GETTING MY STUDENTS TO THE FUTURE AND WHAT IT TAKES…

Every day, I struggle to get better. Not for myself alone for I learned that my actions consciously and unconsciously is assimilated by my students. I rub off my persona on them in more ways than I can ever care to admit.

I am a teacher and spending considerable hours of my life with them leaves me with the impression that there is more to teaching than giving and putting across lessons for their comprehension.

I tuck in each morning before the mirror, comb my hair and checkout myself generally not to impress my colleagues but make sure I am presentable to them as well.

I go to class thoroughly prepared because my lesson content will stick with them for a long time. Whether they fail or not, the residue of our interaction sticks with them. Their subconscious registers everything and at the right moment, it will call it fort.

I talk to them in view of tomorrow not today because today is gone, tomorrow is the real deal. It has been said that tomorrow is pregnant and it give me the shivers if they are not prepared enough for its challenges.

They need my help more than they can ever care to admit. This I know with certainty. Their attitudes as such does not put me off because I know they will over grow it one day. Sometimes I am angrily, I talk harshly, lose my steam at them; they have a million ways of getting on my nerves but the goal is never forgotten.

When they connect the dots of their lives looking backwards, they will remember Papa Mmeso. Their subconscious at the right time will regurgitate all the information it has locked up somewhere in their brain.

They will understand how much I have cared for them. They will feel the love first hand. And with their hands firmly clasped before them, eyes cast toward God’s abode, remind Him that he has not blessed me enough.

I would have made it by then because my reward starts here before I kick the bucket. And their blessings will cement it for generations to come. Because if the fathers have eaten grape fruits and the children’s teeth have been set on edge, my children will feel the impact of the grape fruit I ate too.

This is what it means to be a teacher according to Papa Mmeso’s definition and standard. Their future is the key not the present. Everything we do must be done in view of it; in and out of the classroom.