Free flowing in style, Ayobi Ndoma drops this piece to mark the just celebrated Teachers Day.
The birds chirped in the background as soft streams of the early morning sun wafted in the morning breeze. Toddling steps were audible while inaudible mumblings raced through the walkways. I hurried to my classroom, stopping only briefly to greet one or two colleagues or lovingly pat a kid on the head. I entered my classroom with enthusiasm and within minutes I was under their microscope.
“Why are you dressed like a banker? Is it just to our school you were coming to or you a going to somewhere else, after now?” My eyes, in muted disbelief, turned in their sockets. “Yes, I was coming to this school to teach. I also do not have plans to go to any other place”, was my reply.
In my mind, I thought, how do I make him understand that I am well dressed because I am coming to model excellence, modesty, decency, etc to them. How do I make him see that I am here to relate with these little human beings who take in more of what they see than what is actually taught? They hardly pay too much attention to hear you say, “dress well”, but if they ‘see’ you dress well it sticks. Okay, let me excuse him and the question, he won’t understand because he is not a teacher.
Trying to win my heart, another one blew my mind when he said, “you are so beautiful, decent, gorgeous, classy, super intelligent, speak good English. You are also humorous, properly mannered and well put together, but why are you a teacher?”. Don’t wonder if these kids can string together the words used in describing me; they do have amazing capacity to even say more. I’m like, hello why shouldn’t I be a teacher? I look into his inquisitive eyes and tell him, “with all these adjectives you have used to describe me, what else would you have me do?” Then he went; “hmmm, hmmm” and evidently lost words to say what was on his mind. In my mind I know he doesn’t know what he wants, he is yet to know that teachers make the world tick. But why shouldn’t I excuse the ignorance of this inquisitive one who has already showered me with lush compliments?
The other teary eyed kid with a questioning expression on his face didn’t bottle it up when he asked me, “you should be a professor in the university”. I took that as another compliment but still, excused his ignorance too.
You can’t blame these kids because they are growing up in a society that has always and still underates the teaching profession and teachers. This does not only lie in how society perceives us, it even hems in how we perceive ourselves as teachers … in the profession.
Dear Teacher, it is not out of place to ask you to define or redefine yourself, especially around parents, your learners, your neighbours, friends, family, acquaintances; you don’t think the effort must be yours, to register a narrative? Of course it is up to us teachers to deliberately register a narrative of defined class.
Without any airs, when you meet me, I am deliberate about the fact that when you leave, you simply would have taken it in that you met a coach, a role model, a mother, an instructor, an enthusiast, a communicator, a leader; is this too much? I work deliberately at representing all of these with no apologies because I am on the ground, the kind of a Teacher I am in my head. And while I may not always be in the classroom, I will always be a teacher.
While I’m hoping that you will be more intentional, in the passion, hard work and enthusiasm that our work strictly demands, we can also further provide leadership that can help us in nation building, I am not constrained in wishing you the best Teachers’ Day Celebration ever … in excess. Cheers to all my amazing colleagues.
Ayobi is a kindergarten teacher at Lourdes Academy, Calabar.
