Chapter 13: Colin’s AME Farewell

Chapter 13: Colin’s AME Farewell

Thursday and Friday
July 18 & 19, 2019

It’s Friday afternoon. My last class at AME is complete. I board a plane Sunday night and arrive to my front door Monday night. That said, AME’s Applied Scholastics Study Skills classes will continue in my absence. Jay will run the show next week, Tim will join the fun the following week.

On all my prior visits to Liberia, the classes I ran were usually one afternoon in length, sometimes stretched over two days.

As all teachers know, it’s impossible not to become close to students when you spend any length of class time with them. Such was the case with the AME students. The class as a whole I grew fond of, and there were certain students I looked forward to interacting with, reading their essays for, and so on. But it wasn’t until I read today’s successes that I found out how impactful these classes have been for many of them. And, as you’ll see, how much they appreciated my work. I’ll save the success excerpts for the end of today’s diary entry. I want to end your read with a bang. Their words are energizing, motivational, heartfelt. If you’re like me, you might get some dust in your eyes when reading them and tear up.
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The morning started downtown at Jay’s barber, not far from AME. I got some good shots of some children here. Once Jay was looking good, we headed to the university.

Jay opened the class by reviewing key points from our previous classes, playfully drilling the students, and introducing them to the colorful barriers to study handouts. I collected their essays and prepared my presentation. The rest of the class was a quiz (more on this below), a

video of a young inventor from Sierra Leone, success stories, and photos.

About their essays, as you’ll recall, after digging into the Liberian Pledge earlier in the week and gaining a better understanding of its key words and its entire message, the students were to re-examine the pledge and work out for themselves what they could DO to support their motherland. Like earlier essays, all were good, but a few really stood out. My favorite excerpts:

“...I am also willing to impact the lives of other Liberians out there to be self-dependent to develop Liberia, too.”

“...the main one is to support and help my country in the medical sector after obtaining a degree in medicine.”

“I am willing to serve my country by becoming a professional doctor to serve my country and save my people.”

“The pledge is like a set goal that is placed on a dresser to remind he or she of the goal every time he or she wakes up. From the recitation of the pledge I get to know what I ought to do as a Liberian to help my country be on par with other nations. I am most outstandingly committed to the development of this God’s blessed nation, Mama Liberia.”

“I am willing to do anything for my country, as long as it will bring development, infrastructure and change to my country and reduce the poverty rate…’

“I pledge… to partake in national and international work just to put her name on the map. I want to be an IT specialist. I will help the securities sector with good database systems, in order to show transparency in every government institution. I am willing to do it by building a server in every government institution with a good database to avoid ghost names working in four places (exploiting)...and every government institution will be in communication with one another, to show transparency.”

“My dreams are to become an orthopedic surgeon, then later expand into business and be an educational consultant.”

“I am willing to provide scholarships to deserving students and poor students as well, if I have the means.”

“I am going to improve the health centers in Liberia.”

“After reading through the pledge with care, I now realize that each time we recite the pledge we are committing our lives to making Liberia better.”

“I promise to become an economist and protect the Liberian economy.”

“This was a country that was expected to be a light in Africa. This was the first country to receive independence on the continent of Africa. And it is one of the poorest countries in the world. This is because, many don’t know its meaning. The other day, I asked my two little brothers to tell me what the pledge means. I was so surprised when they told me that they had no idea of it.”

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A good part of this morning’s class was set aside for giving the students a written quiz on the basics we covered over the last three weeks: all three barriers, their solutions, key concepts, etc. In truth, the results of the quiz will be most beneficial to me to see what they got out of my lessons. I am sure they are very good “test takers” — able to write down memorized facts, the more accurate the memorization, the better the grade. I tried to write the quiz questions so they would highlight judgement as opposed to strict duplication. Happily, fifteen (15)

of the forty got 100% (or nearly 100% — a word or two off), twenty-three (23) missed a few questions, and two didn’t fare well at all. Next week, Jay will use the 100%ers to help the other twenty-three to figure out what they missed. He’ll have to dig in deeper with the other two.

