So today my grade 8 student walked into my classroom and promptly stated:
Her: "Miss, I have decided, you need to get married!!"
Me: "Um, why?"
Her: "Because ALL of our other teachers are married, and calling you miss just confuses my brain"
Me: "Well what if I'm happy being unmarried? Why does this bother you so much?"
Her: "To be quite honest Miss, I just feel sorry for you."
*Pats my arm and walks out shaking her head with a dramatic sigh*
I swear sometimes I wonder what goes on in their minds...
Tuesday, 28 January 2014
Monday, 27 January 2014
"So why DID you become a teacher?"
Something I often get asked by friends and family is WHAT possessed me to go into teaching? If only that was an easy answer. What DOES possess a young, straight A woman, with a bright future and many prospects, to put themselves through day to day of having everything from your clothes to your grammar tested by girls riddled with hormones and insensitivity; girls who are so insecure that they get delight from dragging you down? What really possesses someone to willingly enter in a job where no one will praise you for getting things right; but God help you if you mess up, where a child's future can rest in one tick of the pen, where you reap very little financial reward but are still expected to work overtime with no extra pay, where you are expected to play the roles of educator, nurturer, mediator, mother, friend, role model, drill sergeant, nurse, psychologist; all in one?
And no. It's not because of the holidays.
When you really look at it, teaching does not look very inviting. In fact, the old saying 'If you can't do, teach' has had many so called 'successful' people peering down their noses at those of us who have chosen to go into this profession. Why would someone CHOOSE to go back to high school, they say. It MUST be because they failed at something else.
So what really possessed me?
I didn't have to become a teacher. I matriculated a straight A student, went into drama and English where I flourished receiving top A's and summa cum laude for my degree. On paper I seem very accomplished, yet when people ask what I do, I either get pitying looks or they change the subject. You see, society has seemed to forget that some of us don't need to always be in the spotlight. Some of us prefer staying in the shadows, being the long-forgotten names behind the PHDs, LLBs, Bsci degrees and many more. Because without us, there wouldn't be success.
And THAT is why I do it.
Hiding from the shadows I will watch my girls grow, I will watch them struggle, I will watch them fail and fail and fail again but never give up because I didn't teach them how to quit, I taught them how to fight. I became a teacher because I look forward to the day when my girls will succeed because I had some part in helping them do so. And no, I don't expect them to remember me, or acknowledge any part I had in their success, but I will take pride in the fact that I helped mold the clay that became the young woman they are. And I know that not every child can be helped, not every child can be a success, but that is also their choice, I can only show them the way. Every day I shape the minds of our future generation. I may teach the girl who finds the cure for cancer, or the one that travels to space, or the one who becomes famous.
That is why we do it. We do it for THEIR glory, not our own.
So the next time you look down on a teacher, look back at your own life and remember YOUR teachers who helped you get to where you are. We so often focus on those who try to thwart us, and forget the ones that pulled you up.
It is hard to remember on the rough, thankless days why I do this. We all go through times when we doubt our own choices, wish we had taken another road. But then a student will stop on the way out my classroom and thank me for helping them do that one thing they didn't think they ever could, and I smile, and I carry on.
And no. It's not because of the holidays.
When you really look at it, teaching does not look very inviting. In fact, the old saying 'If you can't do, teach' has had many so called 'successful' people peering down their noses at those of us who have chosen to go into this profession. Why would someone CHOOSE to go back to high school, they say. It MUST be because they failed at something else.
So what really possessed me?
I didn't have to become a teacher. I matriculated a straight A student, went into drama and English where I flourished receiving top A's and summa cum laude for my degree. On paper I seem very accomplished, yet when people ask what I do, I either get pitying looks or they change the subject. You see, society has seemed to forget that some of us don't need to always be in the spotlight. Some of us prefer staying in the shadows, being the long-forgotten names behind the PHDs, LLBs, Bsci degrees and many more. Because without us, there wouldn't be success.
And THAT is why I do it.
Hiding from the shadows I will watch my girls grow, I will watch them struggle, I will watch them fail and fail and fail again but never give up because I didn't teach them how to quit, I taught them how to fight. I became a teacher because I look forward to the day when my girls will succeed because I had some part in helping them do so. And no, I don't expect them to remember me, or acknowledge any part I had in their success, but I will take pride in the fact that I helped mold the clay that became the young woman they are. And I know that not every child can be helped, not every child can be a success, but that is also their choice, I can only show them the way. Every day I shape the minds of our future generation. I may teach the girl who finds the cure for cancer, or the one that travels to space, or the one who becomes famous.
That is why we do it. We do it for THEIR glory, not our own.
So the next time you look down on a teacher, look back at your own life and remember YOUR teachers who helped you get to where you are. We so often focus on those who try to thwart us, and forget the ones that pulled you up.
It is hard to remember on the rough, thankless days why I do this. We all go through times when we doubt our own choices, wish we had taken another road. But then a student will stop on the way out my classroom and thank me for helping them do that one thing they didn't think they ever could, and I smile, and I carry on.
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