I know there seems to be a day for everything these days… World this day and World that day but recently we’ve had some VERY important ones that made me sit and think about our own little worlds we live in.. Mental Health Day, Values Day, World Teacher Day and World Smile Day to name but a very few. However, there is a huge amount of interlocking and crossovers which do affect our own teachers and practitioners. We all experience or have had experiences with the themed named days and that can also be trigger points for all the mentors in a child’s learning journey. 

Speaking to some of my own parents socially last week, they were astounded that we have an array of personalities to deal with on a weekly basis. They thought that potentially, a couple of parents a year, may choose to challenge certain approaches but generally we are in the business of happiness and creativity so why would anyone ever scrutinise that? As I’ve mentioned previously, I play both cards here, the parent and the teacher and I empathise with both. We want the best for our children, we want them to grow healthily in body and mind and we want the very best influences around them. Both parent and teacher tick those boxes! I speak to teachers from every area of education. Primary, Secondary, Special Needs, Creatives and so on and so on and I hear the same sighs and anguish from each one of them… the micro-managing of a child by a parent! in my view, this can be suffocating and be the cause of some anguish. I LIKE the fact that all my children have had different mentors, influences, and guidance. They always steer back to me but as I have said many times, I feel honoured and privileged to have been blessed as their gatekeeper in life. My body has been stretched, pulled, broken, and chemically altered to allow this incredible soul to pass through me, so why wouldn’t I want them to experience a rainbow of different emotions and practitioners who could help them understand fundamentally who they are. 

I LOVE working with all my students, all the personalities, whether that be challenging or easy. They teach me huge amounts and they stop me in my tracks weekly. Sometimes because their talent spills into realms I didn’t know they possessed but also the small little victories on their timeline of life. Sometimes, only a teacher that they work with so intensely gets to see that. Sometimes only the student wants their teacher to know that. 

Parents can feel vulnerable and threatened. I understand that too. 

However, trust in me, other teachers, other mentors that care so much about your wonderful little human, that you see it as joyous. Yes, my own teaching style is Unorthodox, its breaks boundaries, I don’t wrap them up in cotton wool or use educational corporate methods, but I have the full focus of your child. I am passionate, they see it… it creates passion in them for all sorts of reasons. They debate, they open up, they feel free because we create an environment for them to do that. Creativity does that. 

Being a parent is a gift, that we gift to others and yes, we must choose carefully, who we allow to receive such a present but by paying it forward and allowing these truly colourful characters into their lives it helps keep the light burning brightly, however tough it gets.

I thank every teacher out there, whatever their discipline, for their teachings, their smiles, their mental health and their values!

“When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. When the student is truly ready, the teacher will disappear” - Lao Tzu-