So, my boy, who participated in the Spelling Bee last year, made it to the semi-finals this year as well. Nice of him to let me know and want to make me proud.

Teaching is such a delicate business, in which teachers must dish out precise amounts of care and support. Stay a tad too detached, and your student doesn’t feel your push to help him become better. Rally him a bit too much, and his wish to excel is borne out of a sense of extrinsic motivation. How then to help him uncover the vitality within himself?

Nonetheless, I don’t let myself get too philosophical about things. I look at his efforts to punctuate his sentences and luxuriate in the glow of a job well accomplished. At least one student remembers my unceasing effort to get them to put commas and full stops.