I have always wanted to be a teacher.
As a child, because i loved the way people listened to teachers. Teachers were important people in my eyes. They seemed in my eyes to know everything about everything. Their opinion about things actually mattered and most of all, they commanded respect. "Mwarimu" they called them.
As a teenager, because i just did not like how most of them did things. How they "coerced" student to learn, to study. I wanted to be a teacher so i could spark a "teaching revolution". One that inspired people to learn.
In my late teens, because a teacher saw in me what i do not think anyone else did. A teacher believed in me and nurtured something in me even i never knew i had. She called me to the office that fateful weekday -remember those lines back in primary school? Just like any other highschool "culprit" i started retracing my steps in my mind. Had i dozed off in her class? Did i miss my cleaning duty again? Who was i rude to this time?
To my utter shock, she handed me a book. She said to me,"For a few weeks i will be away on invigilator duty. Read,analyse and interpret all aspects you identify and teach them to the class." And i did. No consultation, no guide book.
Then it hit me! I wanted to be a teacher that inspired her students to have an opinion and not have anyone tell them,"child, that is not an opinion for you to have." I wanted to be that teacher that inspired her students to not just read a text and pick out stylistics devices and thematic concerns. No! Anyone can do that. I want to inspired them to identify with the writer.
You see, writing is the oldest form of art. It allows one to put in words feelings, attitude,conviction towards a person, an object, political organisation, a dog, Mount Kilimanjaro! To be able to feel what they felt when the dog died, even just an inch, to be able to see from the diction, the stress, the style what this gorgeous damsel did to the writing lad, to be able to climb with them the mountain that is Kilimanjaro, that is what i want to inspire my students be.
An author once wrote:"Writing is an art that allows one to dip their pen into the colourful ink that is their soul and to write out their very nature on paper. Writing allows one to bare his soul."
I want to be a teacher, not so i can teach, but so i can inspire my students to look at words and see a bare soul instead of just alphabets.
As a child, because i loved the way people listened to teachers. Teachers were important people in my eyes. They seemed in my eyes to know everything about everything. Their opinion about things actually mattered and most of all, they commanded respect. "Mwarimu" they called them.
As a teenager, because i just did not like how most of them did things. How they "coerced" student to learn, to study. I wanted to be a teacher so i could spark a "teaching revolution". One that inspired people to learn.
In my late teens, because a teacher saw in me what i do not think anyone else did. A teacher believed in me and nurtured something in me even i never knew i had. She called me to the office that fateful weekday -remember those lines back in primary school? Just like any other highschool "culprit" i started retracing my steps in my mind. Had i dozed off in her class? Did i miss my cleaning duty again? Who was i rude to this time?
To my utter shock, she handed me a book. She said to me,"For a few weeks i will be away on invigilator duty. Read,analyse and interpret all aspects you identify and teach them to the class." And i did. No consultation, no guide book.
Then it hit me! I wanted to be a teacher that inspired her students to have an opinion and not have anyone tell them,"child, that is not an opinion for you to have." I wanted to be that teacher that inspired her students to not just read a text and pick out stylistics devices and thematic concerns. No! Anyone can do that. I want to inspired them to identify with the writer.
You see, writing is the oldest form of art. It allows one to put in words feelings, attitude,conviction towards a person, an object, political organisation, a dog, Mount Kilimanjaro! To be able to feel what they felt when the dog died, even just an inch, to be able to see from the diction, the stress, the style what this gorgeous damsel did to the writing lad, to be able to climb with them the mountain that is Kilimanjaro, that is what i want to inspire my students be.
An author once wrote:"Writing is an art that allows one to dip their pen into the colourful ink that is their soul and to write out their very nature on paper. Writing allows one to bare his soul."
I want to be a teacher, not so i can teach, but so i can inspire my students to look at words and see a bare soul instead of just alphabets.
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