True Story!
I never thought that I would end up as a teacher when I was a kid. Believe it or not, I constantly fought with my mom whenever she mentioned the topic of becoming a teacher. It never occurred to me that I will be in the position of an influential person in the shoes of an educator nonetheless.
I’m saying this because I want to share an incident that happened to me with my back-then high school math teacher that impacted me for a lot of years afterwards. I remember the argument we had very evidently until this very day because of it I had to go and search for a logical proof to convince him that there are several types of intelligence and receiving the highest grade in math wouldn’t make anyone superior in the brains department! That is when I understood that every student is different and it is OK. This is NO one’s fault.
Anyway, when I myself became an educator, I vowed to never underestimate students’ abilities and undermine them as this might compromise their psychological well-being for the rest of their lives. Anything a teacher says or does would leave a certain impact on their students’ lives and shape how they see themselves and believe in their abilities. Every person is smart in his/her own sense and it is NOBODY’s right to tell them otherwise. We have to honor our differences by celebrating them and we have to stop undermining each other’s uniqueness. That is why teachers have to be double careful as their actions and words are powerful.
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