Pure joy, enjoy it until it lasts

VI-Garcia GSP. I cherish every moment with then because once they hit puberty, some of them will treat me as if they have never known me. I guess it's the awkwardness of the stage in their lives.

I was observing my pupils during their scouting activities and their faces were all radiating with happiness. This is evident in the photo above.

One thing I have observed with my female pupils (I have second thoughts on using "my girls" because it sounded predatory) is that they are too familiar with me. They baby talk to me, rib me, even prank me at times. How dare they?

I don't know if it's because they look at me more like a father figure (or a grandfather) first before a teacher or because I allow them to get away with it. More latter than the first, I guess. I try to be hard on them but I cannot. Everytime I get angry I end up apologizing to them not for their benefit but for mine. I have regretted a lot of sermons I said to my past pupils.

Of course I am not saying that this is a unique experience. Most if not all teachers have different degrees of relationships with their class for teachers cannot detached themselves emotionally from their pupils. They are loco parentis in the school.  

This is  because teaching in general is not just all about pedagogy, it is in reality all about relationship building. 

Though the doctrine of objectivity...(another post)

Co-teachers who had fun during the activities 

A teacher is one of the most influential person in a child's life, and a year of the child's life is entrusted to her. In that year, a relationship is formed that will become an indelible part of the pupil's life experiences. 

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VI-Garcia scouts with their adviser 

I guess it saddens me to see them grow up and become strangers.

Whenever I look at my FB history and saw pictures of my former pupil's in their childhood innocence, I am tempted to share them but I am always stopped by the thought that the pictures could embarrass them.

Being a part of my pupil's life is something I have not thought much about. Most of the time, teaching is focused on the pedagogy and the administrative tasks.

Thinking about it, that one year do make a difference in a child's life. It could make them or break them and reducing these children's potentials to numbers is something that I have reservations about.

Yesterday, during the checking of the periodical exams, a pupil got the lowest score and was teased by his classmates.I told the pupil and the class not to worry and get streased about tests because I had a lot of idiot classmates that flunked exams all the time but who are doing well now, and I also had a lot of intelligent classmates that aced their exams but who are doing otherwise.

It is not just about grades and rankings. These pupils need to learn that in life, there are a lot of choices and possibilities that are not necessarily determined by their performance in the school.