Last year, I had a student in reading. She surely was a smart six year-old girl. However, she had an attitude. She always made me feel I was not as good as her teachers in school. She made me feel impoverished with her stories of living luxuriously (which I believe was unintentional because she had no idea they have so much money) and she made me feel she didn’t need a tutor, me, because she was smart.
As what I do to all my students, I found ways to get along well with her. But it seems like she was making life difficult for both us. She read silently when I asked her to read out loud. She messed up her work sheets, she pretended to be so sleepy probably hoping I would send her home. Even one time, she said her tummy was aching so I had to call her nanny only to tell me it was false alarm and the nanny whispered at my ear..
‘Teacher, she’s just making it up…’
I came to the point that I secretly wished she would cancel a session. She didn’t, except during her ballet recital and that was only once. I was flattered, though, that she kept on enrolling in my program. I took it that her mother thought I was doing my job right.
Last month, I passed by the center and saw her with the teacher who replaced me. She got up as soon as she saw me and ran to me. She called my name and hugged me.
I was so touched. A gesture like that coming from a student who, I’ve always felt, didn’t like me was.. really something. I hugged her back and asked her how she was. She instantly recovered her poise and became as formal as I remember her to be, but her eyes told me she missed me.
I suddenly felt happy and proud of who and what I am… a teacher who makes a difference..
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