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An
inspiring finding by Teacher Nik Waheeda, something worth your time reading if
you cared about helping your child improve but nothing seemed to work no matter
how hard you tried.
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Teacher Nik
Waheeda is a Counselor by profession and she chose to work with children.
This
is her story.
“What do I
do with you? Can someone help me, show me? How to deal with you?”
During her
capacity as a trainee counselor, Teacher Waheeda has chosen to work with
children. Her client was a very young boy, few years old. She was very excited because
the boy was her first ever client! All bright-eyed, she looked at him, he
looked at her in return, for 5 minutes.
“I’m
trained. Let him play. Do whatever he wants.” One hour passed, nobody talked. “Okay.
At least nobody died or cried.” Teacher Waheeda thought.
On the
second appointment, Teacher Waheeda was ready with some ammunition. “I’ve tried
this before and I can do it!” She looked at the little boy, said “Hi”. He went
to his toy. For the next 15 to 30 minutes she was only watching him. Then the
next 45 minutes to 1 hour. “This is a child, I don’t know what to do!!”
Third occasion,
Waheeda kept herself high-spirited and dared herself to speak up to the boy, “What
do you want to do today?” Deep down she was starting to get anxious, “I’m going
to fail my practicum.”
“What have I
done wrong? I know all techniques. I’ve attended all seminars and I’ve aced all
my subjects! Seven levels of workshop! I’ve sat on the floor with the boy,
rolled on the floor in sand, spoke baby talks. But time after time, it fails! Should
I give up? This is not what I signed up for. Had I bitten more than I can chew?”
On the
other hand, there is this little voice in her head that speaks softly to her, “Don’t
give up.” There she recollected herself on her advanced techniques. Enacted with
her friends and asked them if they think this or that could work, or rather not
work.
Just shortly
before she was about to give up, Teacher Waheeda recalled the most basic of all
principles she learned back in school from a Principal Psychologist Carl Rogers, an influential
American psychologist and among the founders of the humanistic approach to
psychology.
“Everybody has the potential capacity to change on his own.”
A counselor’s job is to provide the Environment
(Pot). The client is the Seed. What necessitates the change comes
from the counselor’s act of adding the necessary ingredients (water, soil,
sunlight, fertilizer). So what is the
missing ingredient?
The lack of
faith! Teacher Nik Waheeda realized that she
did not believe in her client! All she
needed to do is to know for certain that he can change. Throw all the advanced
techniques, sat there and be with him. Slowly he began to make small little
changes and blossomed from a seed to a flower. Compared to normal child, this change
was nothing. Her faith was tested.
So my dear friends, parents, teachers and
counselors, have faith in your little ones. Know that they have the ability to
change themselves for the better. This could be all it takes to help them make
that tiny little change on a daily basis that could eventually transform them
into lovely and responsible adults. Faith and Patience are great combination of
Characters that could bring Hope to live.
