A Teacher meets Angels

What a day!

Saturdays are usually hectic for me as I teach 4 classes of students for 8 hours straight. The 1 hour break that I have, usually lasts for twenty minutes as I hurry back to class to listen to the stories of my excited students who come to class an hour earlier.

Many times, I marvel at how I mange to get through the day because I don’t think I’m physically strong or a loud person by nature. I get tired of talking quickly and always need my silent time quite intermittently when I find my surroundings to be noisy. I’m a Highly Sensitive Person and this makes it difficult to keep my calm when tensions pick up.

Today, I was moved by 4 specific moments which make me feel that teaching is incredibly worthwhile, despite the piles of marking that come thereafter the lessons.

1. A student whom I had just seen for the second time in my class, tell me, “I wish…you were my mother! I want to be your daughter.”

  • This was appalling to me because it is very rare for a fair skinned child to outrightly make a request to a darker skinned person as such- at least in my surroundings. I usually shrug it off when people crack jokes about my skin colour that do offend me.
  •  To  rejoice in how this kid was able to express herself so purely, was amazing. Besides, I am impressed with her creativity and intelligence. I’m delighted to be able to teach her.

Student: Are you married?

Me: No…

Student: That’s good! (smiles in delight and looks at me with eyes filled with affection)

2.  A student declares that he wants be my personal assistant forever and outside of class if he could. 

  • How adorable this was- I cannot properly explain. I had to ask him to clarify what he was saying because I thought I had heard it wrongly.
  • He came up with this idea because he knew I was going to sit beside him and guide him with his work. He really needed that help, and appreciated it.

Student: I’m your personal assistant because we sit beside one another. You’ll be beside me to help me with my work just like last week, right?

Me: Yes, of course 🙂

3. To have a pair of twins always arrive an hour earlier for class and run up to me with stories- even if that hour is the only hour of break I have for the day.

  • They fill their journal pages with stories about their life for me to read, and make sure I read them before class.
  • Their drawings feature tutorials for me and reinforce every week, how thankful they are to have me as their teacher. They tell me repeatedly how much they love me and we revise vocabulary together in an enjoyable way.

4. To have a compassionate manager who understands me, stands up for me, believes in me and cries with me. 

 

Oh Lord, I’m fortunate indeed. Yes, I am.

 

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20 thoughts on “A Teacher meets Angels”

  1. Fortunate? Yes,- and probably a very good teacher because you’ve seeme to have found ‘the key’?
    The key to communication as well as teachings. That’s a powerful instrument that may make or break people around you!
    Watch your step! Competition isn’t always as welcome as it ought to be! Envy lurking in the shaddows if you get my drift . . ?

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    1. You just made my day! Thank you for your comments and encouragement. I’ve just been feeling so low today, wondering if I’m being responsible enough as a daughter or if I could do more than freelance teaching and writing.
      I was wondering if I’m really being helpful. Thank you. I needed this light! 🙂

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      1. You’re welcome! Being a teacher is an interesting – but also a very difficult job!
        Not only do you need to be proficient in what you do. You also have to be able to present your teachings in a way thet makes it exiting, intrigueing to students always remembering their age. If you succeed on that point, you can probably get away with most anything! 🙂 And it hasn’t got at thing to do with the color of your skin!!! But be careful not to get in between a child and its parents.
        (That may turn out to be a future mine field !)
        Have you really deleted your file? That would be a mistake. Just think of all the experience and potential advices you may tap into ‘out there’?

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      3. Never! I probably haven’t got the patience needed 🙂 , but – I have been a student for years and years and I have experienced the damage inferior teachers might do and also the opposite kind that (as you) had unlocked the road to a positive learning curve. And there is one hell of a difference!
        When a teacher graduates from the University, it’s not enough that he/she posess the basic understanding of what they are about to teach. They also ought to understand how to do it; how to interest the future students in that particular field or it will all be for nothing! And the key is to ensure that all understand enough to spike an interest in the very first beginning! They must be able to aqquire som sort of understanding from the very first day; something that tells them that this is NOT a hopless task! A little secret that anybody would understand . . .?

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      4. Thank you for taking the time to type that out! Yes, indeed! They need to believe that the task is not difficult but achievable. It’s so important to respect every student:) Sometimes, it’s just one teacher and one phrase a teacher says to a student that will motivate him or her for life. I want to be able to be that light when students feel downcast, gloomy or feel like they want to give up- especially in this world focused on competition and silly material things.

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      7. Not at all! It’s all ballooney! 🙂
        But some people enroute have more empathy and compassion than others.
        If you meet such a person, grab hold and don’t ever let go! 🙂

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      8. I wish I could feel that it’s all ballooney! Unfortunately, I’ve witnessed and encountered certain incidents that will never allow me to feel that way. Ah well, lucky you! Haha.
        Yes indeed..do grab hold to those with empathy and compassion:) 🙂 🙂

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      9. If there were such as an allmighty and rightous somewhere, we should not be seeing our world like today!
        And tsunamis shouldn’t take the lives of 300 000 women and children who has done nothing wrong but been born?!
        I don’t need a God like that. Neither should anybody else.
        You are , of course, entitled to believe what you want and live your one life accordingly, but so am I, And I don’t need any form of religion to guide me through life! I know what’s right and wrong and have compassion for my fellow beings on Earth, religious ‘leaders exempted’! 🙂
        After 80 years on this planet, that is my true belief!

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      10. I meant a spiritual world.. not God:)
        Like spirits..etc.
        I absolutely understand where you’re coming from:) !!!

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      11. I’m afraid I don’t see the difference? 🙂
        That’s how far out I am!
        Spiritual? You mean ‘connecting with the other side’, star constallations and all that crap? No, I don’t believe any of that either! Astronomy, yes, (that may be documented) Astrology? No way! 🙂

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      12. Evil spirits..demons..ghosts..whatever you call them but forces of darkness. I meant of their existence. Witchcraft that is so prevalent in Asia.

        If I feel that they are real.. then I cannot help but wonder about another force that opposes it.

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      13. Aw! I see! No, I don’t believe in those things either! And it makes things very much easier on a daily basis!
        That said, I think the human mind is a rather murky place with billions of rooms containg lusts, secrets, wishes, dreams, fears, goals and whatever . . .
        Fortunately we all have the will to decide which ‘doors’ to open or shut, kept ajar or permanently closed.
        Doors may be opened at your own risk and/or – responsibility!
        We have all been given one life! And it’s our responsibility to live it wisely! (Without the interference of Gods, demons or unspeakable fears lurking in the dark. And if you’re strong – convince yourself that they are non-existant! You are your own master! Listen to no one else! Whatever you do, you yourself well face the consequences! Your decision – your responsibility. As simple as that!

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