“A bond is created between student and teacher” – Gabonews

2023-10-27 08:26:31

“A bond is created between student and teacher”

October 27, 2023

So many questions about our “being-in-the-world”.

So many questions about our existence.

So many questions about our existential conditions.

So many questions about our human condition.

One day, after my lesson in Terminale A class on ‹‹existence and death›, one of my learners asked me this question: ‹‹Madam, why do I exist and why am I going through this excruciating suffering?››. I still remember the expression on his face and the words that structured this fundamental question. Then he sighed and lowered his head. Got it. I had to get him to express himself by arguing his thoughts. ‹‹You know that for your interlocutor to grasp your thoughts, you must structure it, argue it and demonstrate it. You know that, don’t you?>> I said. ‹‹Yes Madam››.

The bell rang, I was starting to put away my two bags when he said to me very politely: “Madam, please give them to me, I will accompany you››.

We were walking side by side when his attitude indicated to me that he wanted to confide. I had to let him develop his thoughts. That’s my role. Indeed, some students seek assistance and psychological support from their teachers and this introverted young man wanted to confide, I detected it, so I had to listen to him. ‹‹Son, what do you want to know and understand please?›› The learner pauses and stops in the courtyard of the establishment. He lowered his head again. It only took one look for me to understand that his heart was bleeding and beating wildly. Her eyes were flooded with tears that slid down her cheeks. Emotion prevented him from moving forward.

Pause and stop.

Very slowly, with me, he managed to place one foot after the other, all trembling. He was moving heavily. I was waiting. I was at his pace. When we reached the staff room, I asked him in a reassuring, comforting tone to sit down. ‹‹It’ll be okay son, it’ll be okay››. The tears were more dense and intense. We had to wait for him to calm down. I took her hand and said in a motherly tone: “in everything, there is always a solution››.

After a period of calm, he returned to the initial question between two sobs: “Madam, why did God take my mother away from me?››

Still in tears, he added in substance: “ma’am, it’s hard, it’s complicated, I can’t take it anymore. I miss her so much››. Wow! I was crushed. These words broke my heart. In turn, I crushed tears (in secret). What emotion ! What pain ! It was beyond bearable. I tell him : <<Son, there are things that absolutely don’t depend on us. We are, we exist and we will die on any given day. It is our destiny. However, life gives us possibilities, opportunities, psychotropic drugs which, like helping hands, allow us to endure our sometimes insipid, gloomy or miserable existence. It is up to us to give meaning and significance to our being-in-the-world. And to understand it better, you have the texts that we have already discussed in class with the authors Epicure, Heidegger, Sartre… In fact, you must be able to find points of support, these benchmarks which would help you to build yourself , to have ancestry over these artifacts which haunt you and diminish your outlook on life and existence…>> Brief.

I continued to reassure him and make him understand that we can give color to our existence, support or accept our human condition, death and the departure of loved ones who have gone elsewhere. In short again.

To this day, I am in contact with this young man who became a handsome young man. I continued my support after obtaining his baccalaureate. A handsome and proud man.

He is one of my great successes…

I kiss you son.

Sandrine NGUÉMÉBÉ ENDAMANE