第1179期:First Job

Todd: OK, Charlotte. You've been a teacher for quite a while.

Charlotte: Yeah, I started about three years ago. My first job was in Jessif, in the east of Poland. I was promised that I wasn't going to have to teach any beginners or any little children because it was my first job. I was promptly given the beginner infants.My first day of teaching I was given a book which said, 'Ah! Go into the classroom and say "Hello" to the children and they'll all say "Hello" back to you and wave. I walked into a class of five four-year-olds, followed by all their mothers and grandmothers and I said, "Hello" and they all burst into tears burst into tears.I spent half the lesson trying to get them to say, "Hello" to each other and stop them from crying while all the grandmothers stood around and stared at me. I finally finished off my singing the whatever Happy Princess Song, all on my own, with crying infants to accompany me. It was one of the worst days of my life. I could identify with all the children though because I wanted to sit on the floor and cry with them by the end of it. I think that that was when I realized that teaching kids was never going to be my vocation. I had some other classes as well but quickly soon after that and moved onto adults who cry slightly less. Yeah, that was my first teaching experience. Not the best.