I am a teacher of future Bright's academy located at middle east Nigeria. I teach biology to secondary school student's in SS3 (senior secondary school 3). Though am a student of the university of Benin, but I also do a part time job in secondary schools as a biology teacher most especially during the holidays. In so many years of my career have been able to study the behaviour and capability of students, know their weakness and improve their academic background. Many students are very intelligent and highly gifted but they don't know how to tap into it and put it into usefulness. I am going to use one of my students named Taiwo as a case study.
Taiwo was very stubborn and playful but knew how to play football very well. There have been complains about taiwo of his nonchalant character. He would sneak out of classes and go to the field and play with the ball all by himself. Sometimes when his been sent to school, he would not show up at school but instead go to a government field used by players for practice and watch them play through out the day and return home without getting any knowledge from school. His parents would think their son attends school regularly, not knowing they were been deceived. This continued for a while until his parents received a letter from the school stating why their son has been away from school for sometime, asking if everything was okay. This made taiwo's parents angry and made sure they drop taiwo at school by themselfs.
But this didn't end here, taiwo stopped doing his assignmrnts, started failing class test and hardly participate in class activities. He was sent to the school counsellor to see if there would be changes, but things still got worse. I observed taiwo's attitude for quite sometime and wanted to see if I can make a difference in his life. So during break period I called him to my office. There he was seated in front of me looking confused, thinking of what he might have done again, and what punishment he would received. I said calmly "son what would you like yo be in the future". He bent his head being surprised at the question he was asked, been quiet for sometime he said " sir I have a dream to become the best footballer in my country and win a gold medal at the Olympic's. I was surprised how would a boy so sturborn, never listened in class, most often avoided School, achieve such a dream. But then it occurred to me that the school has forgotten about taiwo's gift's but instead focused only on his educational background. This child his blessed with a wondeful gift of playing football, but he was distracted on how he would achieve its dream and in the process loosed concentration on his school work. So i thought to myself, why don't I help train this young boy, mould him and help him achieve his dreams since no one one could see what I saw in him. I said to him "son you have a great destiny ahead of you, but for you to achieve this you need to both education and more training on your gift, I love to help people with great destiny ahead of them but don't know how to achieve it". Can I help you taiwo i asked? He replied " I would be very glad sir".
Thats how it all started, after school hours I would coach him in his studies, give him my own private test and as the saying goes" all work and no play make jack a dull boy", at weekends we would go to a football field together for training. Taiwo was so gifted that fellow players would love to have him in their team because whatever team he played for, always wins. I promised him that if he would come out with a 1st position in his class I would buy him a football kit. Taiwo success story began, he became very serious in class , topped most of his test, participated actively in class activities. From taiwo the "playful boy" to taiwo the "serious boy". His class teachers, were amazed and wondered what had happened to him, even his parents were amazed at the behaviour of their son that they had to come and thank the school for changing their son, but the principal said they had no hand in it but instead they should thank God. Exams preparations began and I had to increase the time I spent with taiwo, prepare him and made sure he had completely revised all his subject. I gave him my own mock exam and he passed very well. Exams were over and the results were been released. To my surprise taiwo came out with the best result and took the 1st position in his class. I bought him his first football kit as promised. Taiwo success didn't end there he passed his SSCE ( secondary school certificate examination) exams and graduated with the best certificate from the school. All this was not just by my efforts but by the special grace of God that helped changed taiwo and I pray one day he actually achieves his dreams.
children are gifted in so many areas of their life and that's why I believe no child is dull. It is very wrong to impose education on them without first appreciating their gifts. This is killing creativity. Government's should organize school activities where students would come out and display their talents and been rewarded. Governments should work on the educational system and ensure students are not just graded only by their academic performance but by their talents also. This way Government would promote education and creativity at the same time.
