GRAF #2

GRAF #2

How well I remember my Trigonometry class – not for anything I learned there about Math, but for the lesson I learned about compassion, tolerance, and helpfulness.  The teacher was not the role model.  But in a way, she was the object lesson.  She was dictatorial, aloof, pompous.  Head high, body erect, she seemed to tower over her students, spewing forth technical mathematical terms without any attempt to interpret her foreign language into words we could comprehend.  A good student, I attempted to follow her lessons, but I, as well as the rest of the class, failed miserably.  One brave student plucked up the courage to ask if this teacher would possibly speak in a way that we could all understand.  Instead, the instructor haughtily replied, “I will not lower myself to words you can understand; you must raise your vocabulary to understand mine.”    At that point, I learned that no matter how much knowledge I attained, it was more important to reach out to others and to lift them up, not to stand before them on a pedestal.  I gave up asking that teacher any questions, but I learned what not to do to others.  Instead of following the lead of that insensitive teacher, I learned to be more compassionate, more tolerant toward those who may struggle with something I might find easy to do, and I’m now more willing to help others who are struggling, if I can.