Spent an hour or so just now reading, or, in most cases, re-reading the various cards & messages sent to me for this year's Teachers' Day. It's a tradition in our household, by the way, that Noi gets to read most of them first, usually having some definite things to say. She seems to think that there are a few cards I should show to management so I can claim more money so I have to explain that it doesn't quite work like that. Plus there's an element of kindly exaggeration in it all so one needs to keep a sense of proportion. Mind you, I don't think anyone described my lessons as 'awesome' this year so that's one less misplaced encomium to worry over.
Funnily enough whilst I can cheerfully say I feel something like 95% delight in reading the more than generous messages, I do set aside 5% for a sense of concern - this in the sense of a renewed grasp of just how many distinct individuals one deals with as a teacher and what one owes to each of these in terms of a genuine concern for their uniqueness. Of course, there are lots of cliches to read, though even these have a strikingly honest quality, but there are also lots of distinctly fresh takes on one's qualities as a teacher and how students genuinely feel in lessons. It's just a little overwhelming to recognise how each learner represents a universe of apprehension in himself or herself.
Simply to discover why a student elected to bake a certain kind of biscuit as a gift or how another finds it difficult to speak up in class and needs the cushion of a reasonable space to develop their thoughts is a reminder of why the job is in some ways so easy and in more ways so difficult.
By the way, I felt constrained to include the picture of the big card from my class above since the Missus insisted on both photographing it and then editing the photo to look nice. I'm not sure exactly why she did so, but it's nice to include something visual to recall the pleasures of the day by. (And I have grave doubts I said all the things attributed to me on the card, just in case you're wondering.)
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