Lucie Kuluri

When my students first asked me how did I happen to be a teacher, it made me think deeply. I studied Czech and English language and literature at the University of Ostrava because I simply loved languages, reading the books, and writing into the drawer. However, the first idea of being a teacher came much earlier – at high school. I studied at traditional general gymnazium, which in my case meant 32 students in the classroom, plenty of issues to study, exercise books for never-ending information, and F grades due to unexpected examinations. I missed the space to come up for air, to be creative, to be heard and understood. The imaginary definition of an ideal student was – he/she doesn’t discuss, he/she writes down the notes, he/she does repeat what was said, he/she doesn’t draw (I often made up my grey exercise books instead of taking notes)…

I sometimes wish the students a day-experience at such a school…At that time I had great intuition about what I do know today – the ideal doesn’t exist, but we can all be original. It’s my great pleasure to be a part of ISO team, a group of people that share the same opinions on todays education. It’s my great pleasure to be surrounded by young spontaneous people who have the space to come up for air, to be heard and understood, to be original. My satisfaction? Definitely to see that EUREKA happiness in eyes of students when they discover a metaphor or other kind of poetic means in a text … that happiness is my happiness.