I’m sat, relaxing at the start of my summer holiday, currently reflecting on the people who have influenced me throughout my life and it has led me to this question: Who has inspired me?
Influence and inspiration are not the same things; influences can be positive and negative and there have certainly been both in my life but I am going to focus on the positives, the influences that have inspired me, taught me things that have made me a better person.
My dad inspires me. He has had a massive influence on my life, he has helped shape the person I am today. The word I think of when I think of him is ‘patience;’ he has seemingly infinite reserves of it. He is a quiet and gentle soul who would do anything for anybody. He spent most of his life teaching and has had a positive influence on countless people. In the latter part of his career he did a lot of work with adults in night school teaching them maths. I have met many people who my dad helped get their maths qualifications as an adult, who were then able to go on to get the job they wanted because they finally had the qualifications needed. As you can probably tell, I am incredibly proud of my dad.
Children inspire me. Every year of my teaching career I have come across children that have taken my breath away with their approach to the challenges the world has thrown at them. Children are adaptable and resilient in ways that many adults don’t seem to be. They also often see the world with a clarity that cuts through all of the complexities of life and simply gets to the heart of the problem. For the purposes of anonymity I won’t be any more specific than this but just this year I taught a child who embodied the ‘never give up’ attitude that I value so much, and inspired me with how he always got stood back up, dusted himself off and tried again.
Many teachers have inspired me over the years, some who have taught me whilst I was at school myself, some who I have had the privilege of working with. These people have had a positive influence on my life, on my outlook and way of thinking. I am going to mention a few here by way of thanks for influencing me in a positive way.
Firstly, there was Mr Turner. He was my Y7 form tutor at Middle School, he taught me Humanities and English. He was a warm and kind man, who gave time to all of his students, they all felt loved by him. He inspired my love of writing and made me feel it was ok to write poetry when the 1980’s world I inhabited wasn’t always kind to quiet, sensitive boys like me.
Then there was Mrs Turley, my high school English teacher. She helped reignite my love of reading and I will never forget her kindness of giving me copies of 1984 and War of the Worlds. She was another teacher who seemed to have time for everybody and made the introverts in the classroom feel noticed and heard.
During my NQT year, I had the privilege to work in the same school as a man called John Snell. He was such a fantastic teacher, he was always so positive and every child in his class must have felt like they were his favourites. He was kind and patient with them, he had so much empathy and would always look why a child behaved the way they did to attempt to understand what they were really trying to communicate. I learnt so much from him and he has been a huge influence on the way I have tried to conduct myself as a teacher.
Next is Jackie Cutchey. She was my Head teacher when I became a Deputy Head. She is the best head teacher I have ever worked for. She always had time for people and looked after her staff fantastically, she cared about people and had empathy for their situations. She lived and breathed the philosophy of ‘look after the people who work for you and they will repay in kind’. Staff worked hard for Jackie and went the extra mile, not because they felt they had to but because they wanted to. She cared about them and they cared about her.
Can you see any common themes with the people that I have described? They all have qualities that inspire me and have influenced the way I have tried to lead my life. They are all very different in personalities but one think that binds them together is ‘kindness’. Kindness costs nothing but it’s value is beyond compare. These people have had a positive influence on so many others, not just me, and they have done it through kindness.
These are some of the people who have inspired me and influenced my life.
Who inspires you?
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