Daddy's great ambition

It's funny how things can turn so surprising and strange in your life. In 2009 I taught a class at the School for Journalism consisting of very ambitious and hard-working students. I would have never thought that I would become a teacher, even though my entire family consists of teachers: my father and all my uncles were lecturers and also my eldest sister has been teaching very small children for more than twenty years at a Dutch elementary school.

I remember that my father, who passed away exactly seven years ago, was very passionate about his work. With his good looking (he had amazing brown-green eyes), but authoritarian appearance and his knowledge, he gained respect from his students, their parents and the whole community. Whenever we met people in town, or at parties, people would say 'She is the teacher's daughter'. Which was not always fun, because we had no names! We were always 'the daughters of...'. Not that we were not proud of our dad but it also meant that we had to be better, smarter and always more proper than anyone else. If I got a B on my report, my father would ask why it wasn't an A. He did the same with his students as they were also my friends. When I grew older, I asked my father why he did that. His answer: 'Who else could have taught you to be ambitious?'.

Back then, it was no fun. But now, I am very proud that I experienced schooling and being pushed the way I was. But I also realize, after teaching at the University of Texas, how difficult it was for my father to be like that. Expecting the best out of his students meant also that he was highdemanding of himself. His students were ambitious because he was. His children were ambitious because he was.

I experienced how difficult and challenging teaching is. That it's not only about giving the facts and explaining how things work, it's also about stimulating, motivating and inspiring the students. Maybe I can never be as good as my father was, but at least I inherited something from him. I became a mentor. After ten years since my first column was published, I still get questions from my (female) readers, because I have always kept in touch with them. Some of my former UT-students still contact me and my former employees of SEN regularly email me for career-advise. The experience that my little nieces and nephews ask me to help them with their essays and presentations makes me happy. My goal? Inspire them to aim for the highest. And of course, above all, I hope that I can be a rolemodel for my own son.

I may not have my dad's brown-green eyes, but without his great ambition I know I could have never come so far.