The past three months, I have been shadowing a local English teacher here in our community, learning from and working alongside of her. Though my role at the school is in the process of changing, this past week I was fortunate enough to be included in the celebration for Día del Maestro, or Teacher’s Day.
As the day approached, I have to say that I was a little less than thrilled… Living in a different culture, there are some things I struggle to understand. For one, why was a school in the country with the lowest-rated education system in Central America going to take an entire school day just to celebrate teachers? That was (in my mind) a whole day—precious hours of time and learning—that would be wasted. All I could think of was that back home we would NEVER take a whole school day just to celebrate teachers. I wasn’t necessarily disappointed to have the day off teaching, but I just didn’t get why.
Well, the morning came, and rather than heading to class, Miss A and I waited in the courtyard as the homeroom teachers prepared their students. Several little ones ran up to hug and felicitar (congratulate) me for Teacher’s Day before the celebrations even started, and a few even gave me handmade cards.
Half an hour or so went by, and then the celebrations started. With all the kids—preschool through high school—gathered in the gym, seniors helping out with the younger students, we maestros (teachers) were escorted in one-by-one as they announced our names, with the crowd going wild! I sat at the teacher table alongside other profess (professors) much more experienced and qualified than I am, humbled to get to be a part of such a group of leaders in this community...the final few teachers were announced, and then the two or three students emceeing the event took the mic.
They began announcing different grades and student groups, who took the stage to sing, dance, or share a few words. I watched as my preschoolers, first graders, second graders…all the way up to my sixth graders performed in celebration of my coworkers and me… Meanwhile, we were served a delicious, warm breakfast and coffee by high school students. My emotions went from laughter at our first level preschooler picking his nose to the side of the stage as the rest of his peers did their dance (some things are the same in every country!), to tears as I sat taking it all in.
As they continued celebrating us, with more treats, gifts, games, and performances, I couldn’t help but be humbled. I guess you could say God grabbed me in the midst of it all and gave me a reminder… You see, I come from a country and culture so worried about following schedules, managing hours in the day, and working to never “lose time.” A world where time is often more important than people. Now, however, I find myself dropped in the middle of a world where people are so much more important than time…
Here I was trapped in my American mindset that we couldn’t waste time, when God reminded me of this: People are more important to Him, too. OOPS. Schedules and time are important, but we cannot allow them to triumph people, God’s greatest creation of all (Genesis 1:31)! If people are important to God…shouldn’t they be important to us, too?