How many times did I hear this age-old question in my childhood? Despite the time spent playing school teacher with my stuffed animals, deep down I wanted to be an actress. Whimsical, idealistic, romantic, I dreamed, among other things, of playing these great heroines who fascinated me, desperately seeking to fill boredom, falling into illusion.
Unsurprisingly, these childhood dreams eventually dry up in proportion to the increase in reason that comes with age. A vocation, that is the remedy for the melancholy that inhabited me. I wanted to do a job that would give meaning to my life, a profession that has a soul.
It took a meeting to awaken in me the idea of teaching. “Never in high school, I won’t make it. The students are unbearable,” I exclaimed. “At least try, if you really want to have an impact… and you have the heart to do it,” I was told. So I embarked on this adventure, and not without difficulty, I decided to continue it…
The most amazing thing is that this acting, I found it. I do it every day. “Students are not easy to manage. You just have to take on a role. You will thus create your shell”, I had been advised.
It has therefore become my daily life… comedian, educator, sometimes philosopher… The latter is my favorite role.
It is so gratifying to see my students’ eyes widen as I have piqued their interest and shaped their thoughts. Through my teaching and my experience, they seek advice, hope…
“I would have liked to be a teacher of life”, admitted the writer Jacques Salomé in a slightly sorry tone. For me, this profession is not to be invented. It already exists.
I no longer have a first name. They taught me to love my surname, these children. “Madame Soucy! I felt a warmth in my chest when I first heard my name echoing on the subway. He was a student in my first cohort, now in CEGEP. My heart swelled with pride. Others have gone before me, but what a wicked pleasure to think that I have put my two cents in there, that I have perhaps a little bit kindled dreams, contributed to successes.
Learning through students
I am a teacher. It’s funny, I always found that there was some pretension in this word, because, myself, I never stop learning… through the students, their vision of the world. I will grow old, but my students will always be the same age. It’s both scary and exciting to accept that you have to constantly reinvent yourself.
I do not manage a multinational. My pride is not measured in millions of dollars generated, but in the brilliance of understanding in a look. “Me, it’s as if I were prime minister! a now-retired colleague once said. The world of education remains somewhat apart… it is the foundation on which a society is founded. We are the first on the front line, the first to mark out the paths, the quarries… This is the beauty and the uniqueness of this job.
It is demanding to teach. The word is weak. I discipline myself to adopt healthy lifestyle habits, because a hundred young growing beings depend in part on me. They deserve that I have all my energy when I give “my show”. Yes, this profession will always be a vocation. It’s demanding to teach, and no contempt for all the jobs that are too. I simply want to say that it is demanding… but oh so great!