Accidental Instructor

Accidental Instructor

I was called to teach a class
Just the other day
A class in basic math I heard
My favorite, oh, happy day!

But when I walked into the room
The white boards on the wall
Read this was second language class
Not basic math at all.

I looked around the classroom full
And wondered what to do
Me speak Spanish?  Not a bit,
I didn’t have a clue

It wasn’t something I could fake
I stood there thinking hard
When one young lady wrote to me
“Welcome” on a card

Can some of you speak English?
They just smiled and looked at me
Do any of you have a book?
They all jumped to their feet.

They grabbed their books from off the shelf
And handed one to me
I sat down at the teacher’s desk
And a student sat with me

He showed me Spanish words
Beside the English words and then
He said his word and read me mine
That’s how it all began

We all took turns and practiced
We laughed with no offense
At our pronunciations
Even though they made no sense

I understood the most that day
When wholly unprepared
What a privilege a school can be
When someone really cares

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