On Teaching

I like the time I spend with my students. There's an equal transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the learner. Like my students, I am a learner in my own classroom. The stories they bring, the laughter, the tears....I feel so honored and humbled to stand before them. I think sometimes people do not actually understand how to take themselves. A friend told me recently that she felt sometimes overwhelmed by herself. Is this what I feel....overwhelmed? I sit restless in a world that is so active, yet so still. I want to do so much, yet I feel so fixed, unable to move. Those students who stare at me all doe-eyed -- what do they want? Do they want me to prove to them that all this "English" will benefit them some way. I teach them how to sound professional or how to communicate professionally. I tell them to leave their language hidden somewhere -- don't show this part of you. Don't show the part of you that counts...how hard you work each day to live. How you laugh. How you eat. How you dress. How you pray. How you speak. What's left? I'm sorry to you who I tell to change. We must wear these masks to prove ourselves. But don't forget who you are or where you came from. I haven't.