Some of you may know that teaching and school psychology are at the top of my possible careers list, so it’s been sweet that lately in ministry, I’ve been given the opportunity to get my feet a bit wet.
In Rwanda, I spent the entire month teaching two English classes. I’d like to clarify, however, that teaching might be a bit of an exaggeration, at least for my morning group of kids. For two hours, I was in charge of about 30 preschool-kindergarten age kids, had only ABCs, 123s, colors, shapes, and days of the week flash cards, and no translator. I repeat, NO TRANSLATOR. So as you can imagine, the classroom got a biiiiiiit out of control at times. I’d be trying to get them to repeat back body parts to me, only to realize that half my kids had just run out the door and another three were in the back lifting chairs above their heads. After a few failed attempts at trying to gain control in English, which they clearly didn’t understand, my teammate and I decided to just let it go. This is usually when I would revert to singing songs and dancing. This only backfired once, when our pastor chose to show up on the last day of class, had the kids stand up front, and asked them what they had learned, at which point they started to dougie and sing Justin Bieber. I sat there helpless, half panicking, but the other half fighting back laughter. Oh sweet children. I promise I taught them Jesus songs, too!
Last week here in Uganda, our team traveled about twenty minutes by moto to our pastor’s school to teach once more. There were about 150 kids, from nursery to primary 4, and they were the cutest kids! We started the days with a memory verse, then went right into morning songs (I left JB and the dougie out of the mix this time around). Afterward we broke off into classes, and I was lucky enough to get the P3/P4 kids! I was excited to at least have a blackboard and chalk, but without materials I was still pretty clueless. So I defaulted back to weather, animals and shapes. And yes, I made them all draw and label a penguin. I’m just trying to brighten futures here, people.
I just can’t help myself – I’ve always got to throw in a little fun. But in all seriousness, I loved my little class of learners. They were so diligent in their copying and just had the sweetest faces. I mean check them out!
So basically, I have very much enjoyed my time teaching. I don’t know how much practical experience I got, since the kids were all young, I had no translators, no materials, and no idea what the heck I was doing. But I think I still learned the most important lesson about teaching – that at the end of the day, what is most important is not whether your students learned a ton of information, but whether they felt important, felt like they were seen, and felt like they were loved.
Back in Rwanda, I received a note from one of the boys at our adult English class that spoke to this very point. I found it to be quite precious, and one that I will always cherish, so I wanted to share it with you all!
Dear Jelly,
How are you? I’m happy to write to you but one part of my heart agreed but another was holding me back. We didn’t talk too much, fortunately at least I know what you want to be if you’ll have that chance or if simply God wills…a permanent teacher…so, what do you guess will be your first duty when you will be in front of teenagers in high school? Your 1stduty is (will be) to love your students. Other duties are secondary (giving them notes, homeworks, whatever…) May I explain? Though you can have Masters, Phds, …in all areas of mathematics even at the extent that you look on the sun in the sky and calculate with your own brain what time it is, or just staring at a number and immediately speak out which cosine or sine it has…WITHOUT LOVE, you won’t satisfy your students. That’s true…
So, you’re getting on journey to other countries, may God be with you and I, too, am going back to school…and what I wanted is to thank you for coming here (maison de jeune) to share with us English and we really appreciate so much urukundo (love) you have.
We pray that God will guide you and please send our greetings to your family when you get back home.
May God bless you,
Mugisha Charles
Growing up, I was blessed with an abundance of teachers* who chose to not only invest in my education, but more importantly to invest in my life, and that made all the difference.
So to all my past teachers* reading this now – I can’t tell you how much it means to me that you have chosen to show me love beyond the year I spent in your classroom. You truly inspire me and have touched my heart.
To those teachers* that have never taught me, yet have supported me and are following my journey – I am so humbled by the unending amounts of encouragement and kindness you have shown to me.
To my best friends who are currently teaching: Bekah, Carrie, Morgan, Tori, and Whitney – you are absolutely beautiful women, and I know that each of your students is incredibly blessed to have you in their lives, so continue to teach with love and grace, and know that you are making a difference.
And finally, to my mom – some may say that wanting to be a teacher or a school psychologist is just following in your footsteps, but why would that ever be a bad thing? Over the years, I have watched you let your heart both rejoice and break for your students. With each laugh and each tear, you have unknowingly molded my own heart into one that desires to care deeper for others than I do for myself. You do that so well. You, and the rest of the gang up at the Board, go beyond the daily requirements of testing and reports to a place of loving those who need it most. It would be an honor to someday hold a job where I could imitate this love that I’ve seen in you. You are one of the most beautiful and most compassionate people I know. Just one of the many reason I love you so much.
So to end this post, I just wanted to send out a huge
THANK YOU
to all of the teachers* out there who teach not just with their minds, but with their hearts. You are a blessing to many!
*I used teacher to keep it short, but would also like to acknowledge all of the administrators, counselors, staff, etc. out there, basically all those in the education field, who have made a difference in my life. You are not forgotten, and I am incredibly thankful for each of you!!!