Before I get to the successes, I have one more story to tell about today’s lesson. It’ll set the tone properly for the successes. At the end of the period, I told the students it was my last class and I was flying home on Sunday. To my surprise, they responded with a chorus of sad ahhs. (They were going to miss me!) I wrote my name on the board along with my WhatsApp number. When I got back to the office, my phone reconnected to WiFi, and pinged an alert. Mohammed Kromah wanted me to know this: “Hello :) Already started to

miss you :)“ I responded and sent him a few pictures from the day. His response: “I’m really gonna miss your classes”. In his WhatsApp profile he calls himself Mr nice guy. I agree.

My favorite success story excerpts.

“Today I learned all the barriers to study. As always, your classes have inspired me and knowledge is the key to everything. I like the fact that you’re teaching and inspiring us all at the same time. Thank you so much and I hope to see you again. I’m inspired by you Mr. Taufer.”

“Coming to college with such knowledge I know that I am going to be great.”

“I learn how to duplicate something, understand it, create judgment and carry on the application of it.”

“Mr. Colin Taufer thank you for your inspiration. I like your way of teaching and I’m going to miss you, I swear. Wish you good luck!”

“Trust me Mr. Taufer, if I am going to be a teacher in the future, I’m gonna be an amazing one. With the knowledge

obtained from Applied Scholastics, I’m going to impact my career, my siblings, and Liberia at large. Thank you so much. You’ve truly impacted my life a lot. I feel so sad that you are going but trust you have left a mark which will never be erased.”

“The thing I like about today’s lesson is that I was very attentive in class because he teaches like a real teacher.”

“You are my best teacher ever. Thanks Mr. Taufer.”

“Mr. Taufer, you are the best teacher that has ever taught me in my life. You make me learn and understand things, I didn’t know. Whenever I’m too tired to come to school on your class day I think about your class and gain the strength to come because I know you always have something new to teach me. Thank you so much for being the best teacher ever. Your classes were the best. I’m going to miss you. May God be with you and bless you.”

“I like the video we watched because it is an inspirational one. It helped me understand that you should not let anyone kill your dream or stop you from discovering

your talent. Everyone is born with a talent or born with something good within. Thanks for your time. May God bless you and your family. Amen! Please remember when you’re away.”

“What I liked about the lesson is that I understand everything that Mr.Taufer taught us and I appreciate it.”

“I am very happy with joy that I was taught by Mr. Colin Taufer who understands that students need to study the right way to be successful. Mr. Taufer is a very nice instructor that every student around the world can learn from.”

“Good bye, Mr. Colin Taufer. Your student Momolu B. Kromah loves you and will miss you very much. I wish you were the person that taught me from my nursery to 12th grade.”

“This class has been one of the best classes at this year’s Vacation Bridge program. I was able to discover one major problem with our educational sector in Liberia and how I can

help share my knowledge with those who aren’t as fortunate as I am now to attend this class. Mr. Taufer, you are a great teacher and you are loved by us all, especially me. I want to continue to meet great people like your kind and to be able to learn a lot more. I pray that I get the chance to be able to learn from you more, keep being unique and exceptional in your journey to help us students from Liberia.”

“I learn a lot from Mr. Colin. You’re such a good inspiring and great teacher. You make the lesson so easy that everyone can be able to understand it at the best of their ability. I can enjoy you and you will leave us with so many tears in our eyes. Who will tell us to do clay demonstration? Who will say let’s play the ball game, let the ball go around and see which side will win? Who will say see who can say all the absence of mass

remedies without looking at the board. I pray God gives you more life till we see you again. You will forever be in our hearts and minds. We love you Mr. Colin and thank you for everything.”

“Mr. Colin Taufer, you have taught me in a brief period the most important and crucial skills that a teacher can give a student. I have come across many teachers in my life that told me to study hard only, but not how to study actually. Not only did you teach me, but showed me videos to inspire me. For the past time in your class I have learnt the barriers to study and their remedies with examples. It will be more helpful to me in my studies by identifying the special barrier and remedy/solution. From the beginning, your lesson, I like everything. The fun, the ball race, your teaching style. For bringing Applied Scholastics, I will like to say thank you a lot. Please send me the Applied Scholastics note in my mail so that I can teach other students! You have been writing ‘Thank you’ on my assignments. Today is my day to say thank you, Mr. Taufer.”