One of my students cried in class yesterday. Then she wrote something that almost made me cry.
For homework, my freshmen were supposed to write a letter to a school official complaining about a problem such as bad cafeteria food or noisy dorms. Three students didn’t do the assignment, so I told them to write me a letter explaining why.
When I collected their papers, one of the students burst into tears. This is part of what she wrote:
Dear Rick,
I’m sorry that I haven’t finish my homework. I apologize that I forget it.
Even though my English is so terrible, I even can’t understand what you said in class. I know you are a good teacher. You can tell me something interesting. Sometimes, you also play jokes with us. Last week, you invite a Chinese teacher who speaks English fluency to teach us some ways that learn English well. We really appreciate you. As the Chinese teacher said, we are lucky to meet you.
I know you will leave China soon. The time you have along with us is less and less. My deed caused you disappointed for me. I am quite grieved.
I, of course, told her that everything was OK and that she shouldn’t be so upset. Her classmates gave her some tissues and soon she was smiling again.
That night, I received an email from the same student. “I am the cried girl,’’ it read. “As for something happened in the class, it’s my fault.’’
As I often say, I learn as much from my students as they learn from me. In this case, I got a profound lesson in humility.
