One teacher made a big difference
Beckie Littler,
29th Sep 2019
Tags:
Life
Blog
Education
Exams
Hope
I used to love The Three Musketeers, and studying it in high school made me genuinely excited.
All of my school reports used to say ‘Rebecca has great potential but she needs to listen more in class’.
This was the main reason I spent almost every day in detention during year 10.
I had an overactive imagination. My brain was constantly spinning with ideas and I got easily distracted thinking about what I would be doing next.
You can’t really expect to get away with it.
Now when you are in a reasonably strict teacher's class and you are talking to the person next to you every two minutes, you can’t really expect to get away with it. And I didn’t.
So as I have already said, I used to love The Three Musketeers. Then I had to write out as much of it as I could in exam conditions every lunchtime for around two months. Which would have been ok, but I always had to start at the beginning, which means I could recite it word for word, but only up to around page 12.
I remember being in detention one day and my teacher told me I needed to try harder and channel my focus into my work. I was in year 10 at the time, and I thought, "I still have two more years to mess around and have fun before I need to start paying attention in class".
One day we walked up to our English lesson. We walked into class and our regular teacher wasn’t there. It was a new teacher. His name was Dr. Mitchell. I remember thinking he sounded like a snob because he was a Dr.
All it took was one person who invested in me.
It turns out that Dr Mitchell was the only teacher who got me to do my work. Not only to do my work but to excel.
I went from a girl who wouldn’t listen to her teachers, to a girl who told her friends to shut up so I could concentrate. All it took was one person who invested in me.
In the end, I got a B in my English exam. Dr. Mitchell had turned it around for me.
I honestly believe that God put Dr. Mitchell in my life so that I could prove to myself that the only limit that I had was the limit my attitude put on me. Now I try to have the right attitude towards everything that I do.
Since then, I have thrown myself head first into things that I love despite never thinking that I could do any of it.
By the grace of God, I am able to do these things.
I never thought I would be capable of standing up and preaching in front of my church. I never thought I would be able to be a working mother or a wife. But by the grace of God, I am able to do these things.
I am forever thankful to the people that God has put in my path to teach me how to be in control and take responsibility for myself.
And as it says in the Bible, 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me' (Phillipians 4:13).
