As a teacher I’ve had a very unique view of the world throughout the covid pandemic. By seeing things through the eyes of our children.
This has made me realise what the real pandemic in our society is. It certainly isn’t a communicable disease but rather a condition which costs us much more in time, money and resources than we could ever imagine.
Forget about the “covid” pandemic. This is the “lack of confidence” pandemic.
This pandemic has been around long before the covid one ever began. And the main problem is that this condition will still be here pervading every aspect of our day to day lives long after covid has gone.
And as a teacher I get a front row seat to this almost every day of my working life by witnessing how this insidious condition affects people’s lives (especially children’s). Sure this can be all put into perspective somewhat by how we view the world and therefore how we approach it. But I have found that throughout my 25 years of teaching (thus far) how this can be very costly to one’s self-esteem, self-belief and self worth.
The ability to read and write well is one crucial factor that can bring hope to this situation. Another factor is being given permission to truly be yourself. The absence of pressure from anyone or anything to be something you’re not.
As an Early Childhood teacher I also believe that play is also a crucial factor in developing a young child’s self-esteem, self-belief and of course self-worth. The fact that play has been eroded from our educational systems on an industrial scale over the years doesn’t exactly fill me full of confidence. But yet I still have hope.
My mission therefore as a teacher is to keep believing in myself and my abilities to teach my students well. To be able to give them that one small spark that allows them to really believe in themselves. To teach them how to use play in every aspect of their lives and know that it will always serve them well, always.
I pray for more of this in the world.
