Prime
Holidays are here: Reaffirm and reconnect
Min Atek
What you need to know:
Recently I was having a conversation with one of the children about his school grades for the term. He said he was having challenges with his history teacher, who was quite harsh and even cracked mean jokes about him in class
A little bored and tired at the same time, little Kizito fell asleep in his seat. The teacher walked up to him and in a loud voice said these words, “you little sleepy head with big eyes, what is two plus one?”
Kizito blunted out, “three!” The next thing he heard was a hot slap on his head by the teacher. The pain hit hard and rang through his small ears.
Kizito still remembers that slap to this day and says he has never forgotten his then Maths teacher, who for a big chunk of his life, made him loathe mathematics.
It took finding another teacher, who understood children and how they learn, to get him to appreciate the subject.
Recently I was having a conversation with one of the children about his school grades for the term. He said he was having challenges with his history teacher, who was quite harsh and even cracked mean jokes about him in class.
Listening to him give his version of the story, reminded me of my own experiences and those of little Kizito.
In this day and age, we need to be cognisant that teachers not only spend most time with our children, but as a default, they impact or influence them the most.
The teacher is with your child for almost all the productive time in the day, in the week, the month and the year overall.
Given that reality, the onus is on every parent to do a couple of things. We need to deliberately and consistently pray for the men and women who teach our children. That God shrouds them with wisdom and understanding on how to teach and nurture our children.
That God strengthens them in the noble calling they have to walk with the children through their most formative years. They need the patience and kindness of a loving parent, balanced and seasoned with the wisdom to be firm and stern when necessary.
We need to admit that raising children is no mean feat. When you think of how they drive you to near insanity on many occasions and yet you birthed them, what about the stranger, turned teacher and friend who has to deal, not only with one, but several children all at the same time?
The holidays are here! We have every opportunity to reaffirm, reconnect, rebuild and re-establish sanity into the lives of our children.
We have the opportunity to water the seeds of life that have been planted in our children through the years.
The holiday is our time to re-invest afresh in them. To hear them out, to understand them and to minister to their unsaid needs! What a time and what a responsibility.
