She is tiny, this new Chinese girl sitting across from my desk. So very cute and precise and full of enthusiasm in her broken but articulate English. I watched her, she wasn't going to let me talk. She spoke about wanting to be a writer and how long she has had that dream. She wants to go to a famous college to become educated in the humanities (her words). She kept telling me how hard it was to dream this in China, where everyone wanted to know how she could make any money being a writer or even a poet. See, she also writes traditional Chinese poetry but she knows as beautiful as her poems are...they won't make any money. The reason she is here in the States is that her parents were so concerned as to how tired she was becoming after that impossible dream of perfection that seems to plague each teenage student. They wanted her to come here where the pressure isn't so intense, the ability to dream is part of our educational process and she can work to make her treasured dream come true. I watched and listened and marveled at all that potential in that tiny little person. I love working with Asians but for the life of me, there isn't a day where I don't feel 10 feet tall and just as wide. Her eyes sparkled and danced...really, and I told her we wanted her dreams to come true as well.
Maybe that's what we should also be as teachers...dream encourage-rs and holders. I really want to be a fan...I also want to be able to bring in reality when their dreams do not match their ability. Reality can bite...and maybe in the here and now we can nibble a bit so when the bite comes it isn't that painful. Nibble though, not eat wholesale. Who knows....they could go and just make it happen.
No comments:
Post a Comment