A random note from work...
Today, one of the little girls I taught this afternoon asked me solemnly, "Do you think that I'll be better than my sisters (in piano) one day?"
Let me explain. She's one of the super-active but adorable triplets whom I teach on Thursday evenings. Kids being kids - three is easily a crowd... and this little girl, N, being a little different from her other two sisters, gets left out quite often. This was something I especially picked up from an experiment I did once - whereby I was trying to put the three girls into the same class (the experiment failed and I wanted to hit my head on the wall; but I did glean a lot of good lessons from it that would help me teach them individually). Because N is very friendly, very affectionate and therefore a chatterbox (I'm getting used to her now), she initially progressed much slower than her sisters. However, I have started noticing her strengths. She is a lot more humbler than her sisters too. Like a lot, a lot!
So back to her question...
Honestly I was quite taken-aback.
I told N not to compare herself with her sisters - but rather... if being a great pianist is her dream, she should keep working hard and moving forward to that dream. I told her that I believed in her... and told her never to stop dreaming even if people said things that hurt. She was very quiet (for once). Later, when her mom came to pick her up, I spoke well of N and her strengths while N was in hearing distance. I hope that she was as encouraged as her mom was surprised!
The whole "incident" humbled me and made me desire even more to be an excellent teacher for the sake of my little dreamers (and nurturing the seeds of goodness God has placed in these little children).
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