There was once a woman named Emma. She lived in Westfield with her parents. Emma had always been fond of teaching. Therefore, she soon decided to be a teacher. She completed her studies and was ready to start working. She did not want to move away from town and tried to get a job in Westfield. Soon Emma got a job and started teaching in a school closeby. She had been teaching in that school for about 2 years. She was not particularly fond of the teaching methods utilized by the school. Emma thought that the students were not expanding their horizons of knowledge by learning only through theory. Emma had to go to a classroom and just read out the chapter to the students. She tried making a few quizzes and activities for the students, but they never participated in those as they were not used to that kind of learning.
Emma soon decided that she would teach in a school that encouraged students to learn more than just what was in their textbooks even if it meant that she would have to move away from Westfield. Soon she found a school that had recently opened and was looking for teachers to hire. She went for the interview and instantly got selected as a teacher there as the school’s way of teaching matched very well with Emma’s. She joined that school and taught the children happily. Emma loved her occupation and was more determined to reach her goal every day. Her goal was to teach a life lesson to each and every student in her classes. She wanted her students to not only excel in their studies but also grow as individuals. She loved teaching her students in different ways and would always plan group activities or creative games for them. Emma’s ways of teaching were loved by her students and they excelled in her classes. The students were always ready to participate and learn through different methods. Once, she had to teach physics to the students of grade 8. For this lesson, she had a different activity planned. It wasn’t a quiz or a group activity. It was a rather simple one. She poured water into a glass and held it up in the air. The students gave each other confused looks as they didn’t understand what their teacher was doing. Emma looked at the confused faces and quickly broke the silence by asking her students “How much does this glass of water weigh?” At first, her classroom was silent. No one uttered a word but just shared a few glances with one another. Emma saw their faces and repeated her question. Again, this time encouraging the children to answer. “1 kg” shouted one of the boys at the back. “No, it couldn’t be that heavy! 0.14 kg” shouted another student. Emma was happy that the students were engaged in the activity. She let a few more of them guess. The students came up with all kinds of answers. Emma did not agree with any of the students, nor did she disagree. She just sat there silently, waiting for them to answer. After a while, one of the students said “Miss, please tell us the weight of this glass! We can’t figure it out.” Emma looked at the glass, then looked at her students, and looked back at the glass. “The weight of this glass of water is in the hands of the person holding it.” She replied calmly.
“For example, if I hold the glass for just a few seconds, I wouldn't find it heavy. However, if I held the same glass for a few minutes or even an hour, my hand would start to hurt and I would find the glass heavy automatically.” The students all nodded their heads, agreeing with what their teacher said. “Often in life, our worries and stresses are just like this glass of water. If we think about them for a few hours, they appear to be less but, if we hold onto them and continue thinking about them, they will seem bigger and never-ending.” Said Emma. Through this activity, Emma wanted her students to learn the importance of not being weighed down by burdens or stress in
your life. She wanted them to understand that calming yourself down after a stressful day is very important so that you don’t suffer the next day.
This life lesson that Emma taught her students, was a really helpful one as whatever our worries are, should not linger on for very long. We should try to solve them as soon as we can. Because no matter what happens during the day, we should put all our burdens down by the evening. We should let go of them and not carry them to the next day, as each day is a new beginning and a fresh start.
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