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In 1944, an Arkansas teacher, Mrs. Mattye Whyte Woodridge, corresponded with political and educational leaders for a national day honoring teachers. She also wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt, who persuaded the 81st Congress to proclaim a National Teacher Day in 1953.
In the late 1970s, the National Education Association (NEA), its Indiana and Kansas state affiliates, and its local affiliate in Dodge City, Kansas, lobbied Congress for the creation of a national day celebrating teachers. Congress declared March 7, 1980 as National Teacher's Day. But it was declared as National Teacher's Day for that year only.
NEA and its affiliates continued to observe Teacher Day on the first Tuesday in March until 1985, when NEA and the National PTA established Teacher Appreciation Week as the first full week of May. The NEA Representative Assembly then voted to make the Tuesday of that week National Teacher's Day. Since then, National Teacher's Day is celebrated on the Tuesday of the first full week of May.
This is all about the National Teachers' Day origin.
