To the teachers who believed in us…

This is a toast to the teachers who believed in us. I constantly think of my teachers as I blow candles and wade through life. Memories abound. I often reminisce the good ole days when I’d go to school Monday to Friday, sometimes Saturdays; times, when I’ll have to read my heart out, and deal with the anxiety of exams, and the desire not to fail any.

It’s also time when I remember the teachers that poured into me, and some who continue to. I appreciate them lots, and by the way, I’m a personal advocate for more pay for teachers at nursery/kindergarten levels compared to those at higher levels. If you ask me why, I’ll take you to one of those kindergarten schools in my city of residence. I don’t know how it obtains elsewhere, but these teachers, often women, are at the same time teachers, mothers, nannies, cleaners, jesters, and they comfortably wear every single hat that every single child has need of at a given time. And mind you, some, looking at where I come from, get a monthly pay of the paltry sum of 25,000 FCFA (approximately 35$ or 38 Euros) .

It’s World Teacher’s Day 2023. The 2023 theme is “The teachers we need for the education we want: The global imperative to reverse the teacher shortage“. Today’s not about their pay, but about their service. Times become harder as years wind by. Many I know have embraced the teaching profession not as a calling, but as a means to earn their bread. It’s more a matter of the hands than of the heart. I’ve no key issue with that. Afterall, we all thresh the grain to have some bread, right?

However, yesterday, I got talking with one of my mamas. And I asked her “what’s the best memory you have of any of your teachers?”. She searched, and the first that popped up was the best – on the negative end.

“One of my teachers once saw me hit another pupil. The next day, she publicly shamed me. She didn’t even ask what had happened. Sure, I had some fault in it, but that was not all to the story. It didn’t end there. She developed some particular hatred for me. Sometimes, when she sees me passing, since we lived around the same neighbourhood, she’d throw water on me, prompting me to cross the road. I was in class 4 about, less than 10, but I still remember that clearly”.

As my mama shared this experience that happened some 30+ years ago, I could only imagine how hurtful such bullying was, from the part of a teacher.

And then I continued my quizzing. “Besides that teacher, isn’t there any other?”

And there came this epic one, which seemed like the flipside of the first experience she’d shared … her principal. This principal seemed to right all the wrongs of her previous experience.

“I’d been wrongly dismissed for misconduct in Uppersixth (high school), and it was way into the school year. I had to get into a new school and the principal called me in and said, “if I take your file to the committee, they won’t accept you”.

My mama responded “I am not a bad child. What was said was not true and they didn’t want to hear me out; they concluded I was rebellious. If you can trust me, I will not disappoint you”.

He trusted her. He looked at her and said “I don’t know why, but I will give you a chance. Do not disappoint me”.

And that was all my mama needed. The trust; someone who believes her, and who believes in her. And he added another ingredient – encouragement. And yet another ingredient – Follow-up.

My mama shares that “I started working hard so I don’t disappoint him, and if I thought of going astray, I would remember him and realign. He will come to school and check on me. I was away from my parents, and sometimes when I felt overwhelmed or down, he would encourage me”.

“He really helped me, and because of him and the trust, I made it. When I passed my exam, he called my tutor to share the news, and he was very happy for me. I can’t recall his name, he was aged; he might be dead now, but he struck me, he believed in me, pushed me, encouraged me, and today, I am partly what I am because he believed in me”.

And he said to my mama “I did well to trust you”. My mama spoke of him with so much delight and pride.

He contributed to what she is today. He poured into her. He taught, nurtured and believed in her. These ingredients are what this generation of learners, like every other, desperately has need of.

We’re wont of teachers who see learners as a means to their pay check, because this would mean easy offense at the slightest hitch in the learning process. We need teachers who invest of themselves in us, encourage, nurture and walk alongside their students in the learning process. We  need you, dearest teacher, to hang on, not give up on us, even when we’re at our worst. In fact, at such times, we need you the most.

Like my mama’s principal, we need you to believe in us!

Cheers to the teachers who despite the odds, believed in us. Thanks to you, we are what we are today!

(c) Image – Dream Foundation