The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Digital Edition > My Day
My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt

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NEW YORK—The important question of whether or not the Suez Canal is to be an international waterway has come before the United Nations Security Council.

This hinges on whether or not Egypt ceded a perpetual right-of-way under a "definitive system of international guarantee." According to the Suez Convention of 1888, these guarantees were designed to keep open the canal to ships of all nations in peace and in war and to make the canal free from blockade or blockage, even in Egypt's own self defense.

Egypt now would like to have the canal become a private waterway in which President Gamal Abdel Nasser would allow only certain ships to pass and which he could block or open for his own political purposes and profit.

The decision to be made in the Security Council is of vital importance, and the world will be watching with a great deal of interest how this question is settled.

In most of our lives there has been a teacher upon whom we look back as having given us recognition, inspiration and the push necessary for us to profit from our educational opportunity. We think of that particular teacher with gratitude and he or she is looked upon as a real friend most of our lives.

Today, May 21, has been proclaimed by Governor Averell Harriman of New York, Mayor Robert F. Wagner of New York City and other officials throughout the state as "Teacher Recognition Day."

Of the many days set aside to remind us of special events, this is one of the most important, I think.

From my point of view, a teacher is far more important than a handsome school building. We in the United States, I believe, sometimes lay too much stress on beautiful school buildings and not enough on compensating our teachers, without whom the buildings would be useless.

Yes, space and light and air are essentials in a place where our children study. But are marble buildings? I don't think so. Taste in decoration is important, as are the lines and proportions of a building.

But we cannot afford to become so engrossed in a building that we forget the human beings who make that building an essential part of the lives of children.

Teachers are so preoccupied with the giving of their knowledge to children for nine months of the year that it is essential for them to earn sufficient salaries to take in new interests and get new inspiration during the remaining three months of the year.

I hope this one day of recognition will bring to many people the realization of the value of teachers to the community and will add to their stature as citizens of the communities in which they serve.

E.R.

(Copyright, 1957, by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)


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About this document

My Day by Eleanor Roosevelt, May 21, 1957

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 1884-1962
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Digital edition created by The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project The George Washington University 312 Academic Building 2100 Foxhall Road, NW Washington, DC 20007

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Digital edition published 2008, 2017 by
The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project

Available under licence from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

Published with permission from the Estate of Anna Eleanor Roosevelt.

MEP edition publlished on June 30, 2008.

TEI-P5 edition published on April 28, 2017.

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Transcription created from a photocopy of a UFS wire copy of a My Day column instance archived at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library.
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