Fly Away Birdie!

blackgirl on mars...the cartoon! the lab, cph 2007



I guess when you take the first step, everything really starts coming together.
For the sake of saving my good stories for my book, I'll make this short. Teaching will no longer be my profession as of the end of this academic school year.
One of the things I love about being a writer is that it is the perfect excuse to get into something : whether it's traveling, working at a bar or painting a house, you are always in touch with your inspiration: Life.
As I've mentioned before, teachers have had a powerful impact on my life. As a child from a not-so-structured home (no disrespect to Mom & Dad who were doing their best with the economic hustle) school was always a welcome destination for me. There, the rules were clear. It didn't mean I always followed them, but at least they were clear and again, there was structure. School was something I always excelled at, partially because of my natural intellectual curiosity and also peeping, from an early age the game, and mastering it.
So becoming a mother was an excellent time to delve into this new career. It gave me the schedule and flexibility that enabled me to be more present with my child, and it gave me the opportunity to explore the culture of modern day education.
I remember sending my resume out to a variety of international schools here. Two responded to me personally. One of them was my previous place of employment and the other, my current place of employment.
It was the leader of my school who called me. He's a really down-to-earth, cool kind of guy. He's originally from Canada - and the guy has a mind and a heart that can be really cool to experience sometimes. Anyway, he picked up the phone and called me, and I went in for an interview.
I fell in love with my current place of employment the moment I walked in. I felt like I came home. The kids responded very warmly and openly to me. I melted every time I looked up and the face of diversity stared back at me. The staff is really cool and relaxed, and in the end, the school's just got heart and a whole lotta' soul.
I went off to work at the other school, because there were no jobs there at the time, and my Danish wasn't that strong back then. Although it is technically an international school, the language of instruction is Danish - the selling point is that the kids receive English from kindergarten.
Four years later he calls me and I'm back. I inherit a very challenging but perfect (for me, anyway) group of kids. They kicked my ass. I deserved it. This is the class I took to Amsterdam. They graduated last year, but I managed to make some pretty strong connections with a few of them. Particularly along the lines of creativity.
One of my dreams have ALWAYS been to publish the works of children. I am so tired of adults dominating the marketplace - seriously. I miss the point-of-view of the youth - what are they thinking and how are they thinking about things before we impose our world-view on them? How can we ever expect to solve what's going on in the world, if we don't listen to EVERYONE?
So, stay tuned...there's more coming from Bandit Queen Press.
farvel,
Lesley-Ann

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