I am to learn.

As my teacher told me to get out of the class for the umpteenth time, I really felt perhaps the problem wasn’t me. I definitely wasn’t the best of students but I certainly wasn’t a nuisance. Yes I’d crack jokes and have fun with my friends and chat with them during class but everyone else probably did it more than I did. I just liked to get along and definitely didn’t want to be a bother to anyone, let alone my teachers. So why always me? I firmly believed by then that the teacher had it out for me and in the end I had dropped the subject because I really get along with my teacher. The class in question was accounting class and it wasn’t a compulsory subject in 10th grade, but I wanted to study it. It was just a regular school day as any. Very unremarkable. My friends goofed around and so did I. and My teacher was a smart looking man who was wore glasses and was sharply dressed. He was nice enough to most students and I thought the same too at first, but the more classes we had the worse his attitude got towards me. He would chastise me often, ignore me at times and even kick me out of class for minor inconveniences. I really wanted accounting on my O’ levels despite the fact it would be difficult having an extra subject and most of my friends didn’t even take the subject. It was a fun, practical and lucrative subject. But that was the last straw. I really saw no point in doing something where the one teaching you doesn’t even want you there. I didn’t bring my accounting book to school that day, because I had lost it a few weeks ago. It was a big, bulky and expensive book so I was a little afraid to tell my parents to get a new one. Despite that the book was something we rarely used and bringing it to school was a real inconvenience as well. I didn’t really affect my classes honestly as most things could be noted down and if I really needed to I could share with a friend. Most days he wouldn’t say anything. Perhaps it was my fault for not resolving this issue but the teacher was not an understanding man. I usually sat in the front rows as my eye sight poor and some of my friend sat there too so it was convenient. Class started soon enough as the students who didn’t have accounting proceeded to the break room. Everything seemed fine as the teacher started writing the days work on the board and asked us to bring out our books. As I asked my friend to share his book with me he noticed that and he questioned where my book was. As soon as I told him that I didn’t have it he promptly kicked me out of class and didn’t even want a reason. I had no choice but to go the break room where everyone else was hanging out. From that day on I just couldn’t get into he subject and dropped it soon after.

This has been a recurring theme of my academic life. I have had teacher’s who really liked me and thought of me favourably. Most of the time they were English or Literature teachers, which I probably why I excelled at those subjects. But then there were some teachers that really couldn’t stand me for some reason. I didn’t even have to try to annoy them, they just couldn’t seem to stand the sight of me and My accounting teacher was definitely one of them. I was a pretty good student when I was kid. I got good grades even if I wasn’t the best and was no one complained about me either. I’ve always had a lot of friends in class and believe I got along with everyone pretty well. But as I moved up the grades for some reason my academics kept getting worse. Maybe there were other factors involved which weren’t even related to school or education in general, but some of my teachers and the school’s attitude towards it definitely did not help. Why do we even go to school when we could learn it all ourselves? I believed, and still do, that teachers are one of the most integral parts of the education process at school. I was pretty young back then so I didn’t understand everything as well as I perhaps do now, but the incident with my teacher affected me in ways. Due to my experiences I still have a slight distrust of educators to a certain extent (nothing personal Professor Belli, you’re pretty nice >: ) and have always made me want to be the kind of person who people can look up to especially if they want to learn, because after all knowledge is power and its our teacher’s job to give us that power.