Article & Photography by Faras | Owl Staff
Teacher’s Appreciation Day is on May 7. This tribute was written by HCC alumni Faras two years ago today.
Class failure, troublemaker, school skipper…professor? Some might call my relationship with school dysfunctional. I call it destined.
As a kid, I used to throw tantrums in the mornings at our house in Lahore while my siblings waited in excitement with their book-bags and lunchboxes by the gate. Our housekeepers and grandfather used to chase me around the house and hold me down while my mom struggled to put my school uniform on. I’d get whacked by my teacher for misbehaving and found asleep at my desk when someone came to pick me up. When we got to America, I was already getting calls home from the principal – the first of many parent-teacher meetings to come. Throughout middle school, I was pulling pranks and spending more time in detention and eating lunch with teachers than with my friends. In high school I showed up late, left early, and skipped most days that I could without anyone noticing. School just did not interest me. My report cards may have said otherwise, but I knew I wasn’t dumb. I was learning more outside of the classroom than in it.
They say one teacher can change your entire life – Claudia Brown is one who changed mine. My first years in college, she was a professor who didn’t reject my ideas, but encouraged me to build on them. When I wanted to try something new, she told me to do it, and run with it if it worked. She made me apply myself and discover what I was truly capable of. I came to Claudia over and over as an eager student, and she made a leader out of me.
When I got the call that Claudia wanted me to teach college classes in the Mass Communications program as an adjunct, initially I was hesitant. I was stacked with client projects, building my own brands, and other responsibilities. That same day, my sister messaged me saying that she had also seen Claudia’s post and encouraged me to go for it. We come from a family of people who taught while practicing their respected professions. This was my sign to carry on that tradition. I looked at my flooded schedule and decided I’d manage. There’s times life sits still and times life runs by before you can catch it. I was already sprinting, I could keep up.
They say one teacher can change your entire life – Claudia Brown is one who changed mine.
I was nervous but my dear friends/fellow educators, Riley and Zaneb, gave me helpful advice, and Claudia gave me all the support I’d need. Ultimately, I just had to be myself. I started designing my own curriculum, turning lesson plans into performances, collaborating with my students like a startup team, and presenting ideas to each other like we were on the set of Shark Tank (theme music and all lol). I went from teaching one course to five over this past year including subjects in Multimedia Journalism, Video, Design, Web Development, Social Media Marketing, and Branding. Claudia kept saying do more and I did. She’s even enrolled in a course I’m teaching this semester as one of MY students.
In my first semester alone, I’ve witnessed such intelligent, empathetic, and creative young minds. Don’t let social media fool you, these kids at their age are way smarter than they’re given credit for. They’ll be the best of us yet. I’ve learned just as much from them and with them as I’ve taught. “The best way to learn something is to teach it,” is a quote that has stuck with me from Claudia’s mother since I read it.
Whether I carry on with this opportunity in or outside the classroom, I’ve realized that if the learning never stops, neither should the teaching. The blessings and privileges I was granted are useless if I don’t share them with others. Because out there lie plenty of kids who don’t just bet their intelligence on a test, but on a daily basis test their potential to be great. Kids who can’t sit still in a classroom, because their minds wander to so many other imaginative places. Kids who need a chance to not just explain answers, but explore the possibilities. Kids like me. Claudia Brown, thank you for letting me be. And challenging me to be even better.