To the educators who helped me love learning again,
Thank you for taking the extra step in helping me and countless other students to feel comfortable and genuinely excited to be in a classroom. I know it couldn’t have been easy taking into account the feelings and struggles of dozens of your students every single day while also trying to make the class material interesting and engaging. After nearly 16 years of schooling, I’ve become so tired of this cycle: learn, study, test. However, there were a handful of teachers and professors who came into my life and did something I thought could never happen again. I learned how to love learning again.
Walking into your classrooms didn’t feel like a chore or just another part of my mundane daily routine. Sitting in your lectures felt like a true privilege because you harnessed your passion and enthusiasm for the subject and projected your excitement into every lesson you taught. I felt like I was learning so much more than what a textbook could ever tell me so thank you for bringing life back into a part of my day that I previously dreaded. Thank you for sharing your knowledge with me in a way where I wasn’t falling asleep in my chair and my attention didn’t drift off halfway through the class. You are the heroes in our society that often go unrecognized but I hope you find this letter and you understand that you have an incredible gift of being able to rekindle a lost curiosity in students like myself who have become worn out by the education system.
Even if you’re an educator, but you’ve never had me in your class yet you feel like these words are speaking to you, then you’re more than likely one of those select individuals who have touched the lives of so many students. There’s that awful saying “those who can’t do, teach” and I’m sorry that phrase was ever introduced into our world, but just know, even if “everyone” can teach, not everyone should teach. Some educators take advantage of the power they have in the classroom and students can absolutely feel that dynamic as soon as they walk through the door. It’s a terrible feeling to have someone standing in front of you making it known that they are smarter and therefore they are somehow better than you. But, then there are the teachers like you that crush those power dynamics by becoming an equal with your students to help them learn in their own way at their own pace. Your patience is — without a doubt — tested every day, but your strength overcomes frustration and I truly appreciate that.
You all deserve much more than an article on the internet but until the public finds a more suitable way to recognize your efforts, I hope this letter will suffice.
All my best,
Dani Jin