The Power of Caring

I believe in the power of a teacher to transform the lives of their students. I should know because I am one of those transformed students.

The United States was a scary placing when I was growing up in the early 80's as a child. My family had just arrived as refugees seeking political asylum. I was suddenly dumped into a place where everyone spoke gibberish and ate food that made me want to puke. Like any stubborn and confused child, I fought and rebelled, causing trouble wherever I went. After all, no one understood nor cared: not the Americans who could not speak to me and not my parents who were too busy working double shifts to keep our family barely above water financially. Drifting through those early years without purpose and angry at a world that had seemingly abandoned me, I was eventually enrolled into my fourth grade teacher's class. It was the best thing to have ever happened to me.

I don't know what she saw in me or why I was singled out from the rest of the class despite being a known problem student. It didn't even matter that we couldn't communicate with each other very well. She showed me the compassion and patience of an angel. She never punished or humiliated me like others before her, but instead tried to understand what was going in my mind and life. For the first time in my admittedly very short life, I felt that someone actually cared for and about me, and that was enough. I became the best student I could be under her watch. I went from a problematic, underachieving student to the model honor student that she always saw was inside of me when no one else could.

In our current educational "reform" movement, we talk a lot about teacher evaluation and quality. What we never talk about is the emotional commitment and care that great teachers possess and can't be measured in simple observations or tests. We fail to account for the meaningful relationships that teachers forge with their students when we keep turning over the teaching workforce and the inherent instability it leads to. I am who I am today, and all my achievements is because of a single great teacher who found the time and heart to care for a troublesome poor immigrant student. Like I said, I believe in the transformative power of a caring teacher because I am a product of it.