The Tiger Child by Torey Hayden

"The cornerstone of my personal philosophy was commitment. I felt it was the unequivocal commitment of one individual to another, of me to a child I was working with, that evoked positive change. How could there be genuine commitment without involvement? That was a contradiction in terms."

Extracted from Torey Hayden's The Tiger Child (page 19)

Picked up this book from the one of the shelves at The Book Cove in Anchorage Point yesterday. Been hooked since I started reading it this morning. The Tiger's Child chronicled a real-life account of how the dedicated special-education teacher touched the life of an abandoned, abused and deeply disturbed six-year-old girl named Sheila.

The process of reading this book reminds me of my own experiences with Win, Moh, MG and HS over the past semester. There were many times when I reflected on my level of involvement in working with these difficult ones and questioned myself, "how deep is deep enough to ignited positive change and yet not promote their dependence on me?"

Mrs K's comments really encouraged me. She said, "Children are sensitive beings. They sense sincerity and commitment in adults easily. They sensed your sincerity towards them." I was reminded then that sincerity and commitment are two basic things I cannot and must never deprive my children of in my capacity as a teacher.

As I think about what I desire to do beyond the three years of teaching bond, two thoughts had been looming in my mind. Firstly, I long to serve on short-term teaching stints to the less-developed countries like Nepal, Cambodia or China. Secondly, I am thinking of specializing in learning support programs to help children with learning disabilities like what my own mentor is currently doing. In many ways, Mrs C had spurred me in my own learning journey by her faith in God, her patience, her joy and her wealthy years of valuable experience in teaching.

Probably Torey Hayden's book will inspire me more towards my second desire. I need to think more, pray more and ask God for more, much more patience before I can enter the realm called "special education services".