Hello Education community, hope you are doing well today._
Last week I told you about @comigold2/the-kid-who-fought-to-be-expelled.
Today, I want to share an early-teen girl’s boarding school experience. She’s beautiful, tall, dark-skinned, well-built. She walks and talks with confidence — certain of what she wants to do and become. She wants to be seen, heard, known on the runway. A projected runway beauty.
We converse, and she talks more about fashion- especially modeling as her career path. “I really want to be on the world’s fashion fair runway.”
Then she smiles. “I love to sing too. When I’m alone, I sing. It’s how I talk to myself when the dorm is quiet and I miss home.” As she says this, her face sparkles. You feel the joy and passion in her voice.
She says, I won’t like to go back, but I’m always lonely at school. I miss my siblings and home." I observed on a scale of 10, her academics are an 8. She is not doing badly, only for two subjects. “I barely hear what my mathematics teacher says — his voice is always hoarse and loud. And my English teacher has poor writing skills, which makes it difficult for me to read and write. Thank God for lesson notes and classmates.”
“Teachers should endeavor to use a conversational tone in teaching and write clearly. We are listeners and learners.”
I nod in agreement
She continued, “I always stand up for myself and no one bullies me. Sometimes I share my food and stuff with others. So I don’t know if that’s why I haven’t experienced bullying like him. I stay out of trouble and conversations that don’t concern me. I just obey the school rules — not because I’m happy being in boarding school. I’m always counting down to my free days. Holidays.”
Her countenance slowly changed, “Whenever I’m on holiday, I get exhausted when they try to regulate my activities. To me, it’s my freedom period. But my parents think otherwise. I still need to attend lessons every day of the holiday.”
She pleads, “Can the holiday lessons be four days a week so I can start fashion academy on the other days? And maybe singing lessons too?”
I knew firsthand that he aware of the child's dream. I told her I would speak with your father about it. The truth I saw was that her father wants a different career path for her. Something benefiting his status, A father to a model seems easy and cheap - anybody can do that but medicine and STEM showed intelligence and zealousness. He thinks modeling is not worthy an ambition, Medicine excites him.
She knows what calls her out.
She wants to be on the screen as a “popular model, that’s not all, she also wants to be a judge. "I like social sciences. The environment and human behavior fascinate me a lot. I want to understand people and stand for fairness."
The father feels he is doing his best for the children but believes they are not prepared to handle the heritage he will leave behind. He sees modeling — and now singing — as wasteful dreams.
**I think hobbies and academics can be integrated without disruption by time scheduling. **She is aware of the subtle science lessons. "I do not like science subjects, but I like social sciences."
As I look at her, I knew she was a greatly promising child who needs guidance and not cohesion to conform. As she grows older, she will unfold and know what and where her true purpose is.
The boy broke rules hoping to escape school. She follows them to escape what school wants her to become. Two kids, same system, but different wars; peer pressure and peer support. Who’s really free?
Did you ever wander around with career choices?
Yes I did, I followed my high school best friend then to arts.☺️ I struggled so much and it took a teacher's effort to redirect me, I'm glad he did and I am still in contact with him for almost fifteen years now. Sometimes, beyond teaching, a friendly teacher is a shield.
If you did, can you share yours too.
Some details withheld for privacy and the images are generated by meta AI.
