#teacher influence

[williamrablan]

It Came From the Filing Cabinet

I’m in the process of downsizing. Downsizing, at least for most people, means getting rid of stuff you haven’t used in a million years. In this case, it’s a filing cabinet. Correction. Two filing cabinets. Most baby boomers remember them. Some were metal. Some were wood. Almost all sat in the corner of an office and were rarely opened. Each held items or information that might someday be…

View On WordPress

[redneckangelsdrinkmoonshine]

A kinda long but really important post!

Like, thank God my teacher is so caring.

He is the first male "main/class" teacher I've ever had. Yesterday I accidentally slipped about my panic attacks and he was just like "You shouldn't be afraid of me." and that honestly made me like, cry for four hours after school 'cause I'm still healing from trauma involving teachers.

Anyways, I was really dizzy today because I'm supposed to get my period really, really soon (I also have cramps, pimples, I just knew my body was gonna go into menstruation either today or tomorrow) and so I waited until after the class is done and I was like "So, I have, y'know "girl problems". My blood pressure is being a bitch. Can I go?"

I never allowed myself to even say the word "period" around men (I said "girl problems" because I'm actually not sure how it's in German.), because a part of my trauma is from males sexualizing me ever since I've had my period. (1. I got my period when I was nine. 2. I said males because males above and under 18 have sexualized me.)

I immediately knew I could use that word around him. I will explain why.

Our teacher is talking about three things, all the time.

50% He's basically teaching us. That guy made me realize that, I'm a fucking genius. I am good at math. I'm good at history, geography, physics, ethics and even philosophy. I just never had the right teachers to teach me, more like the teachers never even tried to teach me because I've always been different.

10% He's talking about his wife. Like, he never shuts up about her and he continues to repeatedly b e g the rest of my class to wear masks and be more responsible because she has some health issues and if he gets infected she could get too and things could get messy. Of course ever since the COVID19 situation in Germany started back in March, I've always been careful. Also, WEAR A FUCKING MASK

And the other 40% of the time, he talks about why he became a teacher. He talks about how much he loves teaching. He talks about how much he genuinely loves kids and I could immediately see that he was 100% honest. Unfortunately the rest of my class don't like him because they had another teacher last year, but I fell in love with him immediately. I see all of the effort he's putting into his work. And I will always remember something he said, "Fuck stereotypes. It doesn't matter how smart I am. It doesn't matter how many degrees I have! I've went through five different jobs before I became a teacher back in '02. (I'm pretty sure that's the year, btw he's 51 yo) When I became a teacher, I found out who I really am. And let me tell you something. Being a teacher doesn't mean showing how smart you are and what that paper they gave you in college says. Being a good teacher means that after ten or, y'know, twenty years if I'm lucky, I will see you walking down the street or in a cafe with your partners, maybe even your own kids, you will recognize me and say "Hello, sir!". Being a good teacher is about getting to people."

When he said that, I needed a moment. I just remembered how back in Bulgaria the teachers would humiliate me because my anxiety made me forget everything I've learned when they asked me to go in front of the board, about how they yelled at me "I don't work for you, it's not my problem if you can't study." and so on. I remembered how back in Kindergarten I got locked in the bathrooms, two hours a day for two weeks, because one teacher thought I was a brat because I couldn't "go potty". I had an infection. I was in pain. I didn't deserve to get punished for something I couldn't control. I didn't deserve to have just four carefree years and then get cursed to have PTSD for the rest of my life.

Back in Bulgaria, I would be even forced to do sports during my period when I actually do have complications and health problems because of it.

I didn't expect my teacher to be so caring. I was genuinely surprised when he said, "If you don't feel okay then sure, you can go home. I hope to see you tomorrow." Which, again, might seem like a small thing, but to me it's... I don't know, I'm speechless.

I'm also proud of myself for telling him that I need to go home, because this is the first time I've ever done that. A huge part of me wanted to suffer through the rest of school, however I decided that my wellbeing is more important than my anxiety.

So, moral of the story...

I would like to ask the teachers who are on this app, no matter what gender you are, no matter how long you've been a teacher for, no matter what's the attitude of your students, please. Never forget to be kind and understanding. You can change their life, just like my teacher changed mine.

Okay, now imma eat some cookies, drink Cocoa and after I wake up from my nap I will catch up with school work. Take care, y'all.