 @ERHSASB pic.twitter.com/dBBakRQu0y — KM (@kaylaamolina) March 28, 2018

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. @CincyPromise continues to be a game changer for this region! https://t.co/fodPQApUT9 — Kevin Tighe (@tighekevin) July 13, 2018

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37 Best Inspirational & Motivational Short Stories [2024 Update]

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Have you ever watched a movie or read a book that had a lasting impact on you?

Stories are one of the most powerful ways to guide, teach, and inspire people. Storytelling is effective because it helps to establish connections among people, as well as between people and the ideas that unite humanity.

Inspirational stories move past creating a sense of connection, and allow the listener to identify with the story wherever they are in their own life , which makes them more receptive to learning.

Some of the best stories contain several different meanings or lessons so they’re effective in communicating complex ideas in ways that are easy to understand.

Finally, storytelling has characteristics that benefits the three main types of learning: visual, auditory, and kinesthetic.

Visual learners benefit from the mental pictures that stories evoke.

Auditory learners are able to focus on the words and voice of the storyteller.

And kinesthetic learners can retain the emotional connections that they feel were created in the story.

No matter what type of learner you are , you can benefit from an inspirational story that comes with a moral.

In this article, I will share 23 short inspirational stories that can teach you valuable lessons .

Table of Contents

23 Best Inspirational Short Stories with a Motivating Moral

1. three feet from gold.

Watch the Video of This Story:

During the gold rush, a man who had been mining in Colorado for several months quit his job, as he hadn’t struck gold yet and the work was becoming tiresome.  He sold his equipment to another man who resumed mining where it had been left off.

The new miner was advised by his engineer that there was gold only three feet away from where the first miner stopped digging.

The engineer was right, which means the first miner was a mere three feet away from striking gold before he quit.

When things start to get hard, try to persevere through the adversity.

Many people give up on following their dreams because the work becomes too difficult, tedious, or tiresome–but often, you’re closer to the finish line than you may think , and if you push just a little harder, you will succeed.

2. Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand

A philosophy professor once stood up before his class with a large empty mayonnaise jar. He filled the jar to the top with large rocks and asked his students if the jar was full.

His students all agreed the jar was full .

He then added small pebbles to the jar, and gave the jar a bit of a shake so the pebbles could disperse themselves among the larger rocks. Then he asked again, “Is the jar full now?”

The students agreed that the jar was still full.

The professor then poured sand into the jar to fill up all the remaining empty space.

The students then agreed again that the jar was full .

The Metaphor:

In this story, the jar represents your life and the r ocks, pebbles, and sand are the things that fill up your life .

The rocks represent the most important projects and things you have going on, such as spending time with your family and maintaining proper health. This means that if the pebbles and the sand were lost, the jar would still be full and your life would still have meaning .

The pebbles represent the things in your life that matter, but that you could live without.

The pebbles are certainly things that give your life meaning (such as your job, house, hobbies, and friendships), but they are not critical for you to have a meaningful life.

These things often come and go, and are not permanent or essential to your overall well-being.

Finally, the sand represents the remaining filler things in your life, and material possessions. This could be small things such as watching television , browsing through your favorite social media site , or running errands.

These things don't mean much to your life as a whole, and are likely only done to waste time or get small tasks accomplished.

The metaphor here is that if you start with putting sand into the jar, you will not have room for rocks or pebbles.

This holds true with the things you let into your life. If you spend all of your time on the small and insignificant things, you will run out of room for the things that are actually important.

In order to have a more effective and efficient life, pay attention to the “rocks,” because they are critical to your long-term well-being .

3. The Elephant Rope

When walking through an elephant camp, a man noticed that the elephants were only secured with a small rope that was tied around one ankle. He wondered why the elephants didn’t break free from the rope, as the elephants were certainly strong enough to do so.

He asked a trainer why the elephants didn’t try to break free, and the trainer responded by saying that they use the same size rope for baby elephants all the way up to adulthood.

Because they’re too small when they’re babies to break free from the rope, they grow up being conditioned that the rope is stronger than they are . As adults, they think the rope can still hold them, so they don’t try to fight it.

The elephants in this case are experiencing learned helplessness . This phenomenon occurs when someone has been conditioned to anticipate discomfort in some way without having a way to avoid it or make it stop.

After enough conditioning, the person will stop any attempts to avoid the pain, even if they see an opportunity to escape.

If you go through life thinking that you can’t do something just because you have failed at doing it in the past, you’re living with a fixed mindset .

You have to let go of your limiting beliefs in order to make the breakthroughs that are required for your ultimate success.

Don’t let other people tell you that you can’t do something, and don’t hold onto an assumption that you can’t grow and learn from past failures.

4. A Wise Man’s Jokes

A wise man once faced a group of people who were complaining about the same issues over and over again. One day, instead of listening to the complaints, he told them a joke and everyone cracked up laughing.

Then, the man repeated the joke. A few people smiled.

Finally, the man repeated the joke a third time– but no one reacted .

The man smiled and said, “You won’t laugh at the same joke more than once. So what are you getting from continuing to complain about the same problem?”

You’re not going to get anywhere if you keep complaining about the same problem but do nothing to fix it.

Don’t waste your time complaining, expecting other people to continue to react to your complaints. Instead, take action to make a change.

5. It’s Never Too Late

In the 1940s, there was a man who, at the age of 65, was living off of $99 social security checks in a small house, driving a beat-up car.

He decided it was time to make a change , so he thought about what he had to offer that other people may benefit from. His mind went to his fried chicken recipe, which his friends and family loved.

He left his home state of Kentucky and traveled throughout the country, trying to sell his recipe to restaurants. He even offered the recipe for free, asking for only a small chunk of the money that was earned.

However, most of the restaurants declined his offer. In fact, 1,009 restaurants said no .

But even after all of the rejections, he persisted. He believed in himself and his chicken recipe.

When he visited restaurant #1,010, he got a YES .

Colonel Hartland Sanders.

There are a few lessons that you can take away from this story.

First, it’s never too late in life to find success . In a society that often celebrates young, successful people, it’s easy to start to think you’re never going to be successful after a certain age.

However, Colonel Sanders is an example that proves that argument wrong.

This story also demonstrates the power of persistence. You have to have confidence in yourself and believe in your work for other people to believe it also.

Disregard anyone who tells you “no” and simply move on.

6. The Boulder and the Gold

There once was a king who decided to do a little experiment. He had a giant boulder put right in the middle of the street. He then hid near the boulder to see who, if anyone, would try to move it out of the way.

First, some wealthy merchants walked by. They walked around the boulder, complaining that the king hasn’t been maintaining the roads very well.

Next, a peasant walked by, heading home with his arms full of food for his family. When he noticed the boulder, he put his groceries down and attempted to move it out of everyone’s way. It took him a while to move it, but he eventually succeeded.

After the peasant gathered up his groceries to carry on home, he noticed a bag lying in the middle of the road, just where the boulder once was.

He opened the bag to find that it was stuffed full of gold coins , along with a letter from the king saying that the bag’s gold was a reward for the peasant to keep.

The king gave this gift because the peasant had taken the time and energy to move the boulder out of the road for the convenience of others who would be traveling the road in the future.

The peasant in this story was taught by the king that every obstacle you face offers an opportunity to improve.

If you’re able to push through moments that are challenging, you may end up being much better off than you were before you started trying.

This story also offers a lesson of personal responsibility.

If you see a job ahead of you, don’t leave it for the next person to do. Rather, step up and get the job done to help the people who come after you.

(To learn more about this concept, here are 8 key ingredients of personal responsibility .)

7. Dirty Money

A well-respected speaker began a seminar by showing an audience of 150 people a crisp $20 bill.

He asked, “Who wants this $20 bill?”

All 150 people nodded.

He said, “I am going to give this money to someone, but first….”

Then he proceeded to crumple the bill up.

He asked the crowd again if anyone wanted it.

All 150 hands went up in the air.

The speaker then dropped the money on the floor and stomped all over it.

He then raised it in the air to show the crowd. The money was filthy.

“Does anyone want it now?”

Every hand went up.

The speaker proceeded to tell the crowd that no matter what he did to ruin the money, people still wanted it because its value remained the same .

It was still worth $20.

Life often beats us up to the point where we feel inadequate. We deal with bad circumstances and make bad choices that we have to deal with later. However, no matter what you go through, your value will remain the same .

You have something special to offer that no one can take away from you.

8. The Ultimate Test

One night, four college students stayed up late partying, even though they knew they had a test the next day. The next morning, they came up with a plan to get out of having to take their test.

Each student rolled around in dirt and then went to the teacher’s office.

They told the teacher that they had gotten a flat tire the night before, and they spent the entire night pushing their car back to campus.

The teacher listened, and to the students’ delight, he offered a retest three days later.

On the day of the test, the students went to their teacher’s office. The teacher put all four of the students in separate rooms to take the test. The students were okay with that because they had been given a chance to study.

The test had 2 questions:

1) Your Name __________ (1 Points)

2) Which tire was flat? __________ (99 Points)

• Front Right

Aside from making wise decisions, you always need to take responsibility for your actions .

This means not blaming other people for your mistakes, not complaining about the reality of the present moment, and not giving in to other people’s pressure.

9. What a Waste

A mother camel and her baby were lying down, soaking up the sun.

The baby camel asked his mom, “Why do we have these big bumps on our back?”

The mom stopped to think and then said, “We live in the desert where there is not much water available. Our humps store water to help us survive on long journeys.”

The baby camel then stopped to think and said, “Well, why do we have long legs with rounded feet?”

His mother replied, “They are meant to help us walk through sand.”

The baby asked a third question, “Why are my eyelashes so long?”

The mother replied, “Your long eyelashes offer you protection from sand when it blows in the wind.”

Finally, the baby said, “If we have all of these natural abilities given to us to walk through the desert, what’s the use for camels in the Zoo?”

The skills and abilities that you possess won’t be useful if you’re not in the right environment.

You’ve probably heard of a professional who ditched his or her career to follow their dreams–or the person who remains unfulfilled in their job, but doesn’t try to make a change .

If you’re stuck in a career that isn’t the right fit, you have to do some self-reflection to realize where you strengths lie that are going to waste. ( Here is a five-step process to identify your personal strengths .)

Turn to people that you know the best as well as professionals in any given market so you can start thinking about what may be better for you.

Think big and remain open to new ideas.

10. Breathing With No Air

A boy once asked a wise old man what the secret to success is.

After listening to the boy’s question, the wise man told the boy to meet him at the river in the morning and he would be given the answer there.

In the morning, the wise man and the boy began walking toward the river. They continued on into the river, past the point of the water covering their nose and mouth.  At this time, the wise man ducked the boy into the water.

As he struggled to get out, the wise man continued to push him further down. The boy felt a fish slip by his leg and squirmed to get up even harder. The man eventually pulled the boy’s head up so he could get air. The boy gasped as he inhaled a deep breath of air.

The wise man said, ‘What were you fighting for when you were under water?”

The boy replied, “Air!”

The man said, “There you have the secret to success. When you want to gain success as much as you wanted air when you were under water, you will obtain it. That’s the only secret.”

Success starts with the desire to achieve something.

If your motivation is weak , your results will follow suit.

Think about what you desire the most in life and work towards getting it. Don’t allow your environment or other people to influence the things that you truly want.

Just because the fish swimming by is comfortable with being under water doesn’t mean that you are.

11. Sweet Dreams

A young boy and girl were enjoying a pleasant afternoon playing outside in their neighborhood together.

The boy showed the girl his collection of beautiful, unique marbles. In turn, the girl showed the boy the handful of candy that she had just gotten for her birthday.

The boy proposed that the two of them switch–he would give her all of his marbles if she handed over all of her candy.

The girl agreed, as she found the marbles to be beautiful as well.

The boy handed over all of his marbles, but kept one–the most exquisite one of them all–in his pocket.

The girl kept her promise and gave the boy all of her candy.

That night, the girl was happy with the exchange and peacefully went to sleep.

The boy, however, couldn’t sleep, as he was up wondering if the girl had secretly kept some of her candy, just like he did with the marble.

If you don’t give 100% in your relationships, you will always assume your partner isn’t giving 100% either.

If you want your relationships to be built on trust, you have to be a participating factor in that.

Honesty grows your character.

By being honest in relationships, you’re holding your partner accountable to do the same. It allows both you and your partner to continuously think about your choices and how you can help (or hurt) your partner and your relationship.

12. Teamwork

There was once a man who lived with his three sons. His sons were hard workers, but they constantly fought with each other .

Even though the man continuously tried to help his sons make peace with each other, he was never successful. In fact, their fighting got to a point where their neighbors would make fun of them.

Eventually, the father became ill. He begged his sons to learn how to work together because of his impending death, but they didn’t listen. The father then decided to teach his sons a practical lesson to help his sons forget their differences and become a united team.

The father called his sons and said, “I’ll give you each an equal collection of sticks to break in half. Whoever breaks the sticks the fastest will be rewarded.”

After agreeing to the task, the father gave each of his sons 10 sticks and instructed them to break each stick in half.

This task took the sons mere minutes to complete, but once they were finished, they started to fight about who finished first.

The father said, “Dear sons, the task isn’t finished. Now I’ll give each of you 10 more sticks, however, you must break the sticks in half as a bundle rather than snapping each one separately.”

His sons agreed and attempted to do what he had asked. They each tried their best, but none could break the bundle in half.

They told their father that they had failed.

In response, their father said, “See, it was easy to break the sticks in half individually, but you couldn’t break all 10 of them at the same time.

Similarly, if the three of you stay united as a team, nobody will be able to harm you. However, if you fight all the time, anyone will be able to defeat you. Please come together as a united team.”

This lesson helped the man’s sons understand the power of being a team and promised their father that, moving forward, they would work together as a team, no matter what the situation was.

Being an effective member of a team helps contribute to the overall moral and motivation of the team.

Strong teams are naturally aligned to work harder, support each other, and be cooperative with working toward a mutual goal.

Individuals each have diverse talents, strengths, and weaknesses to contribute to teamwork, so staying focused on the task at hand rather than allowing personal disputes to get in the way will help you achieve your desired results. 

13. Frogs for Dinner

A lady was once heating up a pot of water on a gas stove with the intent of cooking pasta for her family for dinner.

A frog fell into the pot while it was sitting on the stove. While it wasn’t his intention to be stuck in a pot of water, he didn’t try to escape. He was comfortable enough as he was.

The lady soon turned on the flame to begin boiling the water.

As the water’s temperature began to rise, the frog was able to adjust his body temperature accordingly, so he remained in the pot without trying to do anything to change the situation.

However, as the water approached its boiling point, the frog’s body temperature could no longer keep up. He finally tried to jump out of the pot, but with water temperature continuing to increase, he didn’t have it in him to make the leap.

It was too late for the frog to save himself.

Things don’t always go as planned in life, and they certainly don’t always go the way we want them to. But, no matter how bad a situation is, it’s critical to be proactive and face the problem head-on.

Unlike the frog, who waited until the last minute to try to do anything about the problem he was clearly facing, it’s important to project the future outcomes of the obstacles that hinder you and mediate them before they get past the point of no return .

You have to avoid wasting time and take appropriate action before problems get out of hand or become too much to handle.

14. Will You Marry Me?

Centuries ago, in a small Italian town, there was a business owner who was in a great amount of debt.

His banker, who was an old, unattractive man, strongly desired the business owner’s younger beautiful daughter.

The banker decided to offer the businessman a deal to forgive the debt that he owed the bank completely. However, there was a bit of a catch.

In order for the businessman to become debt-free, he was to have his daughter marry the banker.

The businessman didn’t want to concede to this agreement, but he had no other choice, as his debt was so extreme.

The banker said he would put two small stones into a bag–one of which was white, and the other black .

The daughter would then need to reach into the bag and blindly choose a stone.

If she chose the black stone, the businessman’s debt would be cleared and the daughter would have to marry the banker.

However , if she chose the white stone, the debt would be cleared and the daughter would not have to marry him.

