Letter to Self

Dear Jerome,

It's been several years since you first started teaching. Do you remember watching

the movie, "The Power of One?" You walked away with the feeling that one person had the

potential to make a huge difference in the lives of others. The belief that one person had the

ability to inspire others to dream and work towards a goal, whether as an individual, or as part of

a collective. You held on to the feeling that one person could create a better world for others by

setting an example of what they envisioned. For you, teaching seemed to be the best opportunity

to make such a difference. The more you meditated on the power of one person to make a

difference in the World, the more historical examples came to mind, where leaders such as

Napoleon Bonaparte were able to come out of exile and convince most of the French Army to

wage war on the rest of Europe for a hundred days, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela were

able to both lead nations towards a different future, an independent one, while Fidel Castro was

able to stand up against the growing wave of U.S. imperialism that was taking place across the

Caribbean during the 1950s.

Do you remember the times that teachers have demonstrated compassion,

understanding and patience among many other traits in your life? These same traits that you have

recognised need to be shown to your students at present? Must say that I’ve been blessed to

currently work with many of the same teachers who have educated me, moulded me and inspired

me to make a difference. I have learnt so much from them.

However, I do recognise that I still have much to learn about the art of teaching itself.

To be honest, while I’ve recognised that I needed to grow and develop as an educator, I had to be

goaded to apply for this course. Not that I didn’t want to do the course but I’m always juggling

so many things in my life that I was always concerned about not giving my best effort toward
this course. Yet I can’t deny my absolute need to be much more effective as an educator. I know

my limitations in terms of delivery and I hope to overcome them during this programme.

Sincerely,

Jerome Spence