Ever since I have taken the path towards being an educator, the oath of writing an essay a day and the willingness to teach English, I have been criticised. People question my motives. People wonder why I sacrifice so much time. Some people wonder why I even bother, especially considering that it is English that I adore.
Today, I have answered all of those questions in one simple gesture: the act of kindness and understanding. Today, I have liberated myself from self-labelling as a 'future educator'. Today, despite needing one more year of essay writing and group work, I have granted myself the label 'educator'.
Today, I witnessed yet another student who has fallen into the cracks of our education system, and that student is one of a Chinese descent. Chan* has been in Australia for around two months now. She is not at all fluent in English, and she had always been sitting around doing nothing when I taught her class. Two lessons ago, I found out about her origins and took her onto my wing. Ever since I found out, I have been describing instructions to her in a simplistic manner so as to ensure her understanding.
There was something special about today, though. Having set homework tasks based on Romeo and Juliet in the last class, I had not expected Fiona to even comprehend any of the task choices. I was proven wrong. Upon asking the students as a whole in today's class if anyone had completed their homework, not one person had responded. They all either looked down, looked up or looked sideways. "Well," I said, "that's very interesting because Chan, who knows hardly any words in English, managed to write an alternate ending for Romeo and Juliet with the help of a translator." the entire class was dumbfounded.
Having volunteered to help Chan fix up her internet account in the IT department, whilst waiting for the IT people to return to their workstations, I stood with Chan in the hallway and spoke to her about her life in China compared to life in Australia. "I have so many options here," she told me. "In China we have boring subjects. We don't have cooking classes even." It occurred to me that we take our education system for granted here. We indeed do have many options. After that brief discussion, Chan said, "homework?" and proceeded to open up her English folder. She pulled out a tidy sheet with handwriting on it, which was the alternate ending to Romeo and Juliet.
I asked if she could read it to me just so that I could check whether or not she had written it, at least f she could read it out she would have some sort of understanding of it. And she did. She even laughed at all of the funny parts, marvelling at how humorous her writing was. She was glowing. I asked her if she wanted to read it to the rest of the class when before we finished from the IT department. She looked down, and said "maybe they laugh. Maybe they make me embarrassed." I told her "if anything, they should feel embarrassed that you can write something in another language!"
She did not end up reading it. But I did guilt trip the rest of the students by mentioning her completion of a task. And in the entire delivery of my lesson, she was smiling. She was fully attentive, trying everything that I asked of the class. All it takes is consideration. I imagined myself in another country, that speaks a language foreign to me and I cringed. Chan is so brave. It is not fair for those who are not familiar with English to be left behind. English is an important means of communication, and students born here that are fluent in it should grant themselves lucky, because out there, there are students who have no idea about what is going on, and they are looking for somebody, anybody, to assist them in learning.
It just takes that extra effort. Not at all strenuous, and all the while extremely rewarding. For the rest of my stay at my placement school, I will continue to ensure that Chan is receiving every bit of help that I can offer because she is one of the students who has a care for what I have to say - why would I not want to hear what she has to say as well?
*name changed to protect privacy of the student
Showing posts with label power. Show all posts
Showing posts with label power. Show all posts
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
The Price of Life
Sometimes I find myself feeling quite jealous of the wealth of others, particularly those fortunate with fame and popularity. I become jealous of lawyers, doctors, programmers, designers and anyone else who can apparently effortlessly obtain a significant amount of money than I.
Considering my future as a teacher, I also become hesitant on journeying on through that path because of the supposed low pay. In contrast to a lawyer, yes, teachers do get paid less. On a $60,000 annual income, it would take me one hundred and fifty years to make what top lawyers make in twenty-two years - do not even get me started on rappers who curse and cuss and diss and hate and make fools of themselves, or Disney princesses gone wrong sitting nude on wrecking balls and sticking their tongues out so much so it scares the living daylight out of every person who once had fantasised about them - so much so that ice-cream fears for its life when it is called upon by this person.
But the price of life is also important. So many people would give all of their money and more just to live another day, just to remain youthful, just to remain on this planet. Life, I have figured, is much more valuable than any amount of money earned. Sure, life can be made significantly pleasurable with more money but it cannot be made richer in essence. This is probably the basis as to why teachers continue teaching. When they claim that their jobs are 'rewarding' they are not speaking in terms of finances, rather speaking in terms of the joy that comes to them when they see the look of familiarisation and realisation and thankfulness in their students' faces. They can spend days, months, years with the absence of a high amount of money yet they are left with a high amount of joy.
