A Great teacher is an inspiration

“A Great teacher is an inspiration”. This means that they never fail to inspire their students and the people around them. I have found great pleasure in learning and teaching language for as long as I can remember. Whenever I look at my past life, I realize I have had an inherent desire for teaching. In my younger days, I always opted to play in school rather than play at home with my siblings. Despite the degree of teaching that I may pursue, I knew that teaching was my ultimate desire. Whether I was referred to as a nursery school teacher, an ‘ustazah’ (a person who teaches religion), a primary or high school teacher or a professor in college or university, I knew what my target was: to become a teacher.

However, the path to becoming a teacher was an easy one. The decision to become a teacher was almost crushed. My parents did not give me much of a chance to become what I wanted to be after college. At that point in life, I felt that I was denied the chance to fulfill my dream. I had already chosen to further my studies and take to Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL). On the contrary, I was forced to take science stream at a matriculation college. To my parents, and the society in general, science stream is by far the most important and superior of all other subjects. As a result, I got enough marks to secure a place in the university. At university level, my matriculation results denied me a chance to take TESL as a course. Fortunately, I managed to pull my self together in my second semester. I decided to improve on the course I was doing so that I would improve on my grade and from then on get above 3.0 each semester.  Despite all these hurdles, I did not give up my dream of pursuing teaching as a career. In my fourth semester, I went to appeal to the Academic Department for a course change from Bachelor of English to a Bachelor of Education. However, I received a letter a few weeks later stating that the program would not accept new students. This was in regard to the quota approved by the ministry of education was up to capacity.

Even though I lacked an opportunity to teach, I took up any events that would require me to teach or share knowledge. Such programs like the National Language Camp organized by the University of Putra, Malaysia in partnership with the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development for school children is still very memorable as I had the role of a facilitator. The event was tiresome but.............