While standing in the stone-filled path in the businessman’s yard, the banker reached down and chose two small stones, not realizing that the businessman’s daughter was watching him. She noticed that he picked up two black stones and put them in the bag.

When it came time for the daughter to pick a stone out of the bag, she felt she had three choices:

• Refuse to do it.
• Take out both stones and expose the banker’s cheating.
• Pick a stone, knowing it would be black, and sacrifice herself to get her father out of debt.

She picked a stone from the bag, and immediately ‘accidentally’ dropped it into the abundance of stones where they were all standing.

She said to the banker, “I’m sorry, I’m so clumsy! Oh well. Just look in the bag to see what color stone is in there now so you will know what color stone I picked.”

Of course, the remaining stone was black . Because the banker didn’t want his deceit to be exposed, he played along, acting as if the stone that the businessman’s daughter dropped had to have been white.

He cleared the businessman’s debt and the daughter remained free from having to spend the rest of her life with the banker.

While you may have to think outside of the box sometimes, it’s always possible to conquer a difficult situation.

You don’t have to always give in to the options you’re presented with.

Challenge the status quo.

Think creatively.

Engage in productive nonconformity when possible.

Don’t be afraid to question the things that are expected to be true. In order to overcome challenges, you have to think in ways that you’ve never thought before.

15. Wait…What?

A carpenter who was nearing retirement told his boss that he was ready to end his career and spend his time with his wife and family. He would miss his work, but he felt it was time to spend his time with the people who were important to him.

His boss was saddened by this news, as this carpenter had been a good, reliable employee for many years. He asked the carpenter if he could do him a favor and build just one more house.

The carpenter reluctantly conceded, even though his passion for building had faded.

While he was building this last house, his normal work ethic faded and his efforts were mediocre, at best. He used inexpensive and inferior materials and cut corners wherever he could. It was a poor way to finish such a dedicated career that he once had.

When the carpenter was finished, his boss came to look at the house. He gave the key to the carpenter and said, “This house is my gift to you for all of the hard work you have done for me over the years.” 

The carpenter was astonished.

What a generous gift this was to receive from his boss, but if he had known he was building a house for himself, he would have made his usual efforts to create a high-quality home.

The same idea applies to how you build your life.

Every day that you wake up offers an opportunity for you to put your best foot forward, yet we often do mediocre work, saving the more important things for “another” day .

Then one day, we find ourselves shocked that our lives aren’t what we had hoped they would be. The “house” we built to live in has a lot of flaws due to a lack of effort.

However, you can’t go back and rebuild it in a day or two.

As people say, “Life is a do-it-yourself project.”

Your attitude and choices help build the life you will live tomorrow. So…build carefully.

16. Toothpaste Recant

One night in July at an all-girls summer camp, the campers were gathered around in a circle for their nighttime devotions.

The counselor asked if any of the girls wanted to share something that had happened that day that impacted them.

One camper raised her hand and said a girl from another camp cabin had said something that hurt her feelings and she was really upset about it.

The camp counselor went to the bathroom to grab a tube of toothpaste.

She took the tube and squeezed it just a bit so some toothpaste came out. She then tried to put the toothpaste back in the tube, but it just created a mess. Then she squeezed the tube even more, pushing more toothpaste out and creating even more of a mess, but none of it would go back into the tube.

The counselor then told the campers, “this toothpaste represents the words you speak. Once you say something that you want to take back, it’s impossible and it only creates a mess. Think before you speak, and make sure your words are going to good use before you let them out.”

Speaking is a fundamental social skill required for living a successful life.

However, many are careless with their words, but they hold so much power. They can have a direct impact on the outcome of a situation, creating a helpful or hurtful reaction in our world. T

he problem is, once words come out of your mouth, no amount of “I’m sorrys” will make them go back in: blurting something out and then attempting to take it back is like shutting the gate after the horse has taken off. 

Thinking before you speak allows you the time to consider the potential impact of your words.

Be careful when choosing where and when you let your words out. You can easily hurt other people, and once you do, you can’t take it back.

Words define who we are by revealing our attitudes and character, giving people an indication of our intellect or ignorance. 

Stop for a minute before you speak and question yourself about why you’re saying what you are. Are you trying to relay information? Relate to someone else?

Make sure you’re able to take responsibility for whatever you’re about to say.

17. Just Be

One evening, after spending several days with his new wife, a man leaned over and whispered into her ear, “I love you.” 

She smiled – and the man smiled back – and she said, “When I’m eighty years old and I’m thinking back on my entire life, I know I will remember this moment.”

A few minutes later, she drifted off to sleep.

The man was left with the silence of the room and the soft sound of his wife’s breathing.

He stayed awake, thinking about everything they had done together, from their first date to their first vacation together and ultimately to their big wedding. These were just some of the life choices that the couple had made together that had led to this very moment of silence in the presence of each other.

At one point, the man then realized that it didn’t matter what they had done or where they had gone. Nor did it matter where they were going.

The only thing that mattered was the serenity of that very moment.

Just being together. Breathing together. And resting together.

We can’t let the clock, calendar, or pressure from external sources take over our lives and allow us to forget the fact that every moment of our lives is a gift and a miracle – no matter how small or seemingly insignificant it is.

Being mindful in the special moments that you spend in the presence of the ones that you love are the moments that truly give your life meaning. (For more on this, here are 71 mindfulness exercises you can use to live in the present moment .)

18. The Weight of the World

Once, a psychology professor walked around his classroom full of students holding a glass of water with his arm straightened out to the side.

He asked his students, “How heavy is this glass of water?”

The students started to shout out guesses–ranging anywhere from 4 ounces to one pound.

The professor replied, “The absolute weight of this glass isn’t what matters while I’m holding it. Rather, it’s the amount of time that I hold onto it that makes an impact.”

“If I hold it for, say, two minutes, it doesn’t feel like much of a burden. If I hold it for an hour, its weight may become more apparent as my muscles begin to tire.

If I hold it for an entire day– or week –my muscles will cramp and I’ll likely feel numb or paralyzed with pain, making me feel miserable and unable to think about anything aside from the pain that I’m in. “

“In all of these cases, the actual weight of the glass will remain the same, but the longer I clench onto it, the heavier it feels to me and the more burdensome it is to hold.”

The class understood and shook their heads in agreement.

The professor continued to say, “This glass of water represents the worries and stresses that you carry around with you every day.  If you think about them for a few minutes and then put them aside, it’s not a heavy burden to bear.

If you think about them a little longer, you will start to feel the impacts of the stress. If you carry your worries with you all day, you will become incapacitated, prohibiting you from doing anything else until you let them go.”

Put down your worries and stressors. Don’t give them your entire attention while your life is passing you by.

Let go of things that are out of your control.

Don’t carry your worries around with you everywhere you go, as they will do nothing but bring you down.

Put your “glass down” each night and move on from anything that is unnecessarily stressing you out.

Don’t carry this extra weight into the next day.

19. Cherish Your Struggles

One day, a girl came upon a cocoon, and she could tell that a butterfly was trying to hatch.

She waited and watched the butterfly struggle for hours to release itself from the tiny hole. All of a sudden, the butterfly stopped moving–it seemed to be stuck.

The girl then decided to help get the butterfly out. She went home to get a pair of scissors to cut open the cocoon. The butterfly was then easily able to escape, however, its body was swollen and its wings were underdeveloped. 

The girl still thought she had done the butterfly a favor as she sat there waiting for its wings to grow in order to support its body. However, that wasn’t happening.

The butterfly was unable to fly, and for the rest of its life, it could only move by crawling around with little wings and a large body.

Despite the girl’s good intentions, she didn’t understand that the restriction of the butterfly’s cocoon and the struggle the butterfly had to go through in order to escape served an important purpose.

As butterflies emerge from tight cocoons, it forces fluid from their body into their wings to prepare them to be able to fly.

The struggles that you face in life help you grow and get stronger .

There is often a reason behind the requirement of doing hard work and being persistent. When enduring difficult times, you will develop the necessary strength that you’ll need in the future.

Without having any struggles, you won’t grow–which means it’s very important to take on personal challenges for yourself rather than relying on other people to always help you. 

20. Seeking Happiness

There were 200 people attending a seminar on mental and physical health.

At one point, the speaker told the group they were going to do an activity. He gave each attendee one balloon and told them to write their name on it. Then, the balloons were collected and moved into a very small room.

The participants were then asked to go into the other room and were given 2 minutes to find their balloon.

It was chaos…

People were searching frantically for their balloon, pushing each other and running into one another while they grabbed a balloon, looked at it, and inevitably tossed it to the side.

At the end of the 2 minutes, no one had found the balloon that had their name on it.

Then, the speaker asked the participants to go back in the room and pick up one balloon at random, look at the name, and return it to its owner. Within minutes, everyone had been reunited with their original balloon.

The speaker then told the group, “This is what it’s like when people are frantically searching for their own happiness in life .

People push others aside to get the things that they want that they believe will bring them happiness. However, our happiness actually lies in helping other people and working together as a community.”

You will get your happiness if you help other people find theirs. The Dalai Lama says, “If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”

Helping others makes us happy because it gives us a sense of purpose.

In fact, a study from the London School of Economics found that the more you help other people, the happier you will be.

The researchers compared the variance in happiness levels of people who don’t help others on a regular basis to the happiness of weekly volunteers. They found that the participants had the same variance in happiness as those who make $75,000 – $100,000 annually vs $20,000.

Helping others brings us happiness for three reasons:

• Diversion : When you worry less about your own needs–in this case, finding your own balloon–the stress of that hunt decreases.

Taking your focus away from the fact that you can’t find your own balloon lets you divert your attention away from your own problem.  The feeling of compassion replaces the feeling of need.

• Perspective : Having concern for other people helps us remember that we are all facing similar problems in life–no matter what the individual severity of the issue is.

Sometimes when we are focused on our own issues, they get put into perspective when we encounter the true suffering of others (for example, bereavement or a  severe disability ).

It’s easy to then realize the excess amount of attention we’ve been giving our own problems.  Having compassion helps us put our problems into perspective.

• Connection :  Connecting with others by helping them   can bring happiness into your life.

Humans are social beings that need to have positive connections with other people in order to be happy. Connecting with other people enriches our lives and gives us a sense of fulfillment.

21. There Was Once a Boy…

There was once a boy who was growing up in a very wealthy family.

One day, his father decided to take him on a trip to show him how others lived who were less fortunate. His father’s goal was to help his son appreciate everything that he has been given in life.

The boy and his father pulled up to a farm where a very poor family lived. They spent several days on the farm, helping the family work for their food and take care of their land.

When they left the farm, his dad asked his son if he enjoyed their trip and if he had learned anything during the time they spent with this other family.

The boy quickly replied, “It was fantastic, that family is so lucky!”

Confused, his father asked what he meant by that.

The boy said, “Well, we only have one dog, but that family has four–and they have chickens!

We have four people in our home, but they have 12! They have so many people to play with!

We have a pool in our yard, but they have a river running through their property that is endless.

We have lanterns outside so we can see at night, but they have the wide open sky and the beautiful stars to give them wonder and light.

We have a patio, but they have the entire horizon to enjoy–they have endless fields to run around in and play.

We have to go to the grocery store, but they are able to grow their own food . Our high fence protects our property and our family, but they don‘t need such a limiting structure, because their friends protect them.”

The father was speechless.

Finally, the boy added, “Thank you for showing me how poor people live, they’re so lucky.”

True wealth and happiness aren’t measured by material belongings .

Being around the people you love, enjoying the beautiful, natural environment, and having freedom are much more valuable.

A rich life can mean different things to different people. What are your values and priorities?

If you have whatever is important to you , you can consider yourself to be wealthy.

22. A Pound is a Pound

There was once a farmer who, each week, sold a pound of butter to a baker.

After several weeks of buying a pound of butter from the farmer, the baker decided to weigh the butter that he was receiving to ensure it was indeed a full pound.

When the baker weighed it, he learned that the butter was under a pound , which enraged him. He felt he was being cheated and he decided to take the farmer to court.

When in court, the judge asked the farmer how he was weighing the butter.

The farmer said, “Your Honor, I am poor. I do not own an exact measuring tool. However, I do have a scale.”

The judge then asked if the farmer uses the scale to measure the butter.

The farmer said, “Your Honor, I have been buying a one-pound loaf of bread from the baker since long before he began purchasing butter from me.

Whenever the baker brings bread for me, I put it on the scale and then measure out the exact same weight in butter to give him in return. So, if the baker is not getting a pound of butter, he is also not giving a pound of bread like he promised.”

You get what you give. If you try to cheat others out of what you promise them, you will be cheated in return. The more honest you are, the easier it is to trust other people and not suspect they may be cheating you in some way.

When you’re honest, not only will other people trust you, but you will also feel more confident in your trust with others.

Honesty is always the best route–especially if you want others to be honest with you as well.

23. Jumping Frogs

A group of frogs was hopping through the forest when two of them accidentally hopped into a deep pit. The other frogs stood around the pit, and, seeing how deep it was, they told the two frogs that they couldn’t help them–there was no hope.

However, fighting for their lives, the two frogs ignored the others and started to try jumping out of the pit.

The frogs at the top continued to tell the frogs in the pit to give up, as there was no way they would be able to jump out.

After trying over and over, one of the frogs listened to the others and gave up, accepting his fate and falling to his death. But the other frog continued to jump with all of his might. The crowd of frogs yelled down the pit for the frog to just stop–he wouldn’t make it.

But the frog jumped even harder and persisted until he finally got out. Upon reaching the top, the other frogs said, “We thought there was no way any frog could jump that high–couldn’t you hear us?”

The frog then signaled to the others that he was deaf, and he thought that the frogs standing around the pit were encouraging him the whole time.

Others’ words can greatly impact your attitude and actions. Ignore the naysayers. Only engage with those who encourage you and believe in your ability to succeed.

Furthermore, think about what you say to people before speaking so you can make sure what you’re saying is supportive. Your support (or lack thereof) could make the difference between success and failure.

24. The Ultimate Gift

There was once a little girl who desperately needed an emergency blood transfusion to save her life. 

Her only chance of surviving would be to get a transfusion from her younger brother, who had miraculously overcome the same disease she had, and therefore had antibodies in his blood that were needed to fight the illness.

The doctor explained to the little boy that it would save his sister’s life if he were to give her his blood. The boy hesitated for a moment before agreeing to give his blood if it would help his sister. At the age of 5, this was scary, but he would do anything to save his big sister’s life.

As the blood transfusion was happening, he lay next to his sister in the hospital and was overcome with happiness as he saw the color coming back to her cheeks. Then he looked up at the doctor and quietly asked, “When will I start to die?”

The boy had assumed that he was giving his life in order to save hers. The little boy’s parents were astonished over the misunderstanding that led the boy to think they were choosing his sister over him–and even more astonished that he had agreed to do so.

The doctor replied, explaining that he was not going to die, he was just going to allow his sister to live a long, healthy life alongside him.

This is an example of extreme courage and self-sacrificing love from a young boy that we can all learn from. The love and care that he showed for his sister relays an inspiring message about selflessness.

While we may not be faced with such a life or death decision, being selfless in general can help us connect with others, which is rewarding and fulfilling.

25. Angry Nails

There was once a boy who became angry so frequently with his friends at school that he was constantly getting sent home.

His temper was disruptive to the class and hurtful to other students.

His father came up with a strategy to try to deter the boy from getting angry so easily. He gave his son a hammer and some nails and told him to hammer a nail into the family’s fence every time the boy got angry in the future.

The following day, the boy got angry 37 times, and had to hammer as many nails into the fence.

Over the next few weeks, the boy got tired of hammering nails into the fence and he gradually started to control his temper. Slowly, the number of nails he was hammering into the fence started to decrease.

The boy realized that it was easier to remain calm when he started to feel angry than to gather the tools, go outside, and start hammering.

Eventually, the boy stopped losing his temper altogether. His dad noticed, and told the boy to remove a nail from the fence every day that he was able to keep his temper under control.

Eventually, as the weeks went by, all of the nails had been taken out of the fence. The father and son then stood in front of the broken fence, which was completely scattered with holes.  

