A Poetic Expression of Thanks
Nina A.
Nina A., poetically expresses her thanks to her teacher for creating a welcoming and supportive learning environment during the spring 2026 semester of the Kingsborough English Language Institute’s full-time academic ESL-70 program.
June 1, 2026
To My Dear Teacher:
Negativity will always sound louder than quiet gratitude.
One sharp voice can drown out dozens of gentle ones because the human heart is built to remember what hurts — a little longer.
Everyone came with different expectations, different rhythms, different levels of willingness to truly take responsibility for their own growth. And — that does not make anyone bad — neither the student nor the teacher.
Some people expected knowledge to enter them on its own, like sunlight through an open window. Others opened grammar books late at night, went through your Google Classroom lessons with the excitement of reaching a new level in “Tetris”, searched, failed, returned, and tried again.
And maybe, the hardest part of being a teacher is not explaining grammar or correcting
mistakes.
Maybe the hardest part is carrying the expectation of being the person who is supposed
to know the perfect method for teaching twenty completely different people at once.
The one who leads.
The one who is expected to know better than everyone else.
The one who somehow is not allowed to be tired, imperfect, or human.
But one comment cannot hold the full truth about your work.
It does not know how many times someone breathed easier in your class.
How many people stopped feeling like soldiers sitting at a desk, afraid to move, late
for life, guilty for every small mistake.
Thank you for creating a space where studying could remain part of life — instead
of a punishment.
A place where people are allowed to show up as human beings instead of perfectly organized
versions of themselves.