Lessons Learned as a Trainee Teacher - Never Neglect Any Child Even Though The Child Makes You Relieved

As the children are studying in a boarding school at such a young age, deep down they feel insecure without parents beside them. They want to do their parents proud, they wanna make their parents happy. Children express their insecurity in various ways. They may seem irascible, or throwing tantrums, or get mischievous quite frequently to get attention. Some children don't show it. They always want to get things done according to the standards. They follow the Dos and Don'ts that they are told. Some teachers are usually pleased with the latter kind of students. They don't create troubles in front of the teachers. These teachers may probably fall into the trap of the former kind of students and pay plenties of attention on them. After a period of time, the well-behaved students may feel neglected. Problems may arise.

I am that kind of inexperienced teacher that I mentioned above. I had fallen into the trap.

It was the night before the students' final exams of the semester. Not wanting the students to be disappointed with their performance, I decided to give them tuition to brush up their Science at the very last lap. Those students who usually didn't pay attention during my lessons came to me for help. They couldn't come in group. They wanted individual tutoring to feel privileged. I am not a super woman, I can't split into two or three or many.

Some of the students, who used to bottom the class ranking, came for tuition. I was touched by their efforts, their endeavours, their determination. When I started tutoring them, two girls, who usually pay lots of attention in my class, and get their assignment done came over, standing by the side, doing the assessments that I had given them earlier on. I asked them if they want tuition. "No," they answered coldly. There were too many students that I had to entertained, so I had no time for them. Somehow, they would interfere (not blaming them for that), and asked questions. Of course I did answer them. They wanted me to mark the worksheets for them immediately. I told them that I would mark them as soon as they go to bed.

It was time for bed, I hurried the children back to their bedrooms. I said goodnight to the girls, and these two girls didn't respond. They insisted not to look at me. I patted their heads, and said, "Goodnight girls, it's time for bed! See you next morning!" "Good Morning!" one of them responded harshly. It seemed that they were mad at me. So I left the dorm. When I was about to walked out of the dorm, one of the girl dashed towards me and cried out loud "You are ignoring me!" and she hugged me tightly and began to wept.

"I'm sorry dear, I'm sorry. I don't mean to neglect you! In fact I'm always grateful to have you in my class. You always make me feel relieved!" I replied. I brought her to a corner, and whispered, "This moment is specially for you, just you and me." She couldn't stop tearing.

"You remind me of myself," I said. "I often whined that my mom is bias."

Her eyes widens and looked into my eyes. "Why?"

"My mother has four children, and the age gap between the four children is big. My elder brother is the eldest child in the family. My parents were inexperienced back them, and were figuring out how to raise us. They spend a lot of time on my elder brother. He was a slow learner compared to me. I learned faster even though I was a year and four months younger than him. My younger brother is five years younger than me. He was timid, and cried really often since young. My younger sister feels insecure at times too. And whenever my mom sees me, she often asks me how is my younger brother? How is my younger sister? She seldom asks about me. One day, I was really angry, and told my mom that I felt that she's bias. My mom cried. She said she wished that she can pay attentions to all four of us. She felt relieved that I helped her taking care of my younger siblings. I cried. Because I accused my mom."

She stopped weeping.

From then on, I tried to give a little more attention to her, to make her feel secured.