The father turned to his son and said, “You have done well, but look at the holes in the fence. They cannot be repaired. When you get angry at other people, it leaves a scar just like the holes you see in front of you. It doesn’t matter if you say I’m sorry one hundred times, the injury is still there.”

Control your anger toward other people. While you may not see the damage that it does, it can leave irreparable wounds that can eventually break them.

Be kind to others and think before you let your emotions get the best of you.

26. Walking on Water

Once there was a boy who lived with his family on a farm.

They had a beautiful dog who would go down to the pond for hours every day in the spring and summer with the boy to practice retrieving various items.

The boy wanted to prepare his dog for any scenario that may come up during duck season because he wanted his dog to be the best hunting dog in the whole county.

The boy and his dog had vigorous training sessions every day until the dog was so obedient, he wouldn’t do anything unless he was told to do so by the boy.

As duck season rolled in with the fall and winter months, the boy and his dog were eager to be at their regular spot down at the pond near their house.

Only a few minutes passed before the two heard the first group of ducks flying overhead. The boy slowly raised his gun and shot three times before killing a duck, which landed in the center of the pond.

When the boy signaled his dog to retrieve the duck, the dog charged through the duck blind and bushes toward the pond. However, instead of swimming in the water like he had practiced so many times, the dog walked on the water’s surface, retrieved the duck, and returned it to the boy.  

The boy was astonished. His dog had an amazing ability to walk on water–it was like magic. The boy knew no one would ever believe this amazing thing that he had just witnessed. He had to get someone else down there to see this incredible phenomenon.

The boy went to a nearby farmer’s house and asked if he would hunt with him the next morning. The neighbor agreed, and met up with the boy the following morning at his regular spot by the pond.

The pair patiently waited for a group of ducks to fly overhead, and soon enough, they heard them coming. The boy told the neighbor to go ahead and take a shot, which the neighbor did, killing one duck.

Just as the day before, the boy signaled to his dog to fetch the duck. Miraculously, the dog walked on the water again to retrieve the duck.

The boy was bursting with pride and could hardly contain himself when he asked his neighbor, “Did you see that? What do you think?!”

The neighbor responded, “I wasn’t going to say anything, but your dog doesn’t even know how to swim.”

The boy sat in disbelief as his neighbor pointed out a potential flaw of the dog rather than recognizing the fact that what he had just done was a miracle.

People will often downplay others’ abilities or achievements because they’re unable to accomplish the same thing. Don’t let this bring you down. Just move on and keep working on improving yourself. Maintaining a positive mindset is a key part of being successful.

Furthermore, be conscious of instances in which you may be tempted to not give credit where it is deserved. Pointing out other people’s shortcomings does not make you a superior person.

27. It’s Not That Complicated

There was once a very wise man living in ancient times. He was elderly and educated and held knowledge and books to the highest regard.

One day while on a walk, he realized that his shoes were really starting to wear out. Because he spent a lot of time walking on a daily basis, he knew he had to find the best shoes to support and protect his feet.

But, back then, this wasn’t such an easy task, as he couldn’t jump online to do some research and have shoes delivered to his door.

The man didn’t want to make things worse by purchasing the wrong shoes and having inadequate protection, which would lead to injuries and the inability to leave his home and walk to find new books to read.

The man gathered all of the books he could that were written by only those that he admired the most to search for the answer to his question, “What do I do if my shoes have fallen apart?”

He read through several books for many hours before finding out that he had no choice but to go buy a new pair of shoes. He then spent a lot of time reading about how to know if a pair of shoes fits properly.

Once he was satisfied with the answers he found, he was proud of himself for doing the research and he felt confident in his ability to buy a high-quality replacement for his old shoes.

He figured if he hadn’t done his research, he probably would have gone barefoot for the rest of his life, as he had no one to tell him how to fix his shoes.

Following the books’ instructions, the man took a stick and measured his foot with it. He then went to the market and finally came upon a pair of shoes that he liked. However, he realized he had left the stick back at home, which was far away from the shop.

By the time the man returned to the market, the shop was closed. And, by that point, his shoes were completely split, so he had to return home barefoot.

The next morning, he walked back to the market with bare feet, but the shoes that he had chosen the day before had been sold. The wise man explained what had happened to the shopkeeper, who reacted with a sense of surprise, asking, “Why didn’t you buy the shoes yesterday?”

The wise man replied, “Because I forgot the stick that I had used to measure my feet back home. And anyone who knows anything about shoes knows that you have to have the correct measurements of your feet before you can buy shoes. I didn’t want to buy the wrong size, and I was following the normal instructions.”

Even more confused, the shopkeeper asked, “But your foot was with you, why didn’t you just try the shoes on?”

The wise man was equally confused in return and responded, “All the books say shoes must be bought with the exact same measurements of the shoes you already own.”

Laughing, the shop owner replied “Oh, no! You don’t need the advice from books to buy shoes. You just need to have your feet, some money, and some common sense to not complicate things.”

Sometimes you need to take action without overthinking things. Knowledge often comes in handy, but in some circumstances, if you lack experience or common sense , your knowledge will only get you so far. In fact, it could make things seem a lot more complicated than they actually are.

If you’re facing an issue, don’t forget to use your reasoning skills in addition to anything you’ve learned in a formal learning environment.

28. Don’t Hold Back

There was once a company whose CEO was very strict and often disciplined the workers for their mistakes or perceived lack of progress.

One day, as the employees came into work, they saw a sign on the door that read, “Yesterday, the person who has been holding you back from succeeding in this company passed away. Please gather for a funeral service in the assembly room.”

While the employees were saddened for the family of their CEO, they were also intrigued at the prospect of being able to now move up within the company and become more successful.”

Upon entering the assembly room, many employees were surprised to see the CEO was, in fact, present. They wondered among themselves, “If it wasn’t him who was holding us back from being successful, who was it? Who has died?”

One by one, the employees approached the coffin, and upon looking inside, each was quite surprised. They didn’t understand what they saw.

In the coffin, there was simply a mirror. So when each employee looked in to find out who had been “holding them back from being successful” everyone saw themselves. Next to the mirror, there was a sign that read:

The only person who is able to limit your growth is you .

You are the only person who can influence your success. Your life changes when you break through your limiting beliefs and realize that you’re in control of your life.

The most influential relationship you can have is the relationship you have with yourself.

Now you know who has been holding you back from living up to your true potential. Are you going to keep allowing that person to hold you back?

You can’t blame anyone else if you’re not living up to your potential. You can’t let other people get you down about mistakes you make or their negative perception of your efforts.

You have to take personal responsibility for your work –both the good and the bad–and be proactive about making any necessary adjustments.

29. The Chef’s Daughter

Once there was a girl who was complaining to her dad that her life was so hard and that she didn’t know how she would get through all of her struggles. She was tired, and she felt like as soon as one problem was solved, another would arise.

Being a chef, the girl’s father took her into his kitchen. He boiled three pots of water that were equal in size. He placed potatoes in one pot, eggs in another, and ground coffee beans in the final pot.

He let the pots sit and boil for a while, not saying anything to his daughter.

He turned the burners off after twenty minutes and removed the potatoes from the pot and put them in a bowl. He did the same with the boiled eggs. He then used a ladle to scoop out the boiled coffee and poured it in a mug. He asked his daughter, “What do you see?”

She responded, “Potatoes, eggs, and coffee.”

Her father told her to take a closer look and touch the potatoes. After doing so, she noticed they were soft. Her father then told her to break open an egg. She acknowledged the hard-boiled egg. Finally, he told her to take a sip of the coffee. It was rich and delicious.

After asking her father what all of this meant, he explained that each of the three food items had just undergone the exact same hardship–twenty minutes inside of boiling water.

However, each item had a different reaction.

The potato went into the water as a strong, hard item, but after being boiled, it turned soft and weak.

The egg was fragile when it entered the water, with a thin outer shell protecting a liquid interior. However, after it was left to boil, the inside of the egg became firm and strong.

Finally, the ground coffee beans were different. Upon being exposed to boiling water, they changed the water to create something new altogether.

He then asked his daughter, “Which are you? When you face adversity, do you respond by becoming soft and weak? Do you build strength? Or do you change the situation?”

Life is full of ups and downs, wins and losses, and big shifts in momentum, and adversity is a big part of this experience.

And while many of us would rather not face adversity, it doesn’t have to always be a negative thing. In fact, handling adversity can be a positive experience that can lead to personal development .

You choose how you respond to adversity, whether you let it break you down or you stand up in the face of it and learn from it. In many instances, facing adversity gives you a chance to learn important lessons  that can help you grow as a person.

When facing adversity, it’s important to recognize your freedom to choose how you respond. You can respond in a way that ultimately limits you, or you can choose to have a more productive response that could potentially open windows of opportunity that we didn’t know existed.

30. Cleaning Turtles

There was once a man who walked his dog every Sunday morning around a lake near his house. Week after week, he saw the same elderly woman sitting at the edge of the water with a small metal cage next to her.

The man’s curiosity finally got the best of him and he approached the woman one day. He noticed that the cage was actually a small trap and she had three small turtles in it. In her lap, there was a fourth turtle that she was carefully wiping down with a sponge.

The man greeted her and said, “If you don’t mind my asking, what do you do with these turtles every week?”

She smiled and explained to him that she was cleaning their shells because any algae or scum that builds up on a turtle’s shell reduces its ability to absorb heat and slows down their swimming. It can also corrode their shell and weaken it over time.

The man was impressed as the woman continued, “I do this every Sunday morning to help the turtles.”

“But don’t most turtles live their entire lives with algae on their shells?” the man asked.

The woman agreed that was true.

He replied, “Well then, you’re kind to do this, but are you really making a difference if most turtles don’t have people around to clean their shells?”

The woman laughed as she looked down at the small turtle on her lap. “Young man, if this little turtle could talk, he would say I’m making all the difference in the world.'”

“To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.” — Dr. Seuss

Just because you may not be able to change the world or help everyone, you can still make a huge difference in one person’s life by offering them any help that you can. Don’t choose to not do anything because you can’t do everything .

The actions of one person can make a world of difference to someone else. When you see someone in need, you may never know how much of a difference your help can make in their life.

31. Puppy Love

A pet shop owner got a new litter of puppies and was ready to sell them to their “forever” families. A young girl walked by the shop and noticed a sign saying, “Puppies for Sale” and of course was very eager to go inside.

She asked the owner, “How much do the puppies cost?” The owner replied, “They are all around $50.”

The girl emptied her pocket change and told the store owner that she only had about $2, but she still wanted to look at them.

The shop owner whistled for the dogs, who came running down the hall of his shop. Five tiny furballs, followed by one, limping behind the rest. The girl immediately singled out the lagging puppy and asked the store owner what was wrong with him.

The owner explained that the puppy was born with a deformity– he was missing a hip socket. He would walk with a limp for the rest of his life.

The girl got excited, saying, “I want that puppy!”

The owner replied, “You don’t want to buy that puppy. If you really want him, you can have him for free.”

The girl became upset. She looked at the owner and said, “I don’t want to have him for free. That puppy is worth just as much as the others. I’ll give you the change I have now and a dollar a month until I have paid for the puppy entirely.”

The owner continued, “This dog is never going to be able to run and play like all of the other dogs, I think you’re going to regret this decision.”

To his surprise, the girl reached down and rolled up her pant leg to reveal a crippled leg that was supported by a large metal brace. She looked up at the owner and softly replied, ‘Well, I’m not much of a runner, and this puppy needs someone who understands.”

Don’t make assumptions about other people’s wants, needs, or abilities. Every one of us has our own weaknesses, whether it’s physical or mental.

The trick is to not allow your weaknesses to slow you down, and instead, find others in the world who can support you. Find and surround yourself with people who challenge you to reach your potential.

32. The Gift of the Magi

The Story :

There was once a young couple who was struggling to make ends meet during the holiday season. But despite their financial troubles, they both wanted to buy a special gift for the other.

After crying about their situation, the wife stood by the window and looked out with no interest. The next day was Christmas, and she had only $10 to buy her husband a gift. She had been saving as much as she could, but bills always cost more than expected.

But there was one thing that the wife had that would be valuable enough to sell: her long, flowy hair. She contacted a wig maker and asked them how much money she could earn if she gave them her hair. They said $100.

With that money, she quickly went from shop to shop looking for the perfect gift. And then she found it: a gold watch chain for his beloved gold watch that had been passed down for generations.

With 82 cents in change, she ran home, excited about the gift she had gotten for her husband.

While waiting for him to get home from work, the wife became nervous that he would no longer find her attractive with her new, short hair.

When he walked in, he stopped inside the door. He was as quiet and his eyes looked strangely at his wife with an expression in them that she did not understand.

She said to him, “Honey, don’t look at me like that. I sold my hair. I couldn’t live through Christmas without giving you a gift. My hair will grow back. Let’s be happy. You don’t know what a beautiful gift I got for you.”

He put his arms around her. And then from inside his coat, he took something out that was tied in paper and threw it on the table. “Listen,” he said. “Nothing like a haircut could make me love you any less. But open this.”

There lay two beautiful combs that she had seen in a shop window and loved for a long time. Combs with jewels–perfect for her beautiful hair. She knew they cost too much for them to afford. And now they were hers, but her hair was gone. She held them to her heart and said, “My hair grows so fast!”

And then she jumped up and held her gift out to him in her open hands. The gold chain sparkled. “Isn’t it perfect? I hunted all over town to find it. You’ll have to look at your watch a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how they look together.”

He sat down and smiled. “Honey,” he said, “I sold the watch to get the money to buy the combs. And now I think we should have our dinner.”

The Moral :

Appreciate what others do for you. The magi were wise men who were the first to give Christmas gifts. In this story, each person sold the most valuable thing they owned in order to buy a gift for the other.

This story shows the true meaning of gift-giving, which is about the thought and love behind the gift rather than its material value. The couple’s gifts to each other are ultimately meaningless in terms of their practical use, but their representation of love and sacrifice proves to be invaluable for both of them.

33. Everyone Has a Story

There was once a 24 year old boy on a train with his father. Looking out from the train’s window, he shouted…

“Dad, look, the trees are going behind us!”

His dad smiled. The young man caught a couple’s attention sitting nearby, who looked at his childish behavior with pity. Suddenly, the boy exclaimed again…

“Dad, look, the clouds are running with us!”

Annoyed by the commotion, the couple looked at the old man and said, “You should take your son to see a good doctor.”

The old man smiled at the couple and said, “I just did. We are going home from the hospital, my son was blind from birth, and he just got his eyes today.”

Everyone on the planet has a story. Don’t judge people before you truly know them. The truth might surprise you.

34. A Dish of Ice Cream

In the days when ice cream sundaes cost much less, a 10 year old boy entered an ice cream shop and sat at a table. A waitress put a glass of water in front of him.

“How much is an ice cream sundae?”

“50 cents,” replied the waitress.

The little boy pulled his hand out of his pocket that had several coins in it.

“How much is a dish of plain ice cream?” he asked.

“35 cents,” she replied impatiently.

The little boy again counted the coins. “I’ll have a plain ice cream,” he said.

The waitress brought the ice cream, put the bill on the table and walked away. The boy finished the ice cream, paid the cashier and left.

When the waitress came back, she began wiping down the table and then was surprised at what she saw.

There, placed neatly beside the empty dish, were 15 cents – her tip. The boy had enough money for a sundae, but he had ordered plain ice cream so he could leave her a tip.

In a world that constantly tells us we need to have more, it’s important to be reminded of the power of a person’s generosity.

35. A Very Special Bank Account

Let’s say you had a bank account that deposited $86,400 every morning. However, the account carries over no balance from day to day, doesn’t allow you to keep a cash balance, and every evening cancels whatever part of the amount you didn’t use during the day. What would you do?

Probably draw out every dollar every day!

We all have this bank–it is called Time. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off whatever time you have failed to use wisely. It carries over no balance from day to day.

It allows no overdraft so you can’t borrow against yourself or use more time than you have. Each day, the account starts fresh. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, it’s your loss and you can’t appeal to get it back.

