Back to School

Lately I've been mulling with the idea of going back to school. My motivations range from learning a new skill that can be used to set up a business to preparing for my next job to learning ways to be a better parent/teacher to my son to making a difference in the lives of people.



I've been inquiring about short courses on setting up my dream coffee shop (the concept for which is something I hold so secret for fear that somebody grabs the idea and make it happen before I do). Of course, there's the constant desire to hone my photography skills and to get better at art activities which my son would love to do with me. But there's one schooling option that I would really wish would happen soon.



Just these past days and when Agom and I think of all those kids back in his island-hometown that are deprived of education, I've been thinking of getting a teaching degree and have actually checked out some schools. If she were around, Mama would probably be proud if I take this path at this point in my life. At times I even ask myself why I did not take this career path at all. I realize that its because no one told me that its a good and noble choice to make. With aunts from both sides of the family being teachers, I should have gotten the clue that teaching is the way to go. But I guess my reasons may be a lot different from my aunts' and my mother's. In a generation when careers for women were hard to come by, teaching was one profession that afforded them with a semblance of empowerment. Today, we get that from a whole-range of career options that teaching has been relegated to a course that someone could take if they're not so exemplary in highschool. Among my relatives I would sometimes hear a not-so-bright child being told to just settle for education as a college course because they say it is not so difficult that anyone could be a teacher without a sweat. These same people would also wonder why today's youth are failing in basic subjects such as Math, English and Science. Maybe its time for us to understand how input dictates output in education.



As I grow older (and hopefully wiser) I look back to those days in school when our past-time was to make fun of our teachers -- an activity which now forms part of all class reunions and homecomings -- and I get ashamed of myself. These individuals with their little quirks molded us and opened our eyes to great possibilities. If my Grade 4 English teacher did not harass us with daily drills on the rules of grammar and usage, then perhaps I couldn't even write a single decent sentence in this blog. If my highschool Social Studies teacher did not pressure us to pay attention to world history as opposed to doodling dress designs in my notebook, then I wouldn't have had the eyes to see the glory that was Rome when I set foot in Europe. If I didn't push myself to stay awake in my afternoon Physics class with a teacher speaking like a drone, then how could I help my son work his way through a Physics app in our Ipad?



The list of moments that justify a tribute to every teacher I met goes on and on as I go through life. That same list will be the points of inspiration that should drag me to a school and register for a teaching course.



I can't wait to go back.