I am an educator. I love my job. I’m helping the young generation to achieve their dreams and contribute a lot to my country. The usual sentences that go with the word educator. But now I’m saddened.
I just finished a typical lesson with my students. After giving them the routine homework, I dismissed them. Many of them poured out of the class, leaving a few students that decided to linger for a while and engaged themselves in something shown on a laptop brought to my class for no apparent reason. On the other hand, I suddenly faced a whiteboard filled with my own writings. I didn’t even realize I had written so much. According to one senior colleague, a good educator must never leave a class without clearing the board.
With a big sigh, I started to rub off the whiteboard. While I was on it, a thought struck me. Here I am in a class after yelling my voice off teaching and left to rub off two big whiteboards. Behind me, there is a bunch of students minding their own business, not paying any attention to me as if I was never there in the first place. Deep down in my heart I have this nagging feeling- won’t anybody help? Needless to say, nobody offered any help. I just refilled the ‘markers’ before the class started, making it more difficult to rub off. I finished with aching and blackened hands.
I remembered back then. When I proudly offered to dirty my hands. When I was so thankful I was given a chance to learn. When I went into classes expecting to learn. When I respected the person facing me, yelling to be heard. When I didn’t have a hand phone to use in class. When I didn’t have to decide whether to listen to MP3 player or the lesson. When I can skip my breakfast in order not to be late. When I knew my morning class is more important than my favourite telecast tonight. When homework meant deeper understanding. When overslept is not an option for excuse. When I was afraid to offend for fear of not ‘grasping’ the knowledge. Back then, when I appreciated God’s gift to me. Back then.
I just finished a typical lesson with my students. After giving them the routine homework, I dismissed them. Many of them poured out of the class, leaving a few students that decided to linger for a while and engaged themselves in something shown on a laptop brought to my class for no apparent reason. On the other hand, I suddenly faced a whiteboard filled with my own writings. I didn’t even realize I had written so much. According to one senior colleague, a good educator must never leave a class without clearing the board.
With a big sigh, I started to rub off the whiteboard. While I was on it, a thought struck me. Here I am in a class after yelling my voice off teaching and left to rub off two big whiteboards. Behind me, there is a bunch of students minding their own business, not paying any attention to me as if I was never there in the first place. Deep down in my heart I have this nagging feeling- won’t anybody help? Needless to say, nobody offered any help. I just refilled the ‘markers’ before the class started, making it more difficult to rub off. I finished with aching and blackened hands.
I remembered back then. When I proudly offered to dirty my hands. When I was so thankful I was given a chance to learn. When I went into classes expecting to learn. When I respected the person facing me, yelling to be heard. When I didn’t have a hand phone to use in class. When I didn’t have to decide whether to listen to MP3 player or the lesson. When I can skip my breakfast in order not to be late. When I knew my morning class is more important than my favourite telecast tonight. When homework meant deeper understanding. When overslept is not an option for excuse. When I was afraid to offend for fear of not ‘grasping’ the knowledge. Back then, when I appreciated God’s gift to me. Back then.
11 comments:
hei there.
ur current post really is close to my heart.
b4 dis i didnt hv d experience but when i m working here (u knw where i m),ur situation is just like mine.perhaps,it's worst here.
listening to mp3's,chit-chatting with the others,etc,...
but then again,there are some of them who wants to learn.
i always remind myself to take it easy.
at least i'm contributing sumthing 2 d world eventhough it's nt much.
to hell with those who doesnt want to learn,but for those who wants to learn, they are always welcome in my book.
mind u,dat situation is rare here.
i do agree with u sis! sometimes, its hard to realize that our students don't actually do what we used to do during our uni days.. that's the main cause that led to my emotional crying in class few weeks before.. so sad..we always try as much as we can to educate them but..hurm..
ain ain....definately it is not our loss..its theirs...nowadays the subject matter is not their IQ,its their EQ,their attitutes tat counts...which is lacking...
lucky me,i never came across tat situation back then when i was wearing ur shoes...
life is too serious to take it seriously.
oh ain... ur such a good educator...
wish u were my teacher
miss u. bile u dtg shah alam lagi, we meet up k? hotel lagi ke bile2 k?
xoxoxoxo
miss d old times wen i felt like slapping ma students.hehe.dats part n parcel of teachin i guess la ain.dun be bothered 2 much of those kiddo..update la blog ni.borink la.klu ade blog mst la slalu update..
Ain! I tak tau u ada blog....=p
Back then....3 weeks ago, i did something to my students. I proudly made them cry.
U know wat? Dis kids they don't appreciate what they have and they don't respects lecturers like we did.
These forced me to use my standard 'template' specially to make them cry.
Some kind of Pedoman Hidup thingy...
We'll i'll tell u all about it wen we meet again.
it never occured to me that the littlest thing like that can trigger something that is so emotionally awakening. i know you love your job ain, unlike me..and i know that you are good at it. teaching is a noble job. its suits you.me? i'm not noble=)
Thanks for the comments peeps.. maybe i was a bit emotional at theat time. the entry was actually a cumulation of past observations. i guess the young nowadays dont have the values that we had back then. i just wish it wouldnt become worse. yes cat. one of the most difficult thing to do is actually to teach values to students. very much i guess with that pedoman hidup kinda thing..
students are just asses with no brain
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