"Engineers of the Soul"

A part of me feels obligated to write today, but here, it's been a day fairly void of thinking about large scale politics or American tragedies.  During school meeting today, our headmaster did acknowledge the anniversary of 9/11 and read an inspiring poem by an Irish poet (a great neutral party).  I've had another day of the challenges and joys of teaching, and I had A block, Sunday morning (equivalent of Monday morning in the States) at 8:05am, so tardies and sleepiness are even more rampant than usual.  Mostly it was a challenging day, but I am learning so much.  I feel happy about that.  A couple of beautiful things did happen today, including 1) Open Mic Night!  Yeah!  Lots of talented singing and playing of instruments and beat-boxing and even some stand-up comedy, 2) A young Chinese student stood up during school meeting and gave one of the most beautiful speeches, his first speech EVER in English, about having appreciation for teachers.  Apparently, in China, yesterday was teacher appreciation day in honor of Confucian's birthday.  He called teachers "engineers of the soul," a beautiful metaphor and incredibly impressive for a non-native speaker of English.  I honestly teared up, and this was due to the overwhelming earnestness and joy and fearlessness with which he spoke.  It was amazing to see, and I can't transmit the experience properly from all the way over here.  I'd had a couple rough moments in class, but it reminded me how talented and special and inspiring just one student can be sometimes, and that makes it all worth it.