Teaching is the profession that teaches all the other
professions.
The world would be a much better place if
this was an absolute truth but instead the reality is far from being so
wonderful. Almost all of us have had school education. Was it a beautiful
experience? Many will say yes, but there are a few who will disagree; and I
fall in between these two extremes.
My time in school, which is one of the
most prestigious & well-regarded schools in the country, has been
relatively satisfactory, but I’ve had my fare share of ghastly experiences
during my academic years where my abilities and talents were put into question
and dispirited throughout the years.
Some teachers continue
to fail to dispatch the right message to their students. They fail to
understand those little people in their class are totally different from each
other and their approach should be altered, not generic. There were a very few
wonderful teachers during my school years, and the rest made school feel like
prison. The appalling memories they created still linger within me and I use
that disadvantage to develop myself more by learning to use those black marks
and make it a piece of art.
I believe I was born to be creative. I have been an avid student in the creative department, making myself
busy with various projects at any given time. But I was never encouraged to
follow what I was good at and instead was told to become a doctor, lawyer,
teacher and whatever that was in the good books of the teachers. Simply put
they thought nothing good will come out of being creative, and to be an artist
is to grow old, and dirty with a paintbrush and die depressed! I’m sure they didn’t and still don’t know the true
meaning of being creative. They didn’t believe that there lies a life beyond all that typical careers.
I am an illustrator and a designer by
profession, and I am proud about what I do. I was never interested in mathematics nor science. I was drawn to
art, poetry and history throughout my academic years and I excelled in them.
Those subjects made me energetic, made me wanted to jump out of bed to go to
school. But that feeling never lasted long.
I always knew I wanted to be someone
creative. I wanted to draw. I wanted to sew. I wanted to dream of a world that
was colorful and happy. But back in school things were conflicting with my
dreams. Teachers would throw away my book if they saw me sketching on it. They
would ask me what I wanted to be, and when I said I wanted to be a designer,
they laughed at me in front of the whole class. One teacher even asked me to
get my head checked and stop thinking of being someone stupid and rather focus
on a sensible career.
There were times I tore my sketchbook.
Threw away my beautiful art. Cried my heart out in the bathroom. I felt as a
failure even before I stepped out in to the world. I became silent. I stopped
fighting.
This happened not only to me. There were
lots of others who were in my vessel. Who felt ignored, who were labeled as
rebels, who got punished for challenging the teachings. Put together we would
have created a cult. But we were all afraid to confront and stand up for our
selves. We were tied down and mouths shut with the rules and regulations and
continuous series of indict from the teachers for being what we are.
There are still haunting memories of
embarrassment from the past, yet years have passed, and I have gained my confidence
to be who I am and have achieved my goal in becoming a Designer, But the road
is still coarse, the mountain is still towering, but one thing is certain. I
will get there.
I truly believe that teaching is a godly
profession. Molding a young mind during its growth stage is an absolutely
daunting task and something that will be imprinted on each of those young minds
for a lifetime. This was not written to accuse any of my teachers but to
articulate the experience I gained and maybe to inspire the next generation of
teachers to be more understanding and open to those beautiful young minds under
them. I anticipate that the kids who are still in school and who will join in
the years to come will find more teachers that they love, and fewer teachers
that they will detest.
As the author Simon Sinek says: The best teachers are the ones who tell us we can!
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