This month I’ve learned a very important lesson in teaching. Since last month I’ve been struggling in teaching vocabulary and word problems to my fourth graders. Understanding word problems is really a challenge for my students. They can hardly understand and figure out what the problem is really all about. Each day I began to be impatient until one day I lost control. My words became harsh and intimidating. My words put them down instead of building them up. I didn’t realize it at that moment. I walked out of my class, went inside my house, and I sat on a chair facing the wall. In my frustration I asked God, “Lord what am I going to do?” As I fixed my eyes on the wall of my house, I saw a quotation posted on it to which I’d not paid attention before. The quotation said,
“I’ve come to a frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element in the classroom.
It’s my personal approach that creates the climate.
It’s my daily mood that makes the weather.
As a teacher, I have a tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool or torture or an instrument of inspiration.
I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanized or de-humanized.”
Yes, I’ve learned a lot from the quotation. I felt guilty with my attitude toward my students, and so I asked God to forgive me and give me the courage to go to my students and also ask for forgiveness. That’s the time I realized how great is the responsibility of a teacher. Our actions, words, and even our very looks continue to mold the child for evil or for good! As I thought of the great responsibility of a teacher, I found words of encouragement from Gospel Ministries. It says, “Let us not abandon our responsibility of teaching, simply because it is difficult. If we allow the obstinacy of the youth to defer our effort of instructing our children, they will learn at the feet of folly and destruction.”
Please continue to pray for us that God will help us to remain faithful in the most difficult and demanding tasks we’ll ever have.