Teaching is not a glamorous job. It's not one of those that commands respect. People don't go "Wow! You're a teacher! I've always wanted to be one" You'll be lucky if you get "That is awesome" or "That's amazing!".
I can't blame them. Too often we hear of those who have failed to uphold the responsibility of educating the future generation. Those who are in the profession merely to feed their own bellies and so they have something to do to earn themselves a living. People who have ignored the need for consideration of why they are the right people to be in charge of a classroom full of potentially great minds.
This week was unexpected. In an adolescent group, your greatest fear is the amount of anger they have. There are weeks I could just walk out of the room, drive myself in reverse back home, curl up in bed and cry myself to sleep.
This week was different. They came in ready, forks and knives held up with empty plates ready for whatever meal I was to serve. That was when I decided to give them raw ingredients.
"But it's your job to tell us everything!" they complained.
No children, that is not my job. My responsibility is to awaken your young minds and get you out of the room asking more questions, and roam the next few days finding the answers until I next see you. It matters not whether you really do find the answers, for if you found something else along the way, then that is for you to keep; or for you to come back to class with more questions to ask or stories to tell.
In the midst of the controlled chaos I had created of them trying to figure out the puzzle I had put on the board, I heard an odd out-of-place sound. It was a little voice going "la la la". And it came from the girl's end.
Mind you, my class is the pre-adolescent age where they would sit next to a boy for fear of...I don't know..but they're in the 'eww boys, eww girls stage'. Four weeks ago they refused to say each other's names, what more to speak to each other. I am happy that they are now willing to shout across the room for the other person to repeat what he/she said so they could share ideas.
So this sudden "la la la" came from a particularly mousy girl who has only so far responded in quick covering of her face and shy giggles. Yet there she was, la-la-la-ing to her friends.
Why? They were trying to figure out what a phrasal verb I had written on the board had meant, and in her attempt to explain it to her friend, it somehow required her to go la la la..bless your soul, child.
Ah yes, one to fill our pocket, one to feed your soul, one to jog your mind, and one to keep you healthy...
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