A good teacher does MORE than inspiring the students to excel, from the Front Page Sections, translated…
For the teacher appreciation activities, Heng, who can sing AND dance was voted to perform, and, because he’d done an amazing job, he’d become known, throughout our school. After school, I’d talked to the child, told him that he should thank the school for giving him this opportunity, that maybe he could accumulate the experiences of his stage performance that might lead him onto the career path of a professional dancer. The child told me, that he DOES have a great love toward dance, and was thankful at how the teachers liked his performance.as we’d talked on, he’d asked me, “Teacher, back when you were in school, did a certain teacher gave you the opportunity to shine, encourage you to excel too?”
My eyes drifted toward the colorful clouds of the dusk hours, I’d recalled my middle school English instructor, Mrs. Su-Chiong Chiu. Back then, I was about to begin my second year of middle school, my mother’s depression exacerbated, every day after school, other than having to face my own emotionally unstable mother, I’d also had to take care of my younger brother, I’d become, depressed somewhat as well, and at school, I’d become even more silent, fearing that my other classmates will know, that I have a mother who has depression, and so, naturally, I’d kept myself at a distance from them, felt that I wasn’t as good as they are.
One afternoon after school, Mrs. Chiu told me and the head of the class to stay behind, she said, “our school is hosting its first short skit competition, I hope you can team up with the head of the class, I will use the extra hours in school to train you two, will you be willing to participate?” I wasn’t the best English speaker in the class, and I was too shy to boot, I couldn’t understand why Mrs. Chiu picked me. Mrs. Chiu smiled and told, “I think, you have accurate pronunciation, you have great potential, so that, is why I’d saved this opportunity, especially for you.”
After I’d gotten home, I’d worked really hard, to remember the skit, practiced my facial expressions in front of a mirror, asked my family to be my audience, so I can overcome my stage fright, and have that flair, that presence when I take the stage, my teacher also took the afternoon rest period to correct our pronunciations, to train us how to carry ourselves on stage. And, for the competition, we didn’t let them down, we received first place. One day at the flag raising ceremonies, the school had scheduled us to perform our skit in front of the school, after we took our bows and got off, several teachers circled around Mrs. Chiu and asked her, “Hey, how did you train your students, they talked like foreigners!”, I will never forget the expression that Mrs. Chiu had, she’d only smiled lightly, “It’s the kids, they’d practiced very hard.” After we’d returned to the class, she’d told me, “You’d done wonderfully, you must have that confidence toward yourself, no matter what the future holds, your attitude is the determinant of how your future turns out.”
For so many years, I’d still kept Mrs. Chiu’s inspiring me in mind. “There’s NO other key to education save for love and setting a good example.”, I’d modeled after Mrs. Chiu, to teach my students as well.
And so, this would be when your instructor had left a deep impression inside of you, she’d helped you boost up your self-confidence when you feel most unconfident, when your life was awful, and now, you’re passing that wisdom you received from growing up, to the next generation of students, a great way of passing the torch here!
