Blog 5
Over the weekend husband and I were in that well known Swedish furniture store that rhymes funnily enough with ‘never a good idea’ because once you’re in, you can never get out – we were in Ikea. We were rather happily discussing/arguing over the need for a new kitchen when all of a sudden mid sentence, I stopped dead in my tracks and started shuffling to my right. My husband looked at me alarmed but I carried on shuffling. I spotted a strategically placed wardrobe and felt that it would make a great hiding place. But there was no escaping, she was looking straight at me and heading my way. My heart was pounding. I firmly regretted not shopping online on the Asus. My husband, who was completely bewildered, gave up: ‘what in the world are you doing, you mad woman?’, ‘it’s…a…a…student’, ‘so? ‘well you know, I’ll have to make conversation!’.
You see, I love being a teacher. I love connecting with my students. I get on really well with them but firmly within a school environment where I am a teacher and they are my learners. Outside of school, I become a normal person who does normal things (or slightly abnormal things sometimes, as far as my husband is concerned) and no longer in teacher mode. Therefore, I find nothing more unnerving that bumping into a student outside of school – what to say? The awkward conversations: ‘hi miss, shopping?’, ‘er…yes’, ‘is that your husband?’, ‘er…I think so’. But the worse to come is when you go to work the next day and bump into the said student: ‘miss, I saw you yesterday, you were with your husband, you were looking at kitchens’, and then in my next class, ‘miss, Chloe said you were shopping in Ikea yesterday, do you like Ikea? I didn’t think it was your kind of store, do you go every day?’etc. So you see, bumping into a student during the summer holidays isn’t a good idea.
Back in Ikea, my student was heading towards me and I’m looking for an escape route but then the strangest thing happened! She blanked me and walked straight past me without any acknowledgement whatsoever. I fumed at my husband, ‘how dare she blank a teacher like that, where is the respect for teachers gone these days? Husband shook his head and just carried on walking.
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