To the teacher teaching us... the Unteachables,
Here is a warning.
We will test your patience,
You will have to repeat your instructions a dozen times,
Most of the time you will need to write the instructions clearly,
one by one on the board because it is hard for us to concentrate
on lengthy verbal language.
And our attention priority is anything but you.
If you shout at us, it will fall on our deaf ear,
because we are used to adults screaming and talking in loud voices to us.
Beware.
We will push you to the limits,
With our ignorance about our future and education because
no matter where we go, we can't see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Why bother caring then?
We will leave our books at home as we don't see the need to burden our body with the extra weight consisting of alien words and pointless terms.
Your blood will boil with our refusal to do your task and homework
as we don't have the ability to do it well.
The empty pages of our books are the evidence of our scream of failure.
It is easy to make it seem like we refuse to do it.
Between being labeled as stupid and incompetent we are rather labeled as rebellious.
Teacher,
we will challenge your authority, your decision, your reputation and your belief,
because we want to see what you will sacrifice to defend yourself.
You see, we have been failed before.
People who we thought we can trust failed us.
People who we thought we can depend on choosing something else over us.
Teacher,
Before you can teach us the ABCs,
you need to teach us how to be teachable.
You need to teach us to not give up even when we can make sense only two words in a whole text.
You need to teach us what is right and wrong because now the line is very blurry.
So, Teacher,
We will push, test and challenge you to the breaking point.
However, Teacher,
Please hold on.
Don't ever break.
Don't ever crumble.
No matter how many mistakes we made,
Do not give up on us.
Because in our confusing world called life we need someone who is strong enough to hold on.
We need someone calm enough to face the storm,
So we know we can trust our lives in your hand.
So we know we are safe to be whoever we want to be.
Sincerely,
The Unteachable students from your class.
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Note from the author:
Since becoming a teacher I am much interested to know what goes on inside my student's mind. Hence, I tried to see things from their perspective to understand them.
This imaginary challenge letter is my effort to understand my student's world.
