Not a good student, yet...

I have been a teacher for the past fifty years. Before that, I was a student, though not a particularly good one. I didn’t shine in exams, nor did I win accolades. I was never preparing to be a teacher. In fact, I never imagined I would become one.

Yet, when I entered the classroom as a teacher, I understood confusion. I recognized hesitation. My teaching did not come from mastery. I tried to make sense of things that didn’t make sense the first time. I remembered what it felt like to be lost. And I did not want my students to feel that way, or fail. Perhaps, I was not a bad student. Perhaps, it makes sense to understand, why one comes to the classroom.

Not that everyone in my class passed with flying colours. But some did. I always believed that everyone has the potential to do well. When I didn’t get good grades, my mother once said, “You are much better than what your grades indicate.” That stayed with me. It worked like a tonic.

Maybe that’s what I passed on to my students: the belief that they were more than their marks.