On Teaching: Good Times

I feel like a “real,” established teacher now! Recently I learned that a student whom I had taught in freshman composition at TTU five years ago just submitted his first paper for his grad school coursework! Teaching can be so frustrating, so demanding of one’s time and energy, and I realized that teachers quickly start to wonder if it’s actually worth it—the bad pay, tiring hours, difficult administration, inattentive students, cheating, and other woes—if they had even the tiniest influence anywhere ever. This sort of news is so affirming though. I read it and I was positively beaming, grinning from ear to ear here in my office. I’m sure my impact was very small in the grand scheme of things, but it was still such a joy to know that I had been a small part in someone’s journey like that. He was a dedicated student even then though, and in many ways I’m just glad I got to be a bystander!

While I’m even less likely to hear of any future achievements (years down the road) of my students here in Korea, and while most days I feel like my words are falling on uncomprehending ears, there’s that little bit of hope that maybe, for a handful of students, I’ll be able to encourage them. Maybe I’ll inspire them to speak, whether boldly or timidly, but at least to SPEAK. Maybe my time as a cultural ambassador (of sorts) won’t be in vain. They’ve certainly left an impression on me during this first half of my contract.

One student at the high school here came up to me the other day and said, “Teacher, my name… ‘Sightsinger’!” I looked at her with a baffled expression. “Because you and I… our hair… the same! We look similar, so they call me ‘Sightsinger’!” Her friends grinned, nodded in agreement, pointed, and giggled. She has glasses and long, dark, wavy hair pulled back in a ponytail most of the time. And my goodness, she was so excited to tell me her nickname! I enjoy moments like that, where students overcome their nerves and make the effort to communicate. It’s rewarding to know that I’ve been able to make some sort of connection in helping them speak this foreign language a little more boldly.

Amusing, isn’t it, that for years I asserted I didn’t want to be a teacher? I think I've marveled at this before. People would discover I was studying English and ask the inevitable question: “Oh, are you going to be a teacher?” My response all through undergrad was a firm or vehement, “NO.” It’s funny how things work out differently in our lives than we expect, and often better than we could have planned them if left to our own devices. Isaiah 55:8-9: “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

A tiny, tiny part of me is still holding out for alternatives maybe someday, but teaching has become such a way of life that I definitely miss it when I’m not actively working around a classroom. Maybe as I adjust my expectations of paychecks and gradually comprehend the great rewards (even if rare) that teaching can bring, I’ll be able to rest in this vocation more fully. Korea’s a great opportunity, and I’m so thankful for this place where I can be a teacher, even if the lessons are frequently on unquantifiable subject matter. A test might place a student in the low-level class, but it can’t measure the fact that one such jolly fellow says hello and tries to have an English conversation when he sees me in the halls.

…Yeah, sometimes I kinda love being a teacher. ^_^