Letter To Self

Letter to Self Dear Jerome, It's been several years since you first started teaching. Do you remember watching the movie, "The Power of One?" You walked away with the feeling that one person had the potential to make a huge difference in the lives of others. The belief that one person had the ability to inspire others to dream and work towards a goal, whether as an individual, or as part of a collective. You held on to the feeling that one person could create a better world for others by setting an example of what they envisioned. For you, teaching seemed to be the best opportunity to make such a difference. The more you meditated on the power of one person to make a difference in the World, the more historical examples came to mind, where leaders such as Napoleon Bonaparte were able to come out of exile and convince most of the French Army to wage war on the rest of Europe for a hundred days, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were able to both lead nations towards a different future, an independent one, while Fidel Castro was able to stand up against the growing wave of U.S. imperialism that was taking place across the Caribbean during the 1950s. Do you remember the times that teachers have demonstrated compassion, understanding and patience among many other traits in your life? These same traits that you have recognised need to be shown to your students at present? Must say that I’ve been blessed to currently work with many of the same teachers who have educated me, moulded me and inspired me to make a difference. I have learnt so much from them. However, I do recognise that I still have much to learn about the art of teaching itself. To be honest, while I’ve recognised that I needed to grow and develop as an educator, I had to be goaded to apply for this course. Not that I didn’t want to do the course but I’m always juggling so many things in my life that I was always concerned about not giving my best effort toward

this course. Yet I can’t deny my absolute need to be much more effective as an educator. I know my limitations in terms of delivery and I hope to overcome them during this programme.

Sincerely, Jerome Spence