There is no such thing as borrowing time. You can’t take a loan out on your time or against someone else’s. The time you have is the time you have. Just as it is with money, time management is yours to decide how you spend it.

It is rarely the case of us not having the time to do things, but the case of whether we want to do them and where they fall in our priorities.

36. Hunting Monkeys

A man once asked a child, “Do you know how hunters used to trap monkeys?”

“Instead of chasing them up a tree or shooting arrows at them, they’d lay a heavy glass jar with a narrow neck on the ground with the monkeys’ favorite food inside.

Then they would hide a short distance away, waiting for the unsuspecting monkey to approach.

When it did, the monkey would reach inside and try to grab the snack. But the narrow neck of the jar would prevent the monkey from being able to get its hand out!

It would pull and pull, but it was stuck! There was no way to get its hand out of the jar without letting go of the food.

But instead of letting go, the monkey would keep trying, refusing to drop its dinner.

It was at this moment that the hunters would approach the monkey to catch it.”

“Don’t be like that monkey,” the man warned the child. “In life, to keep fighting another day and grow, you have to know when to quit, when to move on, and when to let go of whatever’s holding you back.”

Sometimes you have to let go and give up what you have now in order to receive something better in the future. Don’t let stubbornness get in your way to success.

37. The Fisherman and the Businessman

Once there was a businessman sitting on the beach in an Italian village.

As he sat and relaxed from his day, he saw a fisherman rowing a small boat full of fish back into the harbor.

Impressed, the businessman yelled out to the fisherman, “How long does it take you to catch so many fish?” To which the fisherman replied “Oh, not so long.”

Confused, the businessman asked, “Then why don’t you fish for longer to catch even more?”

“Because this is enough to feed my family and even offer some to my neighbors,” the fisherman replied.

“So what do you do for the rest of your day?” Asked the businessman.

The fisherman said, “Well, I’ve usually caught my fish by late morning, so I go home, kiss my wife, and play with my kids. In the afternoon, I take a nap and read. In the evening, I go to the village to have a drink with my friends, play guitar, sing, and dance into the night!”

Being an entrepreneur, the businessman offered a suggestion.

“I have a PhD in business! I can help you become much more successful. From now on, you should spend longer at sea and catch as many fish as possible. When you’ve saved enough money, buy a bigger boat to catch even more fish.

From there, you’ll soon be able to buy more boats, set up your own company, build a production plant that will package the fish and control distribution, and move to the city to control your other branches.”

To this, the fisherman asks, “And after that?”

The businessman laughs, “After that, you’ll be able to live like a king, you will be rich!”

“And after that?” Asks the fisherman again.

“Well, then you can retire, move to a house by the ocean, wake up early in the morning to go fishing, then return home to play with your kids, kiss your wife, take a nap in the afternoon and join your friends in the village to drink, play guitar and dance into the night!”

Puzzled, the fisherman replies, “But isn’t that what I’m doing already?”

Be happy with the things that you have. Will having more in life bring you more happiness? Stress is often a choice. There’s joy and peace in simplicity.

Final Thoughts on Inspirational Stories

Some of these inspirational stories of success and hope left me astounded for a minute because of their strong impact, and I hope they had the same impact on you. They truly do make you think, and the images in your mind that they create are memorable.

Share these stories with friends who you think could benefit from the morals that they offer.

I’m hoping that from now on, when you’re tempted to cut corners, restrict your thinking to social conformity, remain comfortable with mediocrity, or anything else that may be holding you back in life, you will come back to these stories for a bit of a motivational boost.

And if you're looking for more inspiration, be sure to check out these other roundups:

• 15 Inspirational Poems About Life You Must Read Today
• 13 Famous Stories About Success & Overcoming Challenges
• 35 Best Songs About Success and Achievement

Finally, if you want to take your goal-setting efforts to the next level, check out this FREE printable worksheet and a step-by-step process that will help you set effective SMART goals .

Connie Mathers is a professional editor and freelance writer. She holds a Bachelor's Degree in Marketing and a Master’s Degree in Social Work. When she is not writing, Connie is either spending time with her daughter and two dogs, running, or working at her full-time job as a social worker in Richmond, VA.

Real Life Inspirational Stories of Success for Students | 15+ stories to inspire students today

True life stories to inspire students of different ages, and various backgrounds around the world.     

Each person who shared their story here overcame great challenges in order to achieve the success they have today. Some conquered obstacles like poverty, lack of support, others were uprooted from their homes. Some students faced debilitating illness and serious trauma, others overcame challenges like bullying, dyslexia, incarceration, or lack of confidence as an adult student (and more).  

We hope students the world over, will be inspired by these real life stories shared from Australia, India, Greece, Pakistan, Philippines, Uganda, USA and Vietnam ...

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New Life. New Me. By Linda Strader | Inspiring Story #127

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Faith & Finding a Way | A Doctor’s Journey Through Debilitating Illness | by Dr Manisha Rayavarapu | Inspiring Story #112

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Village Boy Finds a Way then Pays It Forward | By Nawaz Khan | Inspiring Story #109

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Tiny Teaching Stories: The Powerful Moments of Your Lives, Distilled

Your lives as teachers are packed with powerful moments: moments of triumph, frustration, absurdity, joy, revelation, and hilarity. We want to hear about those moments. We’re asking teachers to distill an experience that was powerful for them into no more than 100 words. Below are some of the stories they’ve shared.

This project was inspired by, but is not affiliated with, The New York Times’ Tiny Love Stories .

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Top 12 Motivational Stories For Students To Work Hard

Some students will have a drive from inside to learn new things and explore new ideas while some others look into successful persons around them and get self-motivated to learn hard.

Best Free Kids Stories Apps (Check it Now)

However, this is not the case for all students and many of them will need immense motivation and inspiration from teachers and parents to work hard.

Stories are always a favorite area for students that invoke their love and interest. This is one of the reasons why teachers use this as a tool to motivate them in many areas.

This includes many common folk stories with a good moral at the end, real-life examples of successful persons and simple stories of normal people who have been part of their life journey.

Here we can have a look at a few motivational stories that help students to work hard and lay their foundation for a successful life.

1. The Elephant Rope

  A man was walking nearby to a group of elephants that was halted by a small rope tied to their front leg. He was amazed by the fact that the huge elephants are not even making an attempt to break the rope and set themselves free.

He saw an elephant trainer standing beside them and he expressed his puzzled state of mind. The trainer said “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them.

As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

Moral: It is the false belief of the elephants that denied their freedom for life time. Likewise, many people are not trying to work towards success in their life just because they failed once before. So keep on trying and don’t get tied up with some false beliefs of failure.

2. Kentucky Fried Chicken

The real-life story of Colonel Harland Sanders who was disappointed umpteen times in his life and still made his dream come true late in his life is really inspiring.

He is a seventh grade dropped out who tried many ventures in life but tasted bitter every time. He started selling chicken at his age of 40 but his dream of a restaurant was turned down many times due to conflicts and wars.

Later he attempted to franchise his restaurant. His recipe got rejected 1,009 times before the final approval. And soon the secret recipe, “Kentucky Fried Chicken” became a huge hit worldwide. KFC was expanded globally and the company was sold for 2 million dollars and his face is still celebrated in the logos.

Moral : Have you stopped your attempts to a venture just because you were rejected or failed a few times? Can you even accept a failure of 1009 times? This story inspires everyone to try hard and believe in yourself until you see success despite how many times you have failed.

3. Shark Bait

A marine biologist put a shark into a big tank at the time of a research experiment. Followed by that, he released some tiny bait fishes into it.

As expected, the shark didn’t wait to attack those fishes and ate them. Later, a clear fiberglass was inserted into the tank which partitioned the tank into two and the shark remained in one side.

A similar set of bait fish was sent to the other side of the tank like before. And the shark attempted to attack those fishes but failed by hitting on the fiberglass.

The shark attempted for several days until it gave up. Later, the biologist removed the glass from the tank but the shark didn’t try to attack the small fishes.

The shark always continues to see a false barrier in the tank and stopped his attempts.

Moral: It is quite common for many people to give up after many setbacks and failures. The story is an example for keep trying always and to never give up despite multiple failures.

4. Thinking Out of the Box

Once upon a time, a merchant named Sam owed a huge sum of money to Tom, a money lender. The time came when the merchant ran out of the last chance given to him to give the money back.

Sam had a beautiful daughter who was very affectionate with her father. Tom asked the merchant to give all the money back failing which he will marry his beautiful daughter.

Tom was not at all good looking and ill minded and so the merchant was in dilemma. Tom proposed a new condition. There was a mix of black and white pebbles on the ground where they were standing. He will take two pebbles on both hands, one will be white and the other will be black.

If the daughter correctly chooses the white pebble, then Tom will write off all the debt and leave the marriage proposal too. But if she chooses the black pebble, he will write off the debt but will marry the daughter.

Tom bent down to pick the pebbles from the ground and the daughter noticed that he took black pebbles on both hands. The girl had three choices- to notify the same to her father which may provoke Tom, take the black pebble and sacrifice her life or simply refuse to take the pebble which might land her father into trouble. But what she did totally surprise Tom.

She took the pebble from his hand and ‘accidentally’ the pebble fell off from her hand to ground. She then asked Tom to see which color pebble was left in his hand to identify the color she picked. Tom had no other choice but to show the black color pebble in his hand and set both of them free.

Moral: Sometimes, life offers you situations which not only demands hard work and perseverance but some creative thinking which saves the situation.

Also Read: Top 10 Road Safety Rules To Teach Your Student

5. The Group of Frogs

Some frogs were traveling through woods and two of them accidentally fell into a pit. The other frogs which were safe upside understood how deep the pit was and saw no hope for the frogs to escape out of it.

Both of these frogs started trying to get out of the pit but failed many times. The frogs on the safe side shouted at them to give up the pain of trying as it was not possible.

Eventually, one frog heard the other frogs and decided to stop trying and fell down to death. However, the other frog went on trying and at last managed to reach the top.

The other frogs asked him, “Did you not hear us?” He explained that he was deaf and thought other frogs were encouraging him to get out.

Moral: Some people around you may ask you to be on a safer side always and stop trying and taking risks. However, there is no gain without pain. So try hard to achieve success in life despite what life offers you.

6. Rocks, Pebbles, and Sand

Once a professor entered the classroom with a glass jar, rocks, pebbles, and sand. The students were amused to see what he was up to. First, he started filling the rock parts into the jar until he couldn’t add any more.

He asked the students if the jar was full and everybody nodded yes. He then started putting the pebbles inside the jar which went inside through the small gaps and he shakes the jar to allow the pebbles to get into those vacant spaces in between the rocks.

He asked the same question to the students and they again said that the jar was full. Finally, he poured the sand inside the jar which went through the minute gaps and got filled in the jar.

The professor explained that this is how you should set priorities in life. Rock is like your family, while pebbles are like your career while sand is like the least priorities in life and unnecessary quarrels and egos.

If you put sand on the jar first, it will get easily filled up leaving no space for rocks and pebbles.

Moral: You should identify your priorities in life and develop a good strategy to work towards fulfilling it rather than wasting your time and effort on unnecessary aspects of life.

7. Struggles develop strength

One day a man was passing by a garden when he saw a butterfly cocoon which was about to get open.

He saw a small opening on it and watched the several hours of struggles the butterfly came through to get the body out of it. After many hours, it seemed that the butterfly stopped trying as there was no progress.

He thought to help the butterfly by cutting the cocoon with a scissor. So the butterfly came out easily but the wings were shriveled and the body was tiny and withered.

Unfortunately, the butterfly was not able to take flight and spend the rest of life crawling with a wounded body.

Moral: This is nature’s way of telling the importance of struggles in life. Sometimes, different kinds of struggles are needed in life to make you stronger in the future. Never feel disappointed in life and stop trying when life offers you struggles but keep on fighting until you see success.

  8. Seeing opportunity in obstacles

Once there was a king who was curious but wealthy. He decided to test his fellow people to know who has a got a good attitude in life and who would spare some time for country’s progress.

He placed a huge boulder right at the middle of the road and hid in a nearby place to see if anyone would make an attempt to move it off.

He saw some wealthy merchants and courtiers passing by the road. None of them made any attempt to move it off but simply walked away while some others blamed the king for not maintaining roads.

Later, a peasant came the way with a load of vegetables and saw the boulder. He kept his load down and tried to move the boulder away. After strenuous effort, he succeeded in moving it away. He saw a purse lying in the place of the boulder.

It contained many gold coins and a note from the king which read ‘this is the reward for the person who moves the boulder away’.

Moral: It is quite common for people to run away from problems and obstacles. But the story clearly shows the importance of seeing an opportunity in every obstacle which might improve our condition. Invest some time to remove obstacles on your way and experience many unseen presences.

9. Shake off problems

A man and his donkey were on the way to grazing while the donkey fell into a huge pit. The man was shaken and tried hard to pull off his favorite donkey up to the ground.

Despite his strenuous attempts, he failed to bring the donkey back. But he can’t leave the donkey to starve and die with pain for days.

So he decided to bury him alive and make his death smoother. So he started pouring soil over the donkey in the pit. When he poured the soil, the donkey felt the load and shakes it off and he steps on it.

He does the same every time when the soil was poured on his body. In the end, he reached the ground level and easily walked away to graze in the green pastures.

Moral: Don’t choose to live with your problem. Just shake off your problems and stand on it and step up in life after learning from them. Every bad experience is a new learning. So get the positives out of it and work towards your goals.

10. Let go of your stresses

  A psychology professor entered the classroom with half a glass of water in his hand. The students expected the old common question “was it half empty or half full?” But to the surprise, he asked them “How heavy is this glass of water?”

The answers given by the students ranged from 7 oz. To 25 oz. But the professor replied that the actual weight of the glass with water doesn’t always matter but how long you hold the glass is what matters.

If you hold the glass for a minute, you won’t feel much weight. But if you hold for 10 minutes, you will feel a little more weight and it gets heavier for you with hours.

If you hold it for the entire day, then your hands would go numb and pain. Similar is the case when you carry stress with you. If you think about it for a while and leave it, then there is no problem but if you think about it for hours, it starts becoming a problem and it becomes worse if you sleep with it.

Moral: You should learn to let go of your stresses and never sleep with it. If you can do something about it, just do it. In the other case, just leave it and work towards your goals or else it just kills your productivity.

11. Value yourself

A speaker started off his seminar by showing a $20 to the public. He asked the people “who wants this?” There was no surprise to see that all of them lifted their hands. He offered to give the money to one of them but insisted that he will do something to it.

He crumpled the paper money and showed it again to the crowd and repeated the question. Still, everyone raised the hands. He then put the money into the ground and stepped on it and then raised it again and offered it to the public.

The people gathered there still showed interest to take that money despite seeing how dirty the note was. He told the public” No matter what I did to this money, you all still wanted this.

You all went in favor of my offer just because the value of the money never decreased despite what all I did to it. Similarly, value yourself despite the painful conditions or failures”

Moral: Believe in yourself and work hard to achieve success. Value yourself irrespective of the failures or obstacles and don’t degrade yourself just because of the temporary setbacks.    

 12.  Sharpen your ‘axe’

  There was a newly joined woodcutter and the king was really impressed by his dedication towards his work. Out of encouragement, he started giving his best in work and cut 18 trees in the first month and the king was glad.

The next month he put in the same effort but could cut only 15 trees. And the third month, he still tried his best but could cut only 12 trees. The king visited him the third month and talked about his decrease in productivity.

He explained that he might have lost his strength or got too old to do the work. The king asked him “when was the last time you sharpened your ax?” To the surprise, he has not even done it once in the last three months. That was the only reason why he couldn’t cut more trees.

Moral: It is good that you put in a lot of effort and hard work to work towards your goals. But you should balance your life priorities and invest time with your family and save some time to relax which would boost up your productivity.

These are just a few among the many motivational stories that guide students to work hard on many aspects of life and grow successful. Such inspirational stories can help students to keep moral values in life despite whatever life offers them.

Also Read :  20 Amazing Books on Creativity and Innovation

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Just 21 Reasons to Be Grateful for Teachers This Year

Honestly, this list could be endless, but we had to stop somewhere.

