Letting Go

Nelson Tod

Contributor

It’s not that I wasn’t expecting to work with kids. It was that I wasn’t sure that I even liked kids. It was a huge surprise to me that I liked working with them. I don’t even feel like I teach them, really. The amount of talent they showed is incredible. Some of the results are amazing. 

I started with photography and now I’m cooking with them and doing video editing and drama classes with them. I think I have the best classes in schools. It’s not something rigid. They can have fun and I can have fun with them. 

Most of the time I’m clueless about what I’m going to do in the drama classes. We usually don’t even use scripts. We make out own which is more difficult for the kids. The process takes slightly longer but they are participating in every step of the way. They’re able to create their own things to reflect themselves. It’s all about creativity. Most of the time I’m pleasantly surprised with what they create.

I like every one of the students. I wouldn’t believe it if someone else told me that. But I really do like each of them. There’s something charming about every single one of them. I do like the mischievous ones as well, even more sometimes. I was a mischievous kid as well so I can’t be hypocritical. 

I think the main thing for a teacher is that they really should enjoy what they do. When I was a child, fun was forbidden. If you were having fun with what you were doing there was something wrong. You’re not serious about your studies. It’s the same in the adult world. It’s like you shouldn’t have fun. But for me it’s the main things that I do. If I’m not having fun then I get easily bored. 

The school system in Bulgaria when I was growing up was very rigid. It was so traumatic. I did my best in my secondary school not to go to school. I was going to a doctor to get a note so I could play pool all week. Anything to get out of school.

It’s a sad thing that the schools are not completely different now. The world is changing and I think we should adapt how we are teaching the kids. Otherwise it’s like producing clueless people. They are getting out of school and they haven’t learned anything how to cope and how to work in this world. There’s some knowledge that most of the time is memorized. You haven’t gone into any real understanding on the subject. It’s best if you have acknowledge that we all have an opinion. 

That’s what I remember as a student. That’s what was really bugging me as well, apart from the boredom. No one asked you for your opinion. 

More and more people are looking for different alternatives because they see that all the textbooks are mind numbing. The teachers are just following the program and parroting the same information year after year. How many times can one person repeat the same sentence and stay interesting? Even when I think about that, it’s horrible. I can’t imagine how people can do that. 

Lately I’m trying to not be in as much control. It’s hard sometimes though. I watched this documentary about this frog that lays its eggs in a foam bubble that it produces to protect them. It does that so that they can’t be eaten. Soon after the rain comes and softens the bubble so that the eggs are released into the water when it’s safe. The frog didn’t have a weather forecast for when the rain is coming. It just knows. I realized that nature goes on around us. To be in control always is stupid. It’s relieving to give up control. It’s freeing. It’s arrogant to think we’re in control. The frog doesn’t need us to know what to do.