Teaching with Heart : The True Role of a Teacher

"When it's a matter of the heart, you'll only do what you know; you can't be anything else." L.Y

LY

Choosing a different path from the common will put you on a difficult road, and i knew it. But i could only take the path my heart guided me to. I can't be anything else than myself.

Being a teacher to theses students has always meant so much more than being a person who expect discipline and inculcate knowledge. What i want for theses kids is what i wanted for myself when i was sitting on that classroom chair confused, overwhelmed and lost about life.

What i wanted was guidance, i needed to be heard, i needed to be listened to and most of all i needed to be understood. Being young is hard! Adults expect you to act grown-up, and even you expect yourself to be an adult when you're not. You morph into this odd creature with an adult body but teenage dreams and emotions. You start to crash into reality, a reality that mercilessly exposes every dark facet of your being. Anxiety over the future kicks in—what to do, when to do it, and how to do it become haunting questions.

Your parents expect you to figure it all out, and if you can't, they'll do it for you. Teachers expect good behavior and accountability; otherwise, punishment awaits. Schools want you to graduate to maintain their reputation. Society paints this illusionary portrait of a successful life where you don't seem to fit in.

No one asks how you feel, so you forget to even ask yourself. No one queries what you want because it's become more about what you should be. I know these feelings all too well; I've been there too. And being an adult today doesn't erase the younger version of me, the one who faced the same struggles I see on my students' faces.

To those who want me to conform, to share their perspective and act as they do, I'm sorry, but when it's a matter of the heart, I'll keep doing what I know I should. I can't be anything else.