For many of us, 2017 has been kind of a doozy. Which is why we feel extra grateful for teachers doing amazing things in their classrooms and for their students. These teachers’ stories inspire us and give us hope for the future. Here’s just some of the reasons we’re grateful for teachers this year.

1. Because we go above and beyond for our students.

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2. Because we’ll do anything to get our kids to read.

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3. Because we make dreams come true.

Meet the Teacher Who Raised Money to Buy a Bike for Every Kid in Her School

4. Because so many of us transform communities, not just kids.

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5. Because we’ll take risks to get students to connect with the curriculum.

I Use Hip-Hop To Teach Middle School History: Here’s How

6. Because for so many of us, teaching is a calling.

https://www.weareteachers.com/why-ellen-degeneres-took-notice-of-this-teacher-and-paid-off-all-her-student-debt/

7. Because we love sharing our passions.

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8. Because we know that a little positivity goes a long way.

Why i leave positive post-it notes for my fourth graders every morning, 9. because we’ll hack anything if it means helping our kids..

Meet the Viral Teacher Who Created Tennis Ball Chairs for Her Special Education Students

10. Because we’re not afraid to go the extra mile.

https://www.weareteachers.com/we-love-these-crazy-teachers/

11. Because we lift each other up.

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12. Because even when we get a moment in the spotlight, we shine it on others.

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13. Because we help pull our students through many of the tough things happening in our world.

https://www.weareteachers.com/teachers-are-heroes/

14. Because this is a full-circle job, and we’re fully committed.

https://www.weareteachers.com/onceastudentnowateacher/

15. Because even when we’re tired, we keep going.

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16. Because we literally spend hundreds of dollars out of our own pockets on our students.

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17. Unless you’re a new teacher, in which case you might spend thousands.

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18. Because we open our students to new worlds.

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19. Because so often we’re a safe harbor from the storm.

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20. Because we keep going even in the midst of personal tragedy.

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21. And finally, because there’s nothing we’re more grateful for than a letter from students.

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Why are you grateful for teachers? We’d love to hear in the comments.

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Just a few words can make a world of difference. Continue Reading

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Inspiring Stories of Teachers Who Went Above and Beyond to Help Their Students Succeed

by English Plus | Apr 1, 2023 | Social Spotlights

Introduction

Erin gruwell: a teacher who inspired her students to change the world, marva collins: a teacher who transformed education for at-risk students.

Education is a powerful tool that can transform lives, and behind every successful student, there is often a teacher who has gone above and beyond to help them achieve their goals. In this article, we will share the inspiring stories of three teachers who have made a profound impact on their students’ lives. Erin Gruwell, Ron Clark, and Marva Collins are three educators who have shown that with dedication, innovation, and a belief in the potential of every student, anything is possible. Their stories are a testament to the transformative power of education, and they remind us of the importance of investing in our students’ futures. So join us as we celebrate these three inspiring teachers and the incredible work they have done to help their students succeed.

Erin Gruwell is a former high school English teacher who became famous for her work with a group of at-risk students in Long Beach, California. Her story is one of dedication, compassion, and innovative teaching methods, and it has inspired educators around the world to believe in the transformative power of education.

Gruwell’s journey as a teacher began in 1994, when she was assigned to teach freshman English at Woodrow Wilson High School in Long Beach. The school was located in a low-income neighborhood and had a diverse student population, many of whom had been labeled as “unteachable” or “at-risk.”

Gruwell quickly realized that her students faced a range of challenges, including poverty, gang violence, and racism. She also saw that they were disengaged from their education and lacked a sense of purpose and hope for the future. Determined to make a difference, Gruwell set out to create a classroom environment that would foster a sense of community, trust, and respect.

One of Gruwell’s first initiatives was to have her students keep journals, which she called “Freedom Writers’ Diaries.” The journals were a safe space for students to express their thoughts, feelings, and experiences, and they quickly became a powerful tool for building relationships and promoting self-reflection.

Gruwell also exposed her students to a wide range of literature and media, including books like “The Diary of Anne Frank” and movies like “Schindler’s List.” She used these materials to teach her students about the power of storytelling and to help them see the connections between their own lives and the experiences of people who had faced oppression and injustice.

As her students became more engaged in their education, Gruwell began to see changes in their attitudes and behavior. They started to take pride in their work, showed more respect for each other, and began to think more critically about the world around them.

But Gruwell’s biggest challenge came after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which had a profound impact on her students. Many of them had been directly affected by the riots and had lost friends and family members to gang violence. Others had experienced racism and discrimination in their daily lives.

In response, Gruwell took her students on a field trip to the Museum of Tolerance, where they learned about the Holocaust and other instances of genocide throughout history. The experience was transformative for her students, who began to see the connections between their own experiences and the experiences of people who had faced oppression and violence.

Inspired by what they had learned, Gruwell’s students decided to take action. They started a campaign to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur, a conflict in Sudan that had been largely ignored by the media. They also began to speak out against gang violence and racism in their own community.

Gruwell’s students eventually compiled their writings into a book called “The Freedom Writers Diary,” which became a best-seller and was later turned into a movie. The book and movie helped to spread the message of hope and empowerment that Gruwell had instilled in her students, and they inspired a generation of educators to believe in the potential of all students, regardless of their backgrounds or circumstances.

Today, Gruwell is a sought-after speaker and the founder of the Freedom Writers Foundation, which provides resources and training for educators who want to use her methods to inspire their own students. Her story is a testament to the power of education to transform lives and change the world. As she once said, “I see myself in each of my students, and I believe that every student can rise above their circumstances and achieve greatness.”

Ron Clark: A Teacher Who Created a School Where Every Student Could Succeed

Ron Clark is an educator, author, and founder of the Ron Clark Academy, a private school in Atlanta, Georgia, that has become famous for its innovative teaching methods and its ability to help students who were struggling in traditional classrooms.

Clark’s journey as a teacher began in 1995, when he was assigned to teach at an inner-city school in North Carolina. At the time, the school was one of the lowest-performing in the state, and many of its students faced significant challenges, including poverty, abuse, and neglect.

Despite these challenges, Clark was determined to make a difference. He believed that every student had the potential to learn and succeed, and he set out to create a classroom environment that would foster a love of learning, a sense of community, and a belief in oneself.

One of Clark’s first initiatives was to establish clear expectations for behavior and academic achievement. He created a set of “rules” for his classroom that focused on respect, responsibility, and effort, and he rewarded students who met these expectations with praise and positive reinforcement.

Clark also used creative teaching methods to engage his students and make learning more fun and meaningful. He used music, dance, and drama to bring lessons to life, and he incorporated real-world examples and hands-on projects to help his students see the relevance of what they were learning.

As Clark’s reputation as a dynamic and effective teacher grew, he was offered the opportunity to teach at a school in New York City. There, he continued to hone his teaching methods and develop his philosophy of education, which emphasized the importance of relationships, rigor, and relevance.

In 2007, Clark founded the Ron Clark Academy, a private school that would put his teaching philosophy into practice. The school was designed to be a “model school,” showcasing the best practices in education and serving as a training ground for educators who wanted to learn from Clark’s methods.

The Ron Clark Academy quickly gained a reputation for its innovative teaching methods and its ability to help students who were struggling in traditional classrooms. The school’s success was due in large part to Clark’s commitment to creating a positive and nurturing environment that would support every student’s unique needs and abilities.

One of the keys to the Ron Clark Academy’s success was its focus on building relationships between teachers and students. Clark believed that strong relationships were the foundation of effective teaching, and he encouraged his teachers to get to know their students as individuals and to personalize their instruction accordingly.

Another key to the school’s success was its emphasis on rigor and high academic standards. Clark believed that all students were capable of achieving at a high level, and he challenged his students to reach their full potential through rigorous coursework and high expectations.

Finally, the Ron Clark Academy was successful because it emphasized the relevance of what students were learning. Clark believed that students learned best when they could see the connections between what they were learning in the classroom and the real world around them, and he worked to make sure that every lesson was relevant and meaningful.

Today, Clark’s methods and philosophy of education continue to inspire educators around the world. He is the author of several books, including “The Essential 55,” which outlines his classroom rules, and “The End of Molasses Classes,” which describes his journey as an educator and the lessons he learned along the way.

Through his work as a teacher, author, and founder of the Ron Clark Academy, Ron Clark has demonstrated that every student has the potential to learn and succeed, and that with dedication, innovation, and a belief in oneself, anything is possible.

Marva Collins was a former elementary school teacher who founded the Westside Preparatory School in Chicago, Illinois. The school was known for its strict discipline, high academic standards, and its ability to help students who were struggling in public schools.

Collins’ journey as a teacher began in the 1960s, when she was assigned to teach at a public school on the West Side of Chicago. At the time, the school was plagued by violence, low academic standards, and a lack of resources, and many of its students were labeled as “unteachable” or “at-risk.”

Despite these challenges, Collins was determined to make a difference. She believed that every student had the potential to learn and succeed, and she set out to create a classroom environment that would foster a love of learning, a sense of discipline, and a belief in oneself.

One of Collins’ first initiatives was to establish a rigorous academic curriculum that would challenge her students to reach their full potential. She taught her students traditional subjects like math, science, and literature, but she also emphasized critical thinking , problem-solving, and creativity.

Collins’ teaching methods were highly effective, and her students soon began to show remarkable progress. They scored well above average on standardized tests, and many of them went on to attend top colleges and universities.

But Collins’ greatest achievement was the founding of the Westside Preparatory School, which she started in 1975. The school was designed to be a “haven for learning,” providing a safe and nurturing environment where students could thrive academically and socially.

At the Westside Preparatory School, Collins emphasized the importance of discipline and hard work. She expected her students to arrive on time, in uniform, and ready to learn, and she instilled in them a sense of responsibility and accountability.

Collins also emphasized the importance of building relationships between teachers and students. She believed that strong relationships were the foundation of effective teaching, and she encouraged her teachers to get to know their students as individuals and to personalize their instruction accordingly.

Under Collins’ leadership, the Westside Preparatory School became known for its high academic standards and its ability to help students who had struggled in public schools. Many of the school’s graduates went on to attend top colleges and universities, and some went on to become leaders in their fields.

Collins’ impact on education was recognized by educators around the world, and she was invited to speak at conferences and events all over the world. She was also the author of several books, including “Marva Collins’ Way,” which outlined her teaching philosophy and methods.

Today, Collins’ legacy lives on through the many students and educators who have been inspired by her work. Her emphasis on discipline, hard work, and relationships continues to be a model for effective teaching, and her belief in the potential of every student continues to inspire educators to make a difference in the lives of at-risk students.

The stories of Erin Gruwell, Ron Clark, and Marva Collins are powerful reminders of the transformative power of education. These three teachers went above and beyond what was expected of them, dedicating themselves to helping their struggling students succeed. Through their innovative teaching methods, their unwavering commitment, and their belief in the potential of every student, they changed the lives of countless young people.

Their stories show us that education is not just about transmitting knowledge and skills, but about creating a safe and nurturing environment where every student can thrive. They remind us that it is possible to break down barriers and to help students overcome even the toughest challenges.

As we reflect on these stories, let us be inspired to make a difference in the lives of our own students. Let us remember that every student has the potential to learn and succeed, and let us strive to create classroom environments that foster a love of learning, a sense of discipline, and a belief in oneself. Let us be the teachers who go above and beyond to help our struggling students succeed.

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7 Inspirational Teaching Stories

Last Updated on November 21, 2022

Teaching is not an easy job. Aside from educating kids, they also need to strive to make a difference in every child.

Great teachers have the ability to inspire students in ways others can’t. They persevere and help open their students’ eyes, show them things about themselves that they couldn’t see themselves, and move past what is considered “impossible.”

Let’s take a look at some inspiring stories of great teachers who changed lives around the world .

7 Inspiring Stories of Teachers

Table of Contents

Marilyn Gambrell: from parole officer to teacher

Marilyn had witnessed many painful things imaginable children went through as a former parole officer. She saw how distressing the children have to endure as their parents are being incarcerated. Due to this experience, she decided to change her career and life permanently.

Marilyn initiated the “healing the CHILD within” Program for Children of Incarcerated Parents at M.B. Smiley High School in Houston, Texas with her students who had been raped, sexually harassed, 0r beaten by their parents to help them heal from the trauma they faced from family members on January 2000.

She also created a long-hour class called the No More Victims program that aids to create a safer school environment and reduce substance abuse cases on campus.

Marilyn has helped hundreds of students turn their lives around with her confidence-inspiring approach.

After years of saving countless people from the brink, Marilyn’s story was featured in a Lifetime movie called “Fighting the Odds.” She continues to guide new generations towards success today.

Efren Peñaflorida: pushcart classroom for the poor

Growing up in a poor Filipino community with rampant gang activities, Efren along with his friends, started Dynamic Teen Company in 1997. Their group aims to uplift the community and educate the poor to help them divert from joining violent gangs.

Dynamic Teen Company eventually started a program called the Care of Impoverished Children wherein they push a cart filled with school supplies every weekend in the slums. Kids to teens flock the carts to learn how to read, write, and learning English.

Aside from teaching basic education, Efren and the group’s volunteers also set up a hygiene clinic to teach basic hygiene such as how to properly bathe and brush one’s teeth.

Fransiskus Faima: connecting with students amidst the pandemic

The education system had to drastically shift to online learning as the global pandemic forced many parts of the world into lockdown.

Since not all have access to the internet, a teacher from Indonesia went the extra mile to aid students without internet coverage. Fransiskus Xaverius Faima decided to travel for hours each day to set up small learning groups in a remote community. In there, he takes few students at a time where they gather around a single laptop.

For Faimu, education works best when given consistently, otherwise, learning will be disrupted and the students will suffer.

Fumi: the innovative teacher

A former English teacher, Fumi initiated a project at OECD-Tohoku School following the catastrophe that affected Japan in March 2011. The project consisted of 100 junior high and high school students who teamed up for different workshops to reveal the beauty of Tohoku to the world in an event they organized in Paris back in summer 2014.

Fumi also designed a new school that opened in 2019 in Hiroshima which focuses on project-based learning. For Fumi, she wanted to connect learning to society to make it more meaningful and help her students find their roles.

The innovative school will give more autonomy to students to encourage them to solve real-life problems within their community. Not only will it foster their academic skills, but also their social and emotional learning.

Moreover, the classroom has three different designs: open space, semi-closed, and closed. The goal for this was to make the school center of innovation where students and teachers can successfully collaborate.

Zane Powels: sending free school meals

Another inspirational teacher story amidst the pandemic is from an assistant headteacher Zane Powels. The challenge brought on by the pandemic deprived some students of their free meals which could impact their learning and well-being.

After five weeks of schools being closed in England, Powels had already delivered more than two thousand meals to students by walking door-to-door. The lunch packages contain sandwiches, fruit, and snacks. Aside from delivering their free meals, this allowed Powels to also check up on the kids about how they are holding up during the crisis.

Anne Sullivan: the miracle worker

When other teachers and people thought that it was an impossible task to teach a deaf-blind person, Anne Sullivan never gave up. Anne herself was blind in the first part of her life but partly recovered by the time she became Helen Keller’s governess in 1887.

Her breakthrough with Keller was teaching her how to spell the word “w-a-t-e-r” on Keller’s palm while placing her other hand under running water. This method became Keller’s sole communication to the outer world up to that point.

Anne remained Keller’s companion until her death in 1936. Helen Keller lived her life as a successful writer, lecturer, and activist. This would not have been possible without Anne Sullivan – the woman famously known as the “miracle worker.”

Maria Montessori: child-centered learning

Educational approaches have shifted throughout the centuries. Some emphasize a traditional, disciplinarian approach, while others stressed out more free and innovative learning.

One of the influential and still relevant educational approaches to this date is Maria Montessori’s philosophy. Her primary theory was that children essentially teach themselves. The role of the teacher is to create a good learning environment that will allow a child to develop naturally.

