As a teacher, you remember a lot of the children who have come and gone, but there are always those few special kids who remind you exactly why you entered the profession in the first place. One of those special kids is named Eric, and it was the moment I looked into his grateful eyes that I knew I wanted to be a teacher.
When I was a teenager I volunteered at a local elementary school; I did a little bit of everything, but I was primarily a Computer Lab aide, assisting and facilitating the learning and development of well over 100 students in every grade level. While learning reading comprehension, I noticed that one of the boys, Eric, was losing interest and getting frustrated. I walked over to him to ask him if he needed any assistance, and he said “I just don’t get it.” He explained to me that none of the words or sentences on the screen made sense to him and that he didn’t know how to answer the questions on the practice test.
When I looked at him, it was like looking in a mirror. I saw myself. I was always a voracious reader and writer as a child, but it was mathematics that I struggled with, and learned to hate because of that struggle; numbers on a page made (and often still make) me feel stupid. All I could think of when I was listening to Eric explain his frustration to me was how I didn’t want him to end up like me. The thought of him growing up to hate reading simply because it was difficult broke my heart, because not only is reading essential to a successful life, but I believe reading to be essential to every child who ever wants to escape their reality for even a minute as they pick up a book and explore a new literary world where anything is possible. So I knelt down next to him and his computer, and helped him sound out words and talked him through sentences until they made sense to him; until I saw the hypothetical light bulb flicker on over his head and he finally grasped the concepts he had been staring at for hours.
As I was sitting back at my desk, I heard students talking so I looked up only to see that Eric was teaching the child next to him the things I had just taught him, and he smiled to me with a confidence that I am certain left that classroom with him. I don’t know if Eric remembers me, or that day, but I certainly will never forget him. Because that was the moment I fell in love with education.
“Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” –Proverbs 22:6
I remember so many kids you talked about. I remember the little girl named Taylor. The kids adore you, too. Something that tells me teaching is your calling, is because you have patience with the kids, when normally you would not have patience.
ReplyDeleteOh, and you make me cry. In a good way, though.