My Mother, My First Teacher

Recognised by Nkuzify as Distinguished Teacher of the Year.

Before I ever sat in front of a chalkboard, I had a teacher who also made sure I was fed. My mother, Modesta Nwoye, is a nurse and a midwife, and she is the reason I can read and write at all. This World Teachers' Day, she goes first on my list.

The Word On The Front Of The Book

I was a pupil at Ideal Minds Foundation School in Nkpor, and our house was close to the school, so learning did not stop when the bell rang. At home, my mother took the English textbook and used the word printed on its front cover, "English", as my very first reading lesson. She did not hand me the whole word and wish me luck. She broke it into sounds, piece by piece, and made me say each one until they joined together on their own.

It sounds small when I write it down. It was not small. A child who can read early starts to like books, and a child who likes books starts to want to know things. Everything I do today began with that one word.

The Teachers She Sent Me To

My mother did not stop at reading. She kept finding the next teacher I needed, a bit like a good referral system: whenever there was something she could not teach me herself, she knew exactly which door to knock on.

She introduced me to Mrs Ikwere, the teacher who gave me the maths I still use today. Mrs Ikwere taught at Ideal Minds and later at Regina Pacis School on Awka Road, close to St Charles Special Science, the secondary school I went to afterwards. I have written a whole post about her. During the JS3 break, my mother also enrolled me for computer lessons at Sir Law's Academy in Nkpor. And she took me to a physics teacher at St Anthony of Padua Parish in Nkpor, who taught me science.

From One Word To Nkuzify

Today I teach maths, I write code, and I run Nkuzify, a whole website about teaching. The name comes from "nkuzi", the Igbo word for teaching, with "fy" added at the end. I also built a typing game for children called Tekoon, and its story is on the blog too.

None of that happens if I cannot read and write at an early age. I might never have fallen for education at all.

A Nurse Who Never Stopped Learning

My mother did not go to a university, but she went through college after college and graduated at the tertiary level. She has worked in hospitals as a nurse and a midwife, and she has never been far from learning.

Thank you, Mom. Happy Teachers' Day. If your own first teacher is still around, you can make them a free card in a minute. My father and my brother taught me too, and I have written about my father and my brother Benjamin as well.