What is amazing about the beliefs of a Montessori school is that instead of forcing the kids to sit still and listen to lectures, she believed that they can learn from their surroundings. Eventually, her method spread across the globe and still remains an important part of the educational system.

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10 Amazing College Success Stories of Students Who Overcame Obstacles

The dream of achieving an education does not come easy to all. Obstacles such as extreme poverty, homelessness, age, single parenthood and even brushes with the law could have stopped any of these students from earning their college degrees–and yet, they overcame the odds. 

At Universities.com, we recognize the very real barriers that people in different stages of life face, from financial hardship to racial disparities to access to quality education. Ensuring that all people can reach their dreams of earning the education that they dream of is a goal that, as a society, we will strive for together. And we hope that these stories of 10 people who faced tremendous obstacles and were able to reach the finish line of their education will inspire and help us recognize the difficulties that many individuals face in pursuing higher education. 

Ieshia Champs: A single mother of 5 who grew up in foster care and graduated law school with Honors

Being a mom of five children is no easy task in itself, but being a single mom of five children and graduating law school with honors? Well, that’s a feat that’s downright remarkable. 

Ieshia Champs is that mother,  profiled in her local news,  for her inspiring story of going from growing up in foster care to becoming a single mother to five children to graduating with honors with a law degree from Texas Southern University Law School. 

Champs’ story is one with plenty of twists and turns: she herself had a difficult childhood, growing up in foster care and bouncing from home to home. At one point, she dropped out of school and was even homeless in both 8th and 11th grade. At the age of 19, she had her first child and then, a series of tragedies: her mother died, her children’s father passed away from cancer, she lost her house in a fire, and she contemplated suicide. 

In 2009, at the encouragement of the church she was attending, she achieved her GED and then, kept going. Although making it through her degree program was a struggle–her kids recalled hearing her cry and pitching in to make meals so she could keep studying–she kept going. 

When she did graduate from law school, Champs posed for pictures with her children, all displaying chalkboard signs that celebrated the big day. Champs’ chalkboard read, “I did it!” while her children proclaimed different supportive messages that reflected the journey the entire family had been on, like “I helped!” and “We did it!” and “Me too!” The pictures quickly went viral, sharing her story with the rest of the world.

Bianca Jeannot: Worked four jobs and cared for two disabled brothers while uplifting them out of homelessness and poverty through education

Bianca Jeannot has been through a lot in her 22 years of life. She and her family lived in homeless shelters for 7 years and when she was only 18, she lost her mother, who was a single parent. With her mother’s death, Bianca Jeannot became the head of the household, which meant taking over the care of her two disabled brothers. 

In order to provide the financial support they all needed and continue school, Jeannot performed the seemingly impossible: she held down four jobs while caring for her two disabled brothers and working on her degree at the College of New Rochelle. The hardworking teen worked three on-campus jobs and one off-campus job. Her support helped care for her two brothers back home in the Bronx, one with renal failure, the other born with Down Syndrome. Incredibly, Jeannot also managed to find time to edit the school’s literary magazine, founded an anime club, and became her family’s first college graduate, graduating with honors. “I think my mom would be super proud,” Jeannot said in a video with  ABC News . 

Dr. Daniel Geiter: From convicted felon to opening Illinois’ first liberal arts college by an African American group

Daniel Geiter is a Doctor in Higher Education, but he started his path to education in a unique way: by becoming convict #51137. After serving time for a total of 25 criminal charges he committed as a young man, Geiter struggled when he was released and realized the full impact of the barriers that ex-convicts faced. 

For instance, he was hired for the only job that he could find–as a dishwasher at Uno’s Pizzeria, making $8/hour. But after only two days, he was fired because his background check came back, revealing he was a convicted felon. “In every way, I was discriminated against, because previously, I committed a crime. That means a lifetime of arbitrary consequences,” he noted in his TEDx talk. “Because of a mistake I made in my past, I was no longer eligible to be a full-blown citizen.” 

With his history as a convict, Geiter has faced a lifetime of what he calls “lived dualities”: one as the convict #51137 he will always be known in the system and the other, as the highly-educated doctor and professor he went on to be. Although he noted that still, to this day, could never qualify to serve a McDouble burger or a sweet tea at McDonald’s because of his background, he was able to change his life by pursuing higher education. He started by earning his GED and taking college courses while still serving his sentence and following his release and a subsequent business failure in 1998, ended up enrolling in  Moraine Valley  in 2009. After graduation, he was accepted into Xavier College, where he struggled financially, even losing electrically after being unable to pay his bills. After begging for help via a letter he wrote to all the school’s administrators, a kind nun named Sister Sue helped him procure the financial resources he needed to get his bills paid and continue his education. With her encouragement, he was accepted into the University of Chicago, then onto his doctoral degree in the Higher Education and Organization Change Program at Benedictine University.

Today, he is a doctor, a professor, and has made history by becoming the first African American group to open a private, liberal arts college,  Ward College , in Illinois. Appearing in a  TEDx talk  in a bright orange jumpsuit and handcuffs hanging around his shoulders, Dr. Geiter discussed his platform for advocating about the impact education can have on the trajectory of the lives of people who have been incarcerated. “I realized that one of the great possibilities in the world is to change individuals who have been incarcerated through education,” he said in his talk.

Dawn Loggins: Once cleaned bathrooms as a janitor at her high school now she’s an Ivy League school graduate

Dawn Loggins didn’t have a typical senior year. Back in 2012, instead of enjoying some downtime or stressing every spare minute about college applications, Loggins was waking up early to get to school before the rest of her classmates–to put in a before-school shift as a janitor. 

Before the rest of her peers rolled into school, Loggins was cleaning bathrooms, scrubbing floors, and wiping down the very desks she would occupy later in the day as a student. After 7 hours at school taking AP and honor classes, Loggins didn’t get to head home to enjoy an after-school snack or downtime either. Instead, she clocked back in for another two-hour stint on janitorial duty. To end the night, homework, until 2 AM, and then she’s back up early to do it all over again. 

“I don’t mind cleaning,” Loggins told CNN. “If you have to wade through trash to get to your desk, you’re not going to have an environment that encourages learning.” 

While the teen was clearly hardworking, it wasn’t immediately obvious to school officials how badly Loggins needed the financial support her job provided, until she asked her boss for candles one day. The reason? Without electricity at home, she wanted a way to do her homework at night. Her home also didn’t have running water, so Loggins described how her family would fill up water jugs from a nearby park to keep for flushing toilets and cooking. Even more shocking, while Loggins was at summer school, she tried calling home, only to find out the phones had been disconnected and her parents had moved away–without her. When the school realized the extent of the neglect Loggins had been living with, they surrounded her with support. Instead of turning her over to the state, the community took her in, providing her with housing and food and clothing and helping her to apply for college. Her history teacher wrote a recommendation letter for Loggins that simply told her story: a remarkable one of somehow rising above the drug abuse, extreme neglect, poverty, and homelessness that had marked her young life. 

And the efforts paid off: Loggins was accepted into  Harvard University . Today, according to her  LinkedIn profile , Loggins continues her studies at Harvard and works as a motivational speaker, speaking to issues that include education, homelessness, and women and youth empowerment. 

Alfonso Gonzales: 96-year-old WWII vet and USC’s oldest graduate

Many people dream of the moment they will walk across their college graduation stage to accept the diploma that they’ve worked so hard for–and in  Alfonso Gonzales ’ case, that moment was extra special. Although at the age of 96, Gonzales wheeled, not walked, across the stage, the moment was still everything he hoped for. As the entire crowd of staff, students and faculty erupted into applause and a standing ovation, Gonzales raised his hand in victory with a smile that lit up the entire room.

It took Gonzales six decades to complete the degree he started out to finish. A native of Longpope, he first started towards his degree as a zoology student in 1947. According to Gonzales, real life took over and as he began working with his brothers, he never made time to actually attend his school’s graduation. Years later, when his niece tried to help him by picking up the diploma for him, the family was shocked to learn that he was actually one credit shy of graduation. The school, in response, actually created a one-credit course just for Gonzales so he could complete his degree. “I did this for my family,” Gonzales said on stage at the commencement ceremony. “I did this to inspire them.” 

The World War II vet earned his college degree from USC in 2016, making him the school’s oldest graduate. And after all that hard work, the new college graduate had only one big plan to embark on post-commencement: “I’m going to go take my siesta,” he quipped. We’d say that’s one nap well-earned. 

Tiana Barnwell: From child abuse survivor to foster care to a bright future through education

As a teenager, Tiana Barnwell lost the motivation to care about her future–and knowing what she had endured in escaping abuse in her original home, is completely understandable. The young woman had been through trauma and making plans for her future wasn’t something that was on her radar when survival was her only goal. 

Barnwell showed enormous courage in speaking out about being molested in her home at only the age of 14, and that courage proved to be a spark that would carry her through the rest of her teen years. She graduated from high school and was accepted into Spelman College, a moment that she called “the happiest day of her life.”

Despite her happiness in pursuing her college degree, however, she struggled to find her footing. The teen told  Good Morning America  that she went through a “dark place” and that the displacement caused upheaval in many ways in her life. “It had a negative impact…,” she explained. “I started acting out in school, I started cutting class. I kind of just didn’t care, which is terrible because these were the years that were molding my future. I kind of lost sight of Spelman and I lost sight of my goals.”

Fortunately, the foster care agency she was placed with, The New York Foundling, was able to connect her to resources that helped her. The team worked with teachers, social workers, and therapists to help her through her experiences and refocus on her future.  “I have plans for after graduation,” the teen told  GMA . “I know what I’m doing and it fills me with joy.” While working towards her degree at Spelman (she graduated in May 2019), Barnwell was also able to serve as the VP of the school’s first group for LGBTQ+ individuals. Today, according to her LinkedIn  profile , Barnwell has experience working with Goldman and Sachs and now serves as a consultant for Guidehouse.

Ka’Juan Garrett: Child abuse survivor who earned a full-ride university scholarship

Ka’Juan Garrett, who graduated from high school in 2019, earned a full-ride scholarship to  Rowan University  to further his education. But it’s his back story that is so moving–the young senior is a child abuse survivor who chose to leave his home, enter the foster care system and live with a friend during his last two years of school. 

“I tried to take a negative and turn it into a positive,” he told a  local news station . 

The multi-sport athlete, band member, and honor roll student also found support from his court-appointed guardian, Sugar Ray Coney, who sung the young man’s praises and shared the wisdom he tried to impart on Garret: “If someone makes you mad, success is the greatest revenge” he explained. 

Not only did Garret endure horrific abuse as a child, but he has always exhibited a tremendous amount of courage and strength in sharing his story for the purpose of helping other children like him. The news story on Garret noted how incredibly difficult it is to break the cycle of abuse, with children suffering such trauma that their mental health suffers too greatly or they are unable to find resources to help. “You have to forgive to be able to move on and do what you have to do and pursue who you want to be,” Garrett said. He planned to study social work with his scholarship and eventually care for children, who like him, are in abusive situations at home. 

Josselyn Sanchez: Dedicated her college degree to her migrant field worker mother for making her dreams possible 

Mothers are notorious for sacrificing for the betterment of their children and Josselyn Sanchez’s mother is no different–the hardworking migrant field worker from Mexico dedicated her life to raising Josselyn, putting aside any dreams she may have had for herself in order to make enough money to care for her daughter. 

A Salinas, Calif. native, Sanchez explained in a  video interview  that because her mother had always been a hard worker, working in the fields even through her pregnancy, she grew up attending a lot of educational programs for the children of migrant workers. It was the early exposure to education, she said, that really sparked her love of learning. 

Now, Sanchez has become a first-generation college graduate, earning her  BA in psychology  from  Sac State . When she graduated, dedicated her degree to the woman who made it possible. She returned back home to Salinas to take graduation photos with her mom in front of the very fields her mom still works. Poised in her graduation gown, Sanchez is a sharp contrast to her mother, clad in a hoodie, baseball cap and jeans to block out the sun while she works. In the image, Sanchez is handing the degree to her mom, because, as she described, she wanted to give the degree back to her mom because she’s the one who worked so hard doing a job people look down on so she and her siblings could have better opportunities. 

 “My mom always says you have to know where you came from to know where you’re going,” she says.

Khadijah Williams: From homeless shelters to Harvard 

By the time she turned 18, Khadijah Williams had attended twelve schools in as many years. She had lived in shelters, in parks, and in motels, never in a permanent residence for more than a few months.  She had endured the leering of pimps and drug dealers, and the tauntings of students at a dozen schools who pegged her as “different.” 

Homeless since early childhood, Khadijah struggled all her life to hide her circumstances from teachers and fellow students. However, academics proved to be a way for her to find confidence in herself again. For instance, at the age of 9, she placed in the 99th percentile on a state exam, and her teacher told her she was “gifted.” From that moment forward, Khadijah decided to do whatever it took to keep herself in that category. “I was so proud of being smart I never wanted people to say, ‘You got the easy way out because you’re homeless,’” she told The LA Times. “I never saw it as an excuse.”

By sophomore year of high school, she realized that she could not succeed in getting the education she dreamed of without getting help to go beyond what her current school could offer. She talked to teachers and counselors who helped her apply to summer community college classes, scholarships, and enrichment programs. And in 11th grade, when she enrolled at Jefferson High School, she decided to complete the rest of her school career there — a decision that meant taking a bus each morning at 4 a.m. and not getting home until 11 p.m.

Her perseverance and hard work paid off, however, when she poured the story of her life into her Harvard University college application–and was accepted. 

Once Khadijah felt ready to tell her story, it won her notice not only from college admissions boards but also from the news media, including Oprah, who profiled Khadijah on her show. Now a successful student at Harvard, Khadijah continues to use the lessons of her extraordinary life to help and inspire other students.

Aduei Riak: A “Lost Girl of Sudan” war orphan at the age of 6, she walked thousands of miles to seek refuge

To meet Aduei Riak, you’d never guess the horrors she experienced as a young girl in Sudan. Poised and well-spoken, Aduei prefers to talk about her friends and family, her goals, and her bright vision of the future, rather than the years she spent in refugee camps and on the run from the political upheaval across Africa.

“I’ve seen a lot of things that a person of my age should not have been exposed to,” Aduei told USA Today. “The (memories) tend to be very dark and gray. I don’t like talking about them, because for me talking about them is living them again.”

Aduei’s story begins at age 6 when she was separated from her family during a civil war in Ethiopia. Following their separation, the young girl–at the same age her U.S. peers were in kindergarten — was on her own. She soon joined the thousands of orphans from similarly torn-apart families who walked over a thousand miles to find refuge. These children, often called  The Lost Girls of Sudan,  eventually found the Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya, where Aduei remained from ages 8-16.

In 2000, Aduei arrived in The United States as one of only 89 girls in a group of more than 4,000 orphans in a Lost Boys and Girls resettlement program. She joined a foster family in Belmont, Massachusetts, and began attending high school despite the fact that she spoke barely any English. She devoted herself to her studies, however, and mastered the language by spending hours watching television shows like Sesame Street. Her foster family also engaged a number of tutors to help Aduei advance her lessons. 

Within just a couple of years, Aduei had become a top student, and in 2003 she was accepted at  Brandeis University , one of the most prestigious schools in The United States. Upon graduation in 2007, Aduei was presented with an award for integrating social activism and academic study and was also named a Justice Louis Brandeis Scholar. Since graduating from The London School of Economics and Political Science, Aduei has campaigned against genocide in Darfur, was a keynote speaker at the International Women’s Leadership Conference, and is starting a foundation to help girls in Sudan receive an education. Aduei is also being featured in a documentary film that tells the story of the Lost Girls of Sudan, entitled, Like River, A Girl.

Resources For First-Generation College Students

What these students have gone through is remarkable considering their circumstances. Their ability to connect to resources and support to help them further their education also points to an encouraging growing trend among college students–a large percentage of college enrollees are also first-generation college students. 

For instance, according to the most recent  2019 data  from The Center for First-Generation College Students Success, 46% of students at 4-year public institutions are first-generation college students. (For the record, the Center defines a “first-generation student” as an undergraduate student whose parents do not have a bachelor’s or higher degree.) At public 2-year institutions, that number is even higher at 64% of students as first-generation. The highest of all were private, for-profit 4-year institutions, with 72% of students as first-generation. 

