A beautiful young pupil, soft spoken, we saw each other and became best friends at once.
Abigail is on my mind today, she is a young pupil I once taught in a school during service year.
she is a genius
However she doesn't write as fast as other students write.
So when I came in as the teacher the headteachers told me immediately that the Abigail was a slow writer and I should be very tough with her.
However some beautiful things were striking about Abigail.
She could sing and she could dance very well, very beautiful, she is a beautiful model as far as I am concerned.
She is intelligent.
It was like a stigma that she doesn't write so fast.
Every other students made it so obvious that Abigail couldn't write fast they would yell at her when taking notes not to slow them down, I would warn them to stop.
It was alarming for me.
One afternoon it became critical as I copied notes on the board and the headteacher worked by and Abigail was writing as fast as she could but she couldn't meet up.
Headteachers shouted at her , "must you be slow"
Excuse me madam
I was slow like Abigail in primary school.
Her eyes could not believe it because she never knew that side of me she only saw me as a creative mind.
Wait !
what's even the measurement for measuring who is slow and who is fast ?
"Sometimes we act as if life is first to finish "
We sometimes want to measure our life with the success that some people are making.
The appreciation of the weakness and strength of every child is a technique for unlocking greatness in every child.
We must look beyond comparison amongst pupils.
Strength and weaknesses in children are tools for discovery not tools not really a measurement tool for who is better than who.
That a pupil is slow in writing is not the a tool for measuring how great that child would become.
If all life colours were white I wonder what will happen to people who likes blue or those who hates black or those who would never wear pink, this I think applies to our every child.
Everyone is creatively unique blessed and beautiful in their individual make up their strength, weaknesses inclusive is a full package of greatness without them life will be boring.
Abigail is the best dancer the school has got and she sings beautifully.
Oh I didn't tell you that Abigail improved when I gave her attention and put her on the spotlight with so much love.
Ernest Agbonlahor
#Using_the_rod?