A Teacher's View

My eyes welled up with tears as I watched another group of students as they prepared for graduation. I saw laughing and hugging, emotions soaring through the musty classroom. I quickly wiped my eyes, not wanting the pupils to see the toughest teacher in the school crying.

‘Well, how are the preparations going?’ I spoke above the buzz of thirty chatting teenagers.

‘Fine, Miss,’ they answered automatically, already returning to their work.

It struck me how much this group had changed from the beginning of the semester. In September, if I had set a project for them to do, I would have been bombarded with questions—‘Miss, how do you do this?’; ‘Miss, we need some help!’; ‘I don’t know what to do next, Miss!’ But here they were, only nine months later, taking on a big task –graduation preparations—with only minimal queries and problems.

When I had come to this school five years ago, rather reluctantly, I thought I would be met with cheeky and troublesome thugs. It was a dangerous and problematic school in a tough neighbourhood. Drugs, violence and teen pregnancies were common issues in the school. Contrary to my premonitions, I was greeted by groups of broken and wounded teenagers, waiting for someone to reach out to them. And year after year I was stunned at how caring these ‘hooligans’ really were.
It always amazed me how every class I taught seemed to affect me so deeply. Throughout the year I had become almost friendly with this group. I knew so much about them, and it never ceased to astound me how much students could grow into such wonderful and caring people.

I was pulled away from my thoughts as one of the students, Claire, approached my desk. ‘Miss,’ she said shyly, ‘we wanted to make you something, to thank you for all you’ve done for us’. I looked at Claire, and then around the class, who had all become silent. Claire held out a card. Wordlessly I took it and opened it.

‘We weren’t sure what to put in it’, explained Claire, ‘so we decided to fill it with all of the inspirational things you’ve said to us each year. Maybe you didn’t even realise you were saying them, but your words really had an affect on us, and we wanted remind you of what a great teacher, and person, you are’.
I looked at the card. ‘Fly as high as you can’, it read, ‘and don’t stop until you reach the stars’.

I had a vague recollection of saying this to my class when I was talking to them about career choices.

The next quote said, ‘See the world for what it is, a beautiful globe of opportunity and wonder, not just a background for your life’.

I smiled through my tears as I read the rest of the quotes.

‘Be everything you can be, nothing less, nothing more, and you will shine brighter than any star’.

‘Don’t worry about what is to come next, just have faith in the fact that life will guide you to where you’re supposed to go, and everything will be okay’.

Relentless emotion engulfed my body as I looked at the smiling faces before me. One group of seventeen-year-olds with whom I had sometimes been so angry with I’d wanted to scream, were now the people that I couldn’t have loved more if I’d tried.

I turned to Claire. She was one of the students who had really touched me over the year. Now she before me, six months pregnant, but graduating in less than a week. Silently, we embraced in a tight hug, both of us with tears running down our faces. The rest of the students looked on fondly, then, smiling broadly, returned to the graduation preparations. I hugged the beautiful hand-made card to my chest, thanking God that I had accepted the position at this school.

People always talk about what an effect a teacher can have on a student, but if you look closely at a teacher, you will see that students have an even deeper effect on teachers. And only a teacher can ever know the heart-tugging feeling to see his or her walk away, into a new life, full of hope, and desire, and a whole new destiny to look forward to, with a few key life lessons guiding their way.