Un-teach Me

The hardest lesson I learned from being a teacher is… to un-teach myself.

Life is a teaching-learning process and the world is your classroom. And being an educator is not just a profession (I wish it were)… it is a lifetime commitment. The compensation is not much but huge in other “fringe” benefits.

I become a teacher, accidentally. I have other plans in my life [something grand] but my calling was in this field (or so I thought.) I was never good with kids but the kids are good to me… so we compromised. I love to talk and they taught me to listen. It has some drawbacks but I was always compensated by the non-materials things. At the end of the day, I was tired but appreciated.

During my first year of teaching, when my idealism was still high… I outdone myself in all aspect of my personal life orientation. My creativity amazed me to no end. I was so much inspired and tireless. And for the first time in my adult life, I love what I was doing.

Students come and go. As a teacher, it was not in our job description to invest in personal relationship with our students.

For sometime, I thought getting their trust and respect is worth the investment. It makes it easier to teach them and make them do what you tell them. That way, your work is done quick. No re-teaching classes… less work… more rest.

For awhile, I guessed it was not a bad idea at all. If you were nice to your students, you are sure that they are not making fun of you when you are not around.

For a moment, I learned that they are also capable of graduating from being a student to being a friend. But this has consequences that one has to dealt with. I learned that too late.

Being a teacher never prepared me for success – my students’, that is. Success for me was no big deal. I can’t even claim that I am successful because people’s idea of success is varied and always changing. But one thing is sure… success changes a person.

Just like any other profession, there are some downsides in being a teacher. The investment you put in your personal relationship with your students are hard lessons to learn… to un-learn them is not an option.