The fact that there are so many students who are the first in their families to go to school is not only life-changing for them, but also has a trickle-down effect for the future as well. For instance, there are more female first-generation students–at 60%, compared to 52% of males–and 30% of those female students also have dependents of their own to care for. Coming from families where the average median income is $41,000, the financial doors that a college degree can open are life-changing. For instance, according to the  Association of Public and Land Grant Universities  (APLU) the poverty rate is 3.5X lower for those with a Bachelor’s degree than a high school diploma alone. Annually, people with a bachelor’s degree earn around $32,000 more than those with a high school diploma, and that gap continues to widen. Recent statistics show that millennials who graduated with just a high school diploma now earn 62% less than what a typical college graduate earns. 

And of course, the benefits of a college degree extend beyond the impact of income; the APLU explains that the jobless rate–even at peak unemployment levels–is more than doubled for people with high school diplomas as opposed to Bachelor’s degrees holders. People with Bachelor’s degrees are also 47% times more likely to have health insurance, which carries obvious implications for preventive and emergent health care for all their family members, even extending life expectancy by 7 years. And lastly, in sheer numbers, let’s look at lifetime earning potentials: 1.3 million for a high school diploma holder vs. 2.67 million for someone with an advanced degree. 

Clearly, expanding educational access to students is important, and as these stories exemplify, resources and support to get them there are crucial. Here are some resources that may help students bridge that gap to become a first-generation student: 

• TRIO Support Services : These are federal programs designed to support students with disadvantaged backgrounds. 
• FAFSA : The FAFSA is vital for all college students in order to receive financial aid, but it’s also especially important for students with high financial need. This website can help guide students and their support systems, to filling out the FAFSA. 
• College Board:  This organization helps students transition out of high school through SAT, AP, and BigFuture programs. Students can enroll in AP exams for college credit through the site, register for the SAT, and search for scholarships and career and major information. 
• Center for First-Generation Student Success . As the name implies, this center is dedicated to empowering first-generation students to succeed. 
• Universal College Application . This one-stop-shop helps students create a universal college application that can be used to apply to many different schools. 

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Joining communities online can help you feel connected. our favorite facebook groups are,.

• Empowering First-Generation College Students
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Inspiring Teacher Stories: I Became A Teacher Because…

• Brittany Coleman
• January 9, 2021
• No Comments

Teachers inspire our youth on a daily basis. They live to ignite a love of learning and foster an exploration of subjects. But what inspires our teachers? Why did they become teachers?

Can you believe that 2020 is finally over? Man has it been one crazy whirlwind of a year, to say the least. It has been hard on everyone, but teachers especially have been thrown into the unknown. You have had to figure out virtual learning, distance learning, overcome Covid scares, and frustrations. Through it all sometimes it’s been hard to keep going and push past the thought of giving up.  However, we all decided to teach for some reason or another. So I’ve put together a few of your reasons why you became a teacher! May this be a reminder, a source of encouragement, and also a laugh. Something to keep us all going into the new year!

I became a teacher because…

“I wanted to be an entertainer! Captive audience every day for 35 years!”

-Vicky Moore

“..it was a calling. I volunteered at an elementary school when I was 18 and since that time, I have felt like I was doing the job I was meant to do. I hang on to this on the “tough days”… and this year there have been MANY.”

-Amber Pelton

“I became a teacher because I love seeing the world through kids’ eyes.”

-lorrie barclay.

“… it’s all I ever wanted to do.”

-Renee Bowman

“I loved music, math, art, and kids. Elementary allows me to do it all!”

-Ariel Miller

“My calling came in my 30’s during the high point in my IT career. It was something that couldn’t be ignored. I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

“I wanted to love all of the lost and hurting children. I wanted to help heal their hearts.” -Lora Marion

“I was a substitute teacher to make ends meet- and the kids I was subbing for (middle and high school) didn’t think they had adults in their lives that they could talk to.”

-Natalie Hayes

“It was the only major that didn’t require a foreign language.  But, all kidding aside, it was the path I was meant to take!” -Brittni Rudolph  

“I truly enjoy working with children and love watching them grow academically, socially, and emotionally every day!”

-Janessa Bailey-Fletcher

“I love to share and it’s exciting when I see the “lightbulb” moments in my kids!”

-Shannon Beckles-Rahming

“I wanted to be the caring and patient teacher I never had as a small child.”

-Beverly Wagner

“I love and care about kids. I want them to love school as much as I did. There were awesome teachers who believed in me and I want to pay it forward.”

-brown linda.

“I wanted summers off.”

-Monica Maravilla

-Christine Marie

There are so many reasons why we became teachers! So many inspiring teacher stories we hold on to and continue with when teaching becomes hard. Having overcome so many struggles, errors, failures, and more! But through it all, we are making a difference in these kid’s lives, and they are making a difference in ours! So hang in their teachers, never forget WHY you became one.

Please continue this thread of inspiration and share why you became a teacher in the comments below.

Written by: Brittany Coleman

At Education to the Core , we exist to help our teachers build a stronger classroom as they connect with our community to find trusted, state-of-the-art resources designed by teachers for teachers. We aspire to be the world’s leading & most trusted community for educational resources for teachers. We improve the lives of every teacher and learner with the most comprehensive, reliable, and inclusive educational resources.

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3 inspiring stories of how teachers kept teaching through the crisis

Education has been on the front line of COVID-19. For six months now, teachers around the world have been navigating education systems affected by school closures, adapting and improvising to keep their students learning. 

Even as many countries usher their students back into classrooms, with all the fresh challenges that entails, inspiration can be found in the examples of teachers who rose to meet the occasion. They remind us that teachers are more than just conduits for knowledge. They are a vital lifeline for their students, now and during whatever is next.

Remote learning without internet

The challenge faced by Fransiskus Xaverius Faima , a teacher from Indonesia, is a familiar one: how can teachers and students connect if many are not connected to the internet? Internet coverage in Indonesia is fairly high - around 66 percent of people have access - but connectivity rarely stretches beyond urban hubs. While schools are closed, students in remote communities like Faimau’s may not be getting any education at all. Faimau from the Kecil Fatutasu elementary school in East Nusa Tenggara, now travels for hours each day to set up small learning groups. He takes a few students at a time through lessons, gathered around his single laptop. 

Elsewhere in Indonesia, responding to the pandemic has required a creative approach. In West Papua, teachers are working with education consultants to design offline curriculums, printing and distributing materials that creatively integrate students’ home surroundings into their lessons. A simple pot of boiling water, for example, can teach a student much about physics and mathematics. 

For Faimau, all this extra effort is simply part of a teacher’s duty. Education, he understands, works best when it is consistent: “children have to keep learning because if we just leave, they will go back to square one.” His ad-hoc classes may not be able to offer his students everything they would get in a traditional classroom, but, for now, keeping them engaged is enough.

Delivering free school meals

Whilst widespread internet access in the UK has encouraged a national transition to online learning, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges of a different sort. The Western Primary School in Grimsby is situated in a deprived part of town, where four out of ten students receive free school meals. For many, it’s the only good meal they’re guaranteed all day. Zane Powels, the assistant head teacher at Western Primary, recognised the impact lockdown could have on these students. 

Five weeks after schools in England closed, Powels had already delivered more than two thousand meals to students, walking door-to-door, laden with lunch packages containing sandwiches, fruit and snacks. This also allowed him to check up on the children’s wellbeing whilst locked-down at home. 

5 weeks into lockdown and I have walked over 125miles delivering nearly 2000 school meals with a combined weight of over 1100kg. More importantly, children and parents from our school have been supported through these tough times and will continue to be ‘The school that cares’,  tweets  Powels.

Western Primary is not unique – the centrality of teachers and schools to students’ lives has been thrown into sharp relief during the pandemic, and Powels exemplifies the sense of responsibility felt by teachers everywhere.

Teaching in a truck

In Guanajuato, Mexico, a teacher known only as Nay , recently won widespread praise on Twitter after a picture emerged of her holding a makeshift lesson in the back of her red pick-up truck. She and a student, both masked, sat around a small table, pouring over school work. Nay is an elementary school teacher who specialises in working with children with disabilities such as autism. 

Just over half of people in Mexico have access to the internet. Aware that many of her pupils cannot get online or even have books, she converted her truck into a mobile classroom and travelled for hours a day to sit with them in person. While Nay is insistent that her extra efforts are nothing special, her story does highlight how the pandemic has hit vulnerable students the hardest. In these difficult times, it’s those students who occupy their teachers’ thoughts the most.

These three stories highlight what all teachers know: nothing beats being there in person. The situation with COVID-19 continues to evolve, and the promise of a return to ‘normality’ may be on the horizon. But until then, let’s take inspiration from those teachers who are doing everything to be there for their students.

Cover image published in  thejakartapost.com  courtesy of teacher Fransiskus Xaverius Faimau.

Inclusive education stories from the field

Leonard Cheshire has a longstanding relationship with UNESCO, providing disability specific technical expertise and advice as a formal partner.

As we work together to continue our global efforts towards the Sustainable Development Goals, these stories demonstrate the importance of inclusive education programmes in creating opportunities for persons with disabilities. From the implementation of assistive technology devices, to supporting families and communities in understanding and appreciating disability, to providing educational and vocational opportunities for girls with disabilities, each story shows the value of disability inclusive projects in creating a more equal world for all.

Alice’s quest for education despite life challenges and the COVID-19 pandemic

Alice Atieno Ouma is 18 years old and lives with her husband and child in Wakesi village, Muhoroni Sub-County, Kisumu County, Kenya. Alice is currently a beneficiary of the Education for Life project, where she’s been attending numeracy, literacy and life skills classes since she joined in February 2020. She has an intellectual disability and has shown herself to be an active and dedicated learner in class.

Alice attended lower primary school but dropped out due to family challenges and the lack of a supportive school environment. She was sent to Nairobi, Kenya where she did menial work for a few years. She later left and went back home and eventually got married. Alice heard about the Education for Life project through a community event organised by the project. She went to the catch-up centre where she completed project assessments and was later admitted into the programme.

“When they called that I had been chosen to be one of the 30 girls in our catch up centre I was very excited for the opportunity! I have been attending classes before we closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” Alice explained.

Alice enjoys going to the centre and has made lots of friends. Spending three hours, three days of the week in the centre has really helped her. “What I like most about being here is that my fellow girls are very kind to me and the teacher always says when we are at the centre we are a big family,” Alice said.

Alice’s life has changed a lot because of the project. First, her literacy levels have improved. She also does well in mathematics, her favourite subject. Through the life skills and mentorship sessions that she attends, her self-confidence has also improved. She vividly remembers a session where they were chatting about reproductive health and the mentor took them practically through using a sanitary towel step by step.

“It was a very fun session. We all laughed and learned a lot because who thought putting on a sanitary towel could be talked about openly!”

Life has improved for both Alice and her family, and her husband has been encouraging her throughout her studies. Her husband has also learned a lot about how to support her and understand her better through a workshop organised by the project for households of girls with disabilities. They were taught how to appreciate and support those living with disabilities.

However, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic uncertainty in the community. It has been a difficult time for Alice and her family. Her husband works at a sugar cane farm as a casual labourer and his income has not been consistent. To mitigate this, and have additional income in the family, she has been washing clothes for her neighbours during her free time when she is not at the centre. 

When the centre was closed after the COVID-19 pandemic first hit Kenya, the project adapted by providing the Educator Facilitators and Mentors with airtime to reach out to the girls every week. They provided psychosocial support and offered some learning by providing small assignments on phones to keep the girls active. Additionally, Alice was provided with workbooks (Mathematics, English, and Kiswahili) to aid her to study at home. She was also provided with a dignity kit (sanitary towels, soap, underwear, etc). These items were very useful and relieved her of the stress of having to source them for herself.

With learning now resuming at the catch up centre, Alice is optimistic about her future. She hopes one day to own her beauty salon. She is sure that with the support of the project’s role models and career guidance sessions she will choose the right transition pathway to help her achieve her goals.

With all the efforts that the project has made, Alice shared that there is more that can be done to support girls with disabilities. This includes continuous sensitization of the community to be more supportive of girls like her, improvement of the teaching and learning materials in the centres and encouragement and additional training for the teachers that support them.

“This is the best project to have ever come in my community,” Alice said. “It has been helpful to girls like me. I am very grateful and I hope other girls like me will benefit from this great initiative.”

Emmanuel’s Story – Finding his future

Emmanuel is a 14 year old boy from Kizimba Village, Agwingiri Parish, Agwingiri Sub County in Amolatar district in Uganda. He is the ninth born in a family of ten. Both he and two of his sisters have hearing and speech impairments.

When Emmanuel was ten years old his father died. His mother couldn’t afford to keep him in a school for disabled children and believed he wouldn’t cope in a mainstream school.

So, Emmanuel went to live with a friend of his brother’s in Kampala. The friend became Emmanuel’s guardian and provided funding for him to go to school again. However, during the third year of his education in Kampala, his guardian passed away and Emmanuel had to go back to Kizimba village to live with his mother.

Back in the village, his mother was still unable to pay for him to attend school. She said: “Emmanuel has been very lonely at home with no friends since most children in the community attend school.”

For a while, Emmanuel had no choice but to stay at home and help out with domestic chores. But Emmanuel’s chance to go back to school came when the team from Leonard Cheshire’s Inclusive Education project in Amolatar District in Northern Uganda came to his local area. Their aim was to teach the community about disability and reduce the stigma around it, as well as identify children that could be supported by the project.

Emmanuel registered with the project, and soon after was enrolled at Omara Ebek Memorial primary school in Amolatar district. The project also provided support with his school fees and materials. Emmanuel now has teachers who can speak in sign language, so he feels welcome and comfortable to learn. His teachers have described him as a bright boy, one of the best in class!

Not only is Emmanuel making great progress with his education, but he’s also been making lots of friends. He loves playing football with them. His mother says: “Emmanuel is now a happy boy with many friends and is very confident.”

Through the work of the project, Emmanuel’s community now believe that children with disabilities have a future through inclusive education. Emmanuel says he’d also like to become a teacher himself one day so that he can help other children like him.

Small changes, big impacts – the importance of inclusive learning environments

Esther Banda is a primary school teacher at one of schools participating in Leonard Cheshire’s Inclusive Education project in the Eastern Province of Zambia. She took part in inclusive teacher training in May 2019.

Around the time that the inclusive education project was introduced at their school in January 2019, Esther had started teaching Efita, a 10-year-old learner with epilepsy and other developmental impairments. It was Esther’s first time teaching a student with a disability, and it was the first time that Efita had attended mainstream school. At first Esther did not know how to include Efita in the classroom activities. She was sure that Efita would not benefit from her class. Efita, who had never been to school before, showed signs of being afraid and disinterested in school and was constantly isolated from others.

However, after the teacher training, Esther is now better equipped to deliver lessons in an inclusive manner. She is now confident that Efita will be learning well with others. She has started implementing some of the inclusive approaches that she learned, including arranging the classroom into groups so that children learn from each other. She’s also been using different chalk colours to write on the board to help accommodate other learners with visual impairments. Her method of delivering lessons is no longer her original lecture style but is now more learner focused. She allows for more discussion and uses learning aids such as diagrams as a way of simplifying content.

The changes in teaching approach have helped improve Efita’s performance in class. He now mingles with his classmates and has made many friends. At the moment he enjoys basic tracing activities and playing a role in classroom exercises. He also enjoys being clapped by other children when he answers questions correctly in class. As a result, his confidence and interest in school have increased a lot.

These milestones made with Efita have convinced Esther that inclusive education works. She says: “I now know that children with impairments are like other children, they have the right to education and have the ability to learn like other children”.

Over the next 3 years, Leonard Cheshire expects to enrol 750 children with disabilities in five districts in the Eastern Province of Zambia. In the first year, 421 children have been enrolled.

