Comfort to Teachers

Mette Hein Vester

Mette Hein Vester is a teacher based in Denmark.
E-mail: mmvester@webspeed.dk

As a teacher you probably recognise the situation. You are in your classroom trying your best to entertain the students and of course put the required knowledge into their heads. But no matter what you do, there is this student of yours - usually a teenage boy - who is just not interested. During the year you try out new approaches but still no luck. Most teachers find this situation very frustrating because we fear what the future will bring for such students.

Don't worry they won't necessarily end up being on the dole. And how do I know this you might ask? Because I have seen lots of examples of this with my own eyes. In April I went to a party to meet all my old classmates. It had been 17 years since we left school and these "hopeless" teenage boys had of course now turned into men but not only that they had transformed themselves into very successful businessmen. Suddenly they could tell me everything about investments and all their thoughts on how to be a good employer. I was truly amazed by this and it really made me feel happy for them. Back in school nobody really gave them any credit. They were not clever and often they would disturb the other students and therefore both students and teachers had enough of them. That evening in April I just wished the former teachers had joined us so they could have experienced the transformation.

Being a teacher myself that reunion changed my point of view. I stopped thinking that the only way to success is through the system of education. It opened my eyes to the fact that this group of "hopeless" students might very well have other gifts which will benefit them later on. Of course this does not mean that the next time I meet a student of this character I will just leave him/her alone. I will do everything in my power to awaken his curiosity but if I don't succeed I might not think of it as the end of the world anymore.

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