Self esteem

I just attended my weekly Wednesday taekwondo training yesterday night, and it dawned on me that there will be students, be it learning taekwondo, or perhaps in the classrooms that have low self esteem. Honestly speaking, I was not born with high self esteem. In fact, I suffered low self esteem when I was in primary school, till the point that my primary 6 form teacher wrote in my report book that I have low self esteem. Though it may seem as though on the outside, I don't suffer any self esteem issues (I am able to articulate my thoughts out pretty well, and I also assist in coaching taekwondo at my club), but I guess certain things are not as visible to everyone's eyes. And this fact made me realized that as a role of a teacher, one must not assume that a student is well and mentally strong even though he/she may appear to be. But of course definitely we should not label everyone as mentally unstable just because they are going through puberty in their adolescence period.

Though being teachers, we are not psychologically trained in paper, but I believe we can all provide a listening ear, and be seen as approachable by our students. Being able to educate our students not only through academically, but also to provide them a social and emotional support will definitely make their education journey a more fulfilling one.

There is one junior in my taekwondo class who have trouble finding confidence in herself for sparring despite her above average competencies. And this was no exception in yesterday class, where she could not bring herself to spar with me despite her having the height and weight advantage. In the end, my coach placed her to spar with another female junior and after the class, she just left due to being emotionally distraught. After giving her some time to cool off her thoughts, I decided to drop her a message, and I am happy that how a simple message exchange is able to make her feel slightly better about herself. I believe that every student is able to do well and learn, but some definitely needs more encouragements compared to the rest. We as educators of the future generation should be prepared and willing to extend our helping hands to reach out to those who needs us, and in turn, we hope that this act of encouragement will continue on for future generations ahead.