When I become jealous, which happens but on rare occasions especially on those where I find amazing super-cars or muscle cars or any other thing financially unattainable and crave them, I then remind myself that the simple things necessary in life count the most, and everything else is a bonus. I tell myself that so long as I obtain a rewarding job, purchase a reliable car, and find myself the most perfect partner who loves me as divinely as I will love them, then I have the basis of what I want in my life. And when the time comes that I and my spouse have a steady enough income, children will fall into the picture. And when our children are living comfortably and getting their education they deserve, I will see to it that I help out charities which care for children unnoticed.
I do not value the objects I desire as much as the things I need. I am content with what I have, and I am grateful. This is beginning to sound like a Thanksgiving speech, I know. But what I am trying to say is that living a happy life is possible without large financial endeavours. I am grateful that I am here, wherever that is. I am grateful that I am healthy despite my weight issue. I am grateful that I have the amount of money necessary for my daily survival, and that my family is also healthy and content also. I am grateful for the relationship I have with my mother, father and sister, and for the peaceful situation I am in. I am grateful for my education, for my academic striving, for the impact I have already left on a cohort of younger people, for the impact those younger people have left on me and for many other things that I turn a blind eye to during my moments of jealousy.
One does not need the economical prowess that is money in order for their lives to be fulfilled. They simply need things that money cannot buy, such as love, honour, and kindness. This post may sound like something Buddha would have written had he had his own blog, yet I hope it inspires you, dear reader. Be all that you can become without resorting to being jealous of others.
Considering my future as a teacher, I also become hesitant on journeying on through that path because of the supposed low pay. In contrast to a lawyer, yes, teachers do get paid less. On a $60,000 annual income, it would take me one hundred and fifty years to make what top lawyers make in twenty-two years - do not even get me started on rappers who curse and cuss and diss and hate and make fools of themselves, or Disney princesses gone wrong sitting nude on wrecking balls and sticking their tongues out so much so it scares the living daylight out of every person who once had fantasised about them - so much so that ice-cream fears for its life when it is called upon by this person.
But the price of life is also important. So many people would give all of their money and more just to live another day, just to remain youthful, just to remain on this planet. Life, I have figured, is much more valuable than any amount of money earned. Sure, life can be made significantly pleasurable with more money but it cannot be made richer in essence. This is probably the basis as to why teachers continue teaching. When they claim that their jobs are 'rewarding' they are not speaking in terms of finances, rather speaking in terms of the joy that comes to them when they see the look of familiarisation and realisation and thankfulness in their students' faces. They can spend days, months, years with the absence of a high amount of money yet they are left with a high amount of joy.
When I become jealous, which happens but on rare occasions especially on those where I find amazing super-cars or muscle cars or any other thing financially unattainable and crave them, I then remind myself that the simple things necessary in life count the most, and everything else is a bonus. I tell myself that so long as I obtain a rewarding job, purchase a reliable car, and find myself the most perfect partner who loves me as divinely as I will love them, then I have the basis of what I want in my life. And when the time comes that I and my spouse have a steady enough income, children will fall into the picture. And when our children are living comfortably and getting their education they deserve, I will see to it that I help out charities which care for children unnoticed.
I do not value the objects I desire as much as the things I need. I am content with what I have, and I am grateful. This is beginning to sound like a Thanksgiving speech, I know. But what I am trying to say is that living a happy life is possible without large financial endeavours. I am grateful that I am here, wherever that is. I am grateful that I am healthy despite my weight issue. I am grateful that I have the amount of money necessary for my daily survival, and that my family is also healthy and content also. I am grateful for the relationship I have with my mother, father and sister, and for the peaceful situation I am in. I am grateful for my education, for my academic striving, for the impact I have already left on a cohort of younger people, for the impact those younger people have left on me and for many other things that I turn a blind eye to during my moments of jealousy.
One does not need the economical prowess that is money in order for their lives to be fulfilled. They simply need things that money cannot buy, such as love, honour, and kindness. This post may sound like something Buddha would have written had he had his own blog, yet I hope it inspires you, dear reader. Be all that you can become without resorting to being jealous of others.
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