Using technology to create positive learning environments

Pauline Okach is a teacher at Nyasare Primary School in Migori County Kenya. She is one of 75 teachers who have been taking part in a training programme for the Orbit Reader 20, an assistive technology device that helps people with visual impairments read in braille, as well as take braille notes. The programme is part of Leonard Cheshire’s innovation initiative to expand the use of innovative low-cost assistive technology to learners with disabilities living in rural and under resourced areas.

The portable devices are light weight and operate in two main modes. The stand-alone mode has the capabilities of reading, writing and file management for books that have been translated into electronic braille. The remote mode allows the reader to be connected to a computer with a screen reader, with a removable memory card and Bluetooth connectivity. The devices allow children to read and write in braille, with notes that can then be converted back to electronic print for the teacher to read and grade accordingly.

As part of Leonard Cheshire’s Girls’ Education Challenge Transition project, a number of training modules have been developed so that teachers can help their students get the most out of the technology. While the Covid-19 pandemic affected schools around the world, teachers were still able to take part in the Orbit Reader 20 training, ensuring they were ready to support students on their return to school. The training was conducted by Leonard Cheshire staff in partnership with eKitabu, who developed the online training tutorials. The tutorials were then shared via Whatsapp, where the teachers were able to interact with and support each other.

To ensure progress was being made, individual follow up calls were made to the teachers following each tutorial, with ongoing support being provided by the instructors. An end-of-training assessment was also carried out to identify any knowledge gaps and ensure the teachers had access to further support if they needed it.

Pauline works in an integrated mainstream school which accommodates students with and without disabilities. A number of her students have visual impairments, including ten-year-old Marydith. Pauline already had good knowledge of the importance of inclusive education, taking part in training a few years ago in order to learn how best to support students with a range of disabilities and needs. Originally, she said her attitude towards disability was negative, but it is much more positive now she has had access to training. Following the recent Orbit Reader training, Pauline has been supporting Marydith to use the technology in class. With the use of the devices, Marydith has been using the Orbit Reader to learn the letters of the alphabet in braille. She can also use it to type and delete notes, helping her engage in class.

There have been a number of other adjustments made at the school to ensure Marydith is fully included. This includes clear, level pathways to help her move more freely around the school and highlighted doorways and steps with yellow or white paint making them more obvious to assist her. There is also an adapted timetable that ensures Marydith gets the learning support she needs, with extra time during lessons to help her use the Orbit Reader. In addition, she is a member of the school’s child to child club, where she gets to interact with her peers and demonstrate the value of inclusion.

Pauline believes that these universal design measures, as well as the introduction of assistive technology, has helped improve inclusion in the school and changed the attitudes of other students. Before, there was a lot of stigma around disability and other students felt nervous to be around children with visual impairments. Now, they have much more awareness and appreciation for disability. They accommodate Marydith and help her move around the school between classes. This has created a positive atmosphere at the school, reducing bullying and creating a productive learning environment for the students. The Orbit Readers have also greatly improved Marydith’s learning progress. She can now read and write without straining her eyes, allowing her to succeed in class and stay on the same level as her classmates.  

Without assistive devices like the Orbit Readers, children with severe visual impairments would not have the same opportunities for education and may even feel discouraged to attend school. Pauline hopes that more teachers can get access to training on the technology so that even more students can benefit from these and other devices.

The power of data in advocacy

Youth advocate Ian Banda tells us how data can help him make changes in Zambia.

There is so much power in data. Data – like personal stories and facts and figures – is so important in getting a strong message across. In fact, it was central to my role as lead citizen reporter on Leonard Cheshire’s 2030 and Counting project.

The community citizen reporters and I went out and gathered community insights with our phones. We would then submit the content to a central reporting hub. The aim was to find data and stories about the barriers, challenges and opportunities for youth with disabilities in Zambia. Specifically, in relation to health, education and employment. This data is so important in tracking progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). And making sure disabled people are included in this progress too! Because there is no single SDG that covers just disability, but the 17 SDGs can only be achieved if people with disabilities have their rights fulfilled.

I found Rebecca’s story on education during a data collection trip in the local community. I was touched by how much Rebecca valued education. She knew it could improve her life. She has really big dreams for our country and access to education is an important part of that. I feel personal stories are important for advocacy. They show the impact on a personal, individual level. And they show what is transpiring on the ground with regards to disability inclusion. Stories also help provide a clear picture when providing evidence-based advocacy. This is essential if you want to bring about change at a higher level.

After 2030 and Counting I set up Youth in Action for Disability Inclusion of Zambia (YADIZ). We are a youth-led disability inclusion organisation. We promote the inclusion of youth with disabilities in all aspects of life. I know the information available on Leonard Cheshire’s Disability Data Portal will really help us with our work.

The portal gives us access to evidence for our advocacy work. Valuable data on the portal from census' shows that Zambian policies and practices have gaps when it comes to disability. These figures can go a long way in highlighting concerns and irregularities in the way the government implements policy. Especially in areas like education and employment. These gaps need to be filled in order for disability inclusion to be a reality in Zambia. No one should be left behind and we are the best placed to bring that message to governments.

As the portal continues to expand we will also be able to see how we compare with other countries and assess gaps in other areas. From work in the community we know there are issues when it comes to inaccessible sexual reproductive health for people with disabilities. As well as negative attitudes displayed by health personnel. There’s also a lack of information in accessible formats. And despite Zambia having some progressive policies, there is no implementation, monitoring and evaluation framework to really track progress. That was also a recurring issue many people with disabilities experienced across the world. The simple lack of accessible information about Covid-19 put us at a disadvantage. Access to better quality data, like the portal, can help us highlight these issues.

When it comes to advocacy, it’s essential everyone has access to research. That way we can improve public knowledge and awareness of the rights of people with disabilities. Data and stories are two sides of the same coin. By combining the two, we can influence laws and policies so that they are inclusive.

• Find out more about Ian’s fight for equality in Zambia

Universal design at Mcini Primary School

Leonard Cheshire and Cheshire Homes Society in Zambia have been working together to make vital school adaptations at Mcini Primary School in Zambia. Now the school is much more accessible for children with disabilities.

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Ever stopped to wonder why some leaders seem to effortlessly steer their organisations through change while others struggle with the pace of it? Well, leadership is not just about holding positions of authority; it’s about the profound impact one person can have on the lives of many.

In this blog, we aim to uncover the simple yet powerful leadership stories that have shaped the course of history, proving that leadership skills are not confined to grand gestures but often emerge from the small, empathetic moments that define us all. 

Join us as we celebrate these remarkable leadership stories that teach us the true essence of leadership – a journey of empathy, understanding, and positive change.

Definition Of A Great Leader

A great leader is like a guiding light, illuminating the path forward with inspiring and uplifting qualities. It’s not just about having a fancy title; it’s about embodying characteristics that make a positive difference.

According to a study by Harvard Business Review , effective leaders exhibit qualities that extend beyond titles and authority. Integrity, a cornerstone of great leadership, involves staying true to ethical principles even in challenging situations. Resilience, another crucial trait, enables leaders to bounce back from setbacks, fostering a culture of perseverance within their teams.

Decisiveness, a marked characteristic, involves making tough choices with a clear vision. Effective communication, as identified in research by Forbes , is a powerful tool for bringing people together through resonant words.

Collaboration, humility, and adaptability, supported by numerous leadership studies, contribute to a great leader’s strength and enduring impact. Titles may come and go, but the impact of a great leader endures, leaving a legacy that extends far beyond the realms of authority.

Short Leadership Stories

Now, let’s unravel the captivating short stories of leaders who, through their actions, transformed challenges into triumphs. Each story is a testament to the extraordinary impact that leadership skills can have on individuals, communities, and the world at large.

Nelson Mandela

In the leadership history book, Nelson Mandela’ s story is a symbol of resilience and making things right. Lovingly called Madiba, Mandela spent 27 years in prison yet emerged unbroken, holding on to a clear vision for a better South Africa.

While in prison, Mandela secretly studied Afrikaans, the language of his oppressors. He used this skill upon his release to build bridges and foster unity.

Mandela’s leadership was forged in the furnace of adversity. He worked tirelessly to dismantle the oppressive system of apartheid, paving the way for a more inclusive and just nation. From prisoner to President, his journey exemplifies the power of forgiveness and unity in bringing about transformative change.

In the face of deep racial divides, Mandela chose to come together and forgive over revenge. The moral of the story is that his leadership not only freed a nation but also became a global symbol of hope and inspiration.

Nelson Mandela’s story teaches us that real leadership goes beyond personal struggles; it embodies the enduring strength of kindness and the unwavering dream of creating a better world for all.

Malala Yousafzai

Hailing from Pakistan’s Swat Valley, Malala defied the oppressive Taliban regime that sought to silence the voices advocating for girls’ education. Before her activism, Malala wrote a blog under a pseudonym for BBC Urdu, detailing life under the Taliban.

This anonymous defiance laid the foundation for her courageous advocacy.

Malala’s leadership journey began at a young age when, despite grave risks, she openly championed the right of girls to receive an education. Her advocacy led to a tragic attack by the Taliban, resulting in Malala sustaining life-threatening injuries. However, this act of brutality only strengthened her resolve.

Malala continued her mission globally, becoming a global icon for girls’ education. In 2014, she became the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Malala’s story illustrates that leadership knows no age and the pursuit of education can triumph over adversity.

Her courage echoes the sentiment that education is a powerful force for positive change, inspiring countless individuals to stand up for their rights and pursue knowledge despite their challenges.

The tale of Steve Jobs unfolds as a narrative of innovation, perseverance, and the pursuit of excellence. Co-founder of Apple Inc., Jobs revolutionised the technology landscape, leaving a lasting mark on how we live and interact with the world.

Steve Jobs’ leadership was characterised by a relentless commitment to pushing the boundaries of what was possible. His creative genius gave birth to iconic products like the iPhone, iPad, and Macintosh computer, shaping how we communicate and experience technology.

However, Jobs’ journey was not without setbacks. Ousted from Apple in 1985, he faced adversity but returned in 1997 to lead the company to unprecedented success. Jobs’ ability to learn from failure and his unyielding focus on design and user experience set a standard for innovation in the tech industry.

His story illustrates that great leaders embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and that setbacks are not the end but a prelude to future success. Steve Jobs’ legacy endures through Apple’s products and the ethos of pursuing excellence and innovation, a beacon for leaders aspiring to leave a lasting impact on the world.

Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg , the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, is a trailblazer in the corporate realm. Her impact extends beyond her executive role, defining her as a champion for gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Through her influential book “ Lean In ,” Sandberg encouraged women to pursue their professional ambitions boldly. Sandberg’s Lean In Circles, small groups that meet to discuss gender equality, have reached over 40,000 participants globally, reflecting the grassroots impact of her advocacy.

She became a prominent voice, advocating for women to claim their space in leadership and break through gender stereotypes.

In the face of personal tragedy, losing her husband unexpectedly in 2015, Sandberg displayed remarkable resilience. Her openness about grief and determination to move forward resonated with many, highlighting her strength not only as a corporate leader but also as a person navigating life’s challenges.

The moral of the story is that Sheryl Sandberg is a leader who exemplifies leadership that goes beyond the boardroom, emphasising the importance of empowering others and showing vulnerability in the face of adversity. Her journey inspires individuals to challenge societal norms and work towards a more inclusive and equitable future.

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr .’s leadership legacy goes beyond his time, marking a crucial chapter in the fight for civil rights and equality. As a Baptist minister, King played a key role in the American Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s.

King’s leadership was defined by his commitment to nonviolent activism, fighting for racial justice and equality. His famous “ I Have a Dream ” speech, delivered during the March on Washington in 1963, remains a powerful call for a racial discrimination-free society.

Facing challenges and violence, King persisted, leading campaigns against segregation and unfair laws. His efforts resulted in the significant Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, breaking down barriers to racial equality.

Martin Luther King Jr.’s story highlights the transformative power of leadership guided by a vision of justice. His dedication to nonviolence, unwavering pursuit of equality, and ability to inspire collective action leave a lasting legacy, showing us that leadership can create positive change and promote social justice.

As the founder of SpaceX and Tesla, Musk has redefined space exploration and sustainable energy. Musk’s leadership journey began with the founding of Zip2, an online city guide, to showcase his entrepreneurial spirit. Later, he co-founded PayPal, revolutionising online payment systems. However, it was with SpaceX and Tesla that Musk truly left a lasting mark.

Musk’s decision to open Tesla’s electric vehicle patents to the public in 2014 showcased his commitment to sustainable transportation. This move aimed to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles and demonstrated Musk’s dedication to addressing environmental challenges.

Musk’s unyielding commitment to ambitious goals and his hands-on approach have defined his leadership style. Despite scepticism and setbacks, Musk’s tenacity and willingness to take risks have propelled SpaceX and Tesla to immense success.

Elon Musk’s story illustrates that groundbreaking leadership often emerges from a combination of vision, determination, and a relentless pursuit of transformative goals. His impact on space exploration and sustainable technology showcases the potential of leadership to shape the future in ways previously thought impossible.

Angela Merkel

Serving as the Chancellor of Germany for 16 years, Merkel has been a central figure in European politics. Merkel’s leadership style is characterised by pragmatism and a commitment to diplomacy. She was crucial in managing the Eurozone crisis, steering Germany through economic challenges while advocating for European unity.

Her leadership during the refugee crisis of 2015 showcased compassion and a commitment to human rights. Despite facing political opposition, Merkel’s decision to welcome refugees underscored her belief in solidarity and humanitarian values.

As a key player on the global stage, Merkel’s leadership has often been tested, but her ability to navigate crises with resilience and diplomacy has solidified her legacy. Her impact extends beyond Germany, symbolising a steady hand in times of uncertainty and a commitment to values that transcend borders.

Angela Merkel’s story illustrates the significance of measured diplomacy, resilience, and compassionate leadership in addressing complex issues on both national and international fronts.

Abraham Lincoln

Serving as the 16th President of the United States during the Civil War, Lincoln faced the monumental task of preserving the Union and abolishing slavery. Lincoln’s leadership was marked by his unwavering commitment to preserving the United States. During separation and conflict, he emphasised unity and sought to heal the nation’s deep divisions.

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by Lincoln in 1863, declared all slaves in Confederate-held territory to be free. This historic act underscored his dedication to justice and equality, shaping the course of American history.

Tragically, Lincoln’s life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet in 1865, but his leadership legacy endures. He is remembered not only for his role in preserving the Union but also for his profound impact on the nation’s moral conscience.

Abraham Lincoln’s story teaches us that leadership requires both strength and empathy, the ability to navigate crises with determination, and a commitment to principles that transcend the challenges of the time.

Rosa Parks 

Rosa Parks ‘ story is a powerful testament to the impact of a single act of courage in challenging systemic injustice. In 1955, Parks, an African American seamstress, refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white person in Montgomery, Alabama, sparking the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

Parks’ act of civil disobedience became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. The 381-day boycott, led by Martin Luther King Jr., aimed to end racial segregation on public transportation. The Supreme Court eventually ruled in favour of desegregation, marking a pivotal moment in the fight for civil rights.

Rosa Parks’ quiet strength and defiance in the face of injustice resonate as a symbol of the collective struggle against discrimination. Her story illustrates that ordinary individuals, through acts of courage, can ignite movements that challenge deeply ingrained societal norms and pave the way for lasting change.

Rosa Parks’ legacy remains an inspiration for those who continue to advocate for equality and justice.

In conclusion, leadership isn’t just about big titles or fancy jobs. It’s more about having qualities like bouncing back from tough times, understanding others, being brave, and wanting to make things better.

From Mandela’s pursuit of justice and unity to Malala’s advocacy for education, from Steve Jobs’ innovative vision to Angela Merkel’s steady diplomacy, each leader has their own way of leading.

Even in our own lives, big or small, we can see traces of short stories on leadership. The quiet determination of Rosa Parks, the innovative spirit of Elon Musk, and the resilience of Sheryl Sandberg – these short stories resonate because they touch upon universal themes of human endeavour.

By Rishabh Bhandari

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Igniting Potential: Youth Leadership Explored with Inspiring Quotes

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