The Little Things by Samantha

The Little Things by Samantha - July 2016 Scholarship Essay

With the horror and pain associated with brutal tests, quizzes, essays, homework assignments, and ultimately unsightly grades, it’s fairly easy to understand the stigma that surrounds teachers collectively. As students and as a society, we often try to fit teachers into this box of being cold-hearted and solely caring about how we performed on our last quiz, not who we are as human beings. Through my experience with one teacher in particular, this false concept was struck down and she opened my eyes, and the eyes of other students, to the reality of grades and assignments.

In the spring of my senior year, the entirety of my all-senior Spanish class was near mental breakdown. As students of the International Baccalaureate program, our spring was not filled with visions of graduation and summer, but rather the looming two-week period of exams we were about to endure. As students panicked and scrambled to study, manage extracurriculars, and keep up with assignments all at once, the majority of our class was not satisfied by the grades we were receiving in our classes and were entirely unhappy and overwhelmed.

The teacher of this Spanish class, despite being teaching an incredibly rigorous course with some tough assignments, genuinely cared about our collective well-being. Noticing the blackened circles under our eyes from lack of sleep and absence of emotion in our eyes, she stopped class one day to teach us an extremely important lesson that was not necessarily one she had included within her lesson plan. She asked us to talk with her about how we were feeling, and the answer was usually overwhelmed and disappointed. She then took the time to have us consider what we were upset about, which was grades and the exams. Walking us through a discussion about the true importance and relevance of these grades we were so upset about, she enabled us to realize that although it may seem like it sometimes, grades are not the most important thing in your life. Failing one biology project will not doom you to a life that has no success or joy in it, but allowing yourself to get caught up in that grade will. High school creates the idea in our minds that we are in our own little bubble, where the biggest problem in the world is nailing our English presentation next period rather than understanding that some children do not even have the opportunity to reach a high school level of education.

From that moment on, she ensured we considered our mental health and the relevance of our problems a lot more. Rather than hyperfocusing on problems, she encouraged us to look at them in the context of our lives overall and the world as a whole. Will failing a quiz hurt your grade? Yes, of course. But there will be more grades and time to grow from that. Even if you do get a lower grade in a class than you want, how truly important is that in the big picture? I think about this off-the-book lesson from my Spanish teacher everyday as I tend to focus on minute issues as if they are the end of the world. But her lesson is one that most teenagers and young adults in our generation could learn from. Look outside your little bubble for once. You’ll realize every little issue